10:45am
Flight AY6111G arrives at Tallinn from Helsinki. Welcome by London
Arts Discovery Director RODNEY WEST, and
our Expert Guide, ELINA TREIFELDT, who
introduces this storybook Northern European capital of red roofs,
watchtowers and narrow cobbled streets: the centre of Tallinn has
been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Overshadowed by her
neighbour Soviet Russia from WWII to the 1990's, Estonia has moved
into the 21st century with a determination to embrace a new European
future.
Transfer by private coach to the Radisson
SAS Hotel, Ravala Puiestree 3, Tallinn, EE 10143. Tel:
00 372 669 0000; Fax: 00 372 669 0001. Check in.
AFTERNOON FREE
4:30pm Briefing with Rodney on all aspects of the tour
both in Tallinn and St Petersburg. In the St Petersburg Room on
the second floor of the hotel.
6:45pm
Coach departs for our Welcome Dinner at Karl Friedrich.
Sited in an Old Town building which dates from the 1600's, Karl
Friedrich's specialises in Estonian and European cuisine.
8:30pm
Coach departs for the hotel.
Friday 4 June
9.00am
We depart for our Coach and Walking Tour of Tallinn's Old
Town. Tallinn's finest buildings and cultural monuments
stand on a hill overlooking the Baltic Sea. With Elina we see the
Toomkirik Church and the Russian Orthodox
Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky (viewed with mixed feelings
by Estonians). We see the Toompea Palace - now
the Parliament, the gothic Town Hall, the Dominican
Monastery Museum and the Niguliste Church
12.00am Lunch at Kolu Korts - a traditional Estonian tavern
with authentic Estonian food.
1.00pm
We continue our Sightseeing by moving out of town to Rocca al Mare,
and the Estonian Open Air Museum, which is located
on a scenic wooded coastal headland. We wander through representative
wooden buildings from centuries of Estonian history.
4.00pm Estonia Today : we have a Meeting and coffee break
with KRISTIINA OJAMAA, representative
of the Estonian State Agency, to discuss the troubled past and optimistic
future of Estonia and the Baltic States. At 11 Roosikransti, 3rd
floor.
5.00pm
Coach departs for the Hotel.
6.30pm
Coach departs for the Estonia Concert Hall.
7.00pm ESTONIAN NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA . Conducted
by Tonu Kalam. Estonia has a great choral and orchestral tradition,
and has produced many famous conductors and musicians.
9.00pm
Coach departs for the hotel.
Saturday 5 June
9.30am
Depart for the Estonian Drama Theatre, with Elina.
10.00am Backstage Tour of the Estonian Drama Theatre (Eesti
Draamateater). The largest non-musical theatre in Estonia, it has
been performing for all tastes for 81 years. Top new works by western
dramatists, as well as plays by Estonian playwrights are performed
here. Built in 1910, this beautiful Art Nouveau building is right
in the heart of Tallinn, and has two halls, cosy bars, and elegant
foyers.
12.00pm Lunch at Balthasar . Opening on to the Town Hall
Square, in a medieval building of the Town Hall Apothecary, which
dates from 1422, this is a fine restaurant with European cuisine.
1.00pm
Coach departs for a visit to the edge of town to see the Kadriorg
Palaceand Park, built on the orders of Peter the Great.
We visit the Estonian Museum of Foreign Art and
the Mikkel Collection which are housed here. About
100 paintings attributed to the 16th-18th century masters from the
Netherlands school form the most valuable part of the collection.
Among them are the works of art by Pieter Breughel the Younger and
Frans Pourbus the Younger. There is good Russian academic realist
painting from the second half of the 19th century by Ivan Shishkin,
Ivan Aivazovsky and Ilya Repin, and work by 20th century Russian
modernist Petrov-Vodkin. .
4.00pm
Coach departs for the hotel.
REST OF AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING FREE. From 4 to 6 June,
Tallinn celebrates the XXIII Old Town Days, when various medieval
traditions will be re-enacted, including jousting, parrot shooting,
and the Election of the May Count. Street markets will be in full
swing, and special food and drink can be enjoyed in many restaurants
and cafés.
9.00pm
Coach departs for the Town Hall.
9.30pm BAROQUE CONCERT .
11.30pm
Coach departs for the hotel.
Sunday 6 June
8.30am
We are met by our Russian coach, and are joined by CORNELIUS
WEBER, London Arts Discovery Tour Director and Russian-speaker,
for our departure from Tallinn. Our journey takes us east, parallel
to the Baltic shore, famed for its amber deposits, towards St Petersburg.
Just before we cross the border with Russia we stop at Narva
Castle, scene of the Battle of Narva when, in 1702, Charles
XII the young and dashing King of Sweden inflicted a stunning defeat
on the combined forces of Denmark, Poland and Russia.
11.30am
We enjoy Lunch at Narva, at the Restaurant
Rondeel. Coach continues on to the border-crossing between
Estonia and Russia and then to St. Petersburg.
