Since we are all not flying right now [What was your best travel day?]

[tgh]

We can't fly and our travel wings are clipped ,so we need some inspiration in these difficult times.

Here is the challenge.. your best travel day..maximum 24 hours timeframe.

Every one of us has been somewhere and done something that for us.. was especially memorable.

Please contribute , we all need some positive thoughts from beautiful places you have seen.

 

[RooFlyer]

your best travel day..maximum 24 hours timeframe.

I was thinking along those same lines.

My best travel day is undoubtedly one of the days i spent in St Petersburg. I happily declare that city my favourite destination. The history, sculpture, canals, monuments, museums, churches, palaces (wow! the palaces!) ... even the modern Nevsky Prospect, was over-whelming. Even walking through an 'ordinary' neighbourhood on the way to a 'sight' would mean many photos, as you saw the unexpected and wonderful.

Afternoon tea at the Singer Cafe, dinner at the Old Soviet Cafe. The hermitage - the only museum where I've actually spent a whole day.

I usually say 'I must go back' to a great place I visit, but rarely do, as there are so many new places to visit. With St Petersburg, I was back the next year.

 

[tgh]

thanks so much rooflyer.. I was afraid nobody would post…. can you please add some best of the day pics ?

 

[RooFlyer]

St petersburg

Church on the Spilled blood





Staff offices



Hermitage



Nevsk yProspect (main drag)





St Peter & Paul (the Romanovs were re-interred here)


Russian Museum



Peterhof Palace (Peter the Great's joint)

 

[mrsterryn]

Can't wait to see more photos

 

[SeatBackForward]

Train from Hiroshima to Kawaguchiko near Mt Fuji. 7 Trains in one day. Japanese reliability exemplary that day, not one train more than 15second off timetable, which made such a strip possible. I tried similar recently from Milan to London, the Germans failed me on the second train and I had to reroute.

 

[sinophile888]

I have to agree with Rooflyer. St. Petersburg gets my vote.

A couple of years ago, my adult daughter and I went to Europe and did a Celebrity cruise to the Baltic, which had a three-day, two-night stopover in St. Petersburg. Passengers weren’t allowed to disembark in Russia without an organised shore excursion. We did the sums and came to the conclusion that we were much better off to hire a car with driver and guide than to do a morning and afternoon shore excursion. The cost was about double, but we saw everything except the Peterhof Palace. We were also able to spend more or less time at attractions as we liked, and the guide knew all the skip the line entrances. Also the car could drop us off right outside the attractions, saving lots of time and extra walking. I don’t remember stopping for lunch. It also saved so much time by not having to wait for the whole group to reassemble after each stop.

On the second day, my daughter did a shore excursion to Moscow, leaving at 5am and arriving back the next day at 1am.

On the third day, we hired the car again for just the afternoon as my daughter was rather tired after her previous long day.

The full day in St. Petersburg was just magical.

 

[RooFlyer]

Peterhof outbuilding





Hermitage



Parquetry in the Hermitage









Admiralty



Memorial to Peter the Great



From a canal

 

[RooFlyer]

The Catherine Palace (restored after WW2)







The reconstructed Amber Room (looted by the Germans in WW2, redone by German donation abt 20 years ago). The guide said you can't take photos IN the Amber room, but nothing stopping you taking photos outside it





More parquetry



St Nicholas' Cathedral



From the Soviet era



A wedding cake!!



Afternoon tea at the Singer Cafe



i'll stop there, else I'll go on forever. For more, see my TRs below - 'Baltic and Russia' and 'Romania, Central Europe and Russia'.

 

[drron]

I will post at some time but on a nature scene.One day in the Galapagos and one day hopefully on the inside Passage if I can find the photos of both.

But have to agree with St.Petersburg.We did a cruise there and hired a driver and guide for 2 days.Fantastic.Even the first 2 into Peterhof.

 

[Melburnian1]

Train from Hiroshima to Kawaguchiko near Mt Fuji. 7 Trains in one day. Japanese reliability exemplary that day, not one train more than 15second off timetable, which made such a strip possible..

Substitute 'normal' for 'exemplary.' Consistent meaning.

 

[Happy Dude]

Substitute 'normal' for 'exemplary.' Consistent meaning.

Indeed. It is extraordinary if the train is late or even early. When I worked there, we were advised that if you were using "my train was late" as an excuse for being late to work, you'd better have an official shomeisho to support your claim. Didn't get one in 12 months of daily train travel, even when it snowed a bunch.

That was in the late 90's. I used to go to video game arcades to play pinballs and a bass fishing game but the number one game was a train driver game where you had to ensure the train arrived on time (not early, not late - on time). There were literally dozens of these games side by side and always occupied by young blokes, completely ignoring the Mortal Kombats and the like. Weirdly fascinating.

 

[RB]

We had a great day in Talkeetna during a US trip in 2010. We had a flight on a 5 seat De-Havilland Beaver and were the only passengers up to Mt McKinley. The day was super clear & calm & circumstances meant we got the bonus of landing at base camp. Previous bad weather meant base camp was overpopulated & 2 climbers flew back to Talkeetna with us. The skiers stomped down the snow prior to us landing

 

[RB]

More photos from Talkeetna day

 

[Happy Dude]

@RB, if you haven't already, grab a copy of Jon Krakauer's "Eiger Dreams". You'll totally dig the chapter about the Flyboys of Talkeetna. It's on the Bucket List.....

 

[RooFlyer]

We had a great day in Talkeetna

Never heard of it ... until last night, when it featured on 'Great Railway Journeys of America'

 

[OATEK]

Just to add to the great photos of St Petersburg, these are from my first trip in 2017.


The Heroes Gallery in the Hermitage (the officers involved in the battle of Borodino, where Napolen was forced to withdraw from the battlefield for the first time in his tramp across Europe). Theodore, a relative of Mrs Oatek was one of the minor participants (in terms of rank) but managed to have a leg taken of by a cannon ball (third row from left, third down).


St Theodores Cathedral at Tsarskoye Selo, where the last Tsar regularly attended services.

St Petersburg blew us away, and having the personal connection just made it that little bit more wonderful.

 

[Ekka]

 

[Ekka]

I always thought Antarctica would be hard to beat as a spectacle. I finally got the chance to see if I was right in November 2018.

 

[Flashback]

My best one so far would be when I flew into Zurich to meet a high school mate from PER and embark on a 4 day driving trip essentially around Lake Constance; taking in several countries... Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Austria and Germany on a whirlwind Christmas Market tour. @VPS will remember it well from the pics in the view from my office thread!

Anyway, we drove up the mountain to take this amazing shot......


With not really thinking much of this sign........


And when trying to turn around to depart to our next stop......... ended up with a slight conundrum


Anyway...... after hours of trying to dig ourselves out and get some of the way out of there, eventually I jogged 5km down the mountain, found help and the police came and managed to help us get out. The winning option? Rubber car mats under the tyres. It gave that extra bit of traction we'd be trying to get all day and vroooom, we were off! Very kind of them and had a good chat too, turns out the guy crew up just around the corner from where my mate's dad did in Switzerland.

What had the potential to be a very stressful/expensive day, ended with a sigh of relief, a nice beer and a great memory.