Thursday & Friday, September 24 & 25 - Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka, Russia

  Wednesday, Sep 23^rd was very short – we crossed the International Date Line about 7:30pm, so only had a few hours of that day.  It did include great entertainment in the theatre, though. Thursday was another day at sea, with lots of enjoyable activities, food and conversation. We had been cleared to arrive in Petropavlovsk at 6:30pm because of a medical emergency on board, and were travelling at top speed. Suddenly the ship was ordered to turn around and get out of an area where the Russian Navy was conducting an exercise, so we drifted about for perhaps 3 or 4 hours until we were cleared to proceed. We got into the harbour late in the evening, and they were able to transfer the ill gentleman to hospital. The Russian authorities did their thing in the evening and so Friday morning we were able to board the tenders in good time to have interesting tours of the city. It is so isolated that there are limits on its development and it is experiencing the common problems of an exodus of young people and declining population, but it has an interesting history.




We visited the history museum to learn about much of its story, as well as several small sites.




 

 

New Cathedral

There is a new cathedral, still under construction, that is really beautiful.

The market is lively and interesting too. Back on board, our only option for lunch was the bar area near the pool. Luckily, the sun was out for the first time in days, and it had warmed up a bit. We joined 2 ladies at their table and had a great conversation. They are both Scottish, and travel a lot. They are members of one of the other trivia teams, so we all laughed about that experience. Later on, The Intrepid 8 managed to better our main rivals and move up to second place overall. We are determined to win this trivia challenge! We all met for a later dinner, and retired for the rest of the evening. This business of setting clocks back night after night gets difficult after a while. Having pulled out of the harbour at Petropavlovsk, we were soon into rougher seas again, so tonight we will be rocked to sleep.
Link to Photos of 24         and 25

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