7.00pm
Arriving in St Petersburg we proceed directly to the Angleterre
Hotel, Bolshaya Morskaya 39, St. Petersburg 190000. Tel:
007 812 313 5666; Fax: 007 812 313 5125. Located next to the landmark
St Isaac's Cathedral, the Angleterre is just 150 yards from the
bustle of Nevsky Prospect. Check in.
7.00pm
Welcome Dinner in the Hotel's Borsalino Restaurant on St
Isaac's Square.
Monday 7 June
BREAKFAST WILL BE SERVED IN
THE BORSALINO RESTAURANT from 7.00am to 10.30am daily.
9.00am
We take to the water for our River Cruise, to obtain
a good view of the palaces, mansions and wrought-iron bridges of
the Neva River and the many canals that criss-cross Russia's most
European city. Peter the Great built his city by the sea to ensure
access to the Baltic.
11.00am
We make a Guided Visit to the fascinating Peter
and Paul Fortress, where the Tsars are buried, and Dostoevsky
and the Decembrists were imprisoned.
1.00pm Lunch at Akvarel , one of St Petersburg's newer
restaurants, opened to some acclaim by French chef Alexandre Geffroy.
The restaurant floats on the Neva and the glass walls of this 'fusion'
restaurant offer unparalleled river views.
REST OF AFTERNOON FREE
6.15pm
Coach departs for the Mariinsky Theatre.
7.00pm THE BALANCHINE CENTURY : Tribute to Balanchine.
The Four Temperaments, La Valse, Ballet Imperial. Conducted by Mikhail
Agrest. Coach returns to the hotel after the performance.
Tuesday 8 June
9.00am
We travel by private coach out of town to Peterhof,
the Tsar's Palace on the Gulf of Finland, with its golden fountains,
elaborate cascades, and "surprise" flowers. We take a
Tour of the Palace, and walk in the beautiful gardens.
1.00pm
We enjoy Lunch at the Gallery Restaurant on the
estate.
REST OF AFTERNOON FREE
6.15pm
Coach departs for the Mariinsky Theatre.
7.00pm THE SNOW MAIDEN (Snegurochka) by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
Opera in four acts with a prologue. Libretto by the composer, after
the play by Alexander Ostrovsky. Conducted by Mikhail Agrest. The
Snow Maiden had its premiere at the Mariinsky on 10 February 1882.
Wednesday 9 June
9.00am
We depart by coach for our Day Excursion to two
of the Summer Palaces about 20 miles from St Petersburg. Pausing
on our way from town to view the monument to the Siege of Leningrad,
we travel to Tsarskoe Selo (the town formerly called Pushkin) where
we have a Guided Tour of The Catherine Palace.
1.00pm
We continue by coach to Pavlovsk, where we enjoy Lunch at
Podvorye. Built in the style of an izba (a traditional
wooden peasant cottage) it serves traditional Russian food with
a flourish, and includes The Prince of Wales and President Chirac
among its satisfied customers.
3.00pm
We continue our sightseeing with The Great Palace at Pavlovsk
and the beautiful Pavlovsk Park. Return to St Petersburg
by coach.
EVENING FREE
Thursday 10 June
9.00am
We make a special visit to the Winter Palace and the State
Hermitage Museum, where three million exhibits jostle for
space in the largest collection of treasures in the world after
the Louvre.
AFTERNOON FREE- for those who wish, there
is the opportunity to stay at The Hermitage.
6.00pm
Coach departs for the Philharmonic Hall.
7.00pm ST.PETERSBURG ACADEMIC SYMPHONIC ORCHESTRA . Conducted
by Yuri Simonov with soloist Vilmos Szabadi. Beethoven's King Stephen
Overture, Dohnanyi's Violin concerto (St. Petersburg premiere) and
Dvorak's Symphony No.7. Coach departs for the hotel after the performance.
Friday 11 June
9.00am
Coach departs for Sightseeing in Town, to include
the Nevsky Prospect, the Alexander Nevsky
Monastery, the Smolny Convent and Institute,
from where Lenin and the Bolsheviks planned the Revolution and the
Church on the Spilled Blood, where in 1881 Alexander
II was assassinated.
Coach returns to the hotel at approximately 12.00pm.
pm
Exact time of departure for our Backstage tour of the Mariinsky
Theatre to be confirmed. This tour takes us behind-the-scenes
at St Petersburg's best-loved cultural institution which under the
stewardship of maestro Valery Gergiev has returned to greatness.
The Mariinsky Opera and Ballet Companies still tour the world under
their old name of Kirov.
Coach returns to the hotel after the visit.
7.00pm
Gourmet Farewell Dinner at Za Stsenou ('Backstage') , the
official restaurant of the Mariinsky Theatre. An understated and
relaxed local restaurant decorated with a selection of Mariinsky
props and memorabilia.
Saturday 12 June
9.30am
Coach departs for Pulkovo-2 Airport.
12.35pm
Flight AY 166 G departs for Helsinki, arriving at 12.30pm.
2.30pm
Flight AY 005 G departs for New York JFK.
To view recent examples of music tours we have run, click on the tours below
