Russia 1981 (30)

More photos from around Petrodvorets and the Peterhof Palace...

One of the fountains at Petrodvorets

Neil at Petrodvorets
That's me in the background - I have no idea what I was doing

After the trip to Petrodvorets it was back to the hotel in Leningrad. Neil, Steve and I got to the bar around 9:30pm. At 3am there was only Mr. Campbell, who could drink like a fish, and myself left. A couple of Russian girls tried to talk to us but as Russian hotel bars are infested with "working girls" we ignored them. They worked the bar pretty well, first some Americans, then some Germans and finally some Greeks. There were a couple of Americans in the bar doing what Americans seem to like doing most of - bitching. One wanted a receipt, another was going on about the fact that the drinks were 50cents more expensive than the night before and the other had lost his room key. I finally got to bed about 3:30am.

Sunday, 9th August 1981

Up again at 7:30am. No wonder I'm tired all the time, I've been getting very little sleep for the last couple of weeks. After breakfast back on to the coaches for the trip to the airport and the flight home. We've had a wonderful time. Traveled thousands of miles and seen some unique sights. We could have spent months here, there is so much to do and see.

Andy Panteli

Steve Webb

Andy Grasemann

Neil Robson

Mr Pantelli drove Andy and I home from Manchester and that was more or less the end of our little tour of Russia. Well, not quite. I had a day at home resting and recovering from my upset stomach before I went back to work, Andy took a bit longer to recover. A couple of days after getting home we, and everyone else on that trip got a letter from the National Health Service. Someone on the trip had died almost as soon as they got home from amoebic dysentery. We had to go to hospital for some tests and medication but I was fine.

This page created 5th October 2011, last modified 5th October 2011