Vladivostock, Russia

We missed the port of Aomori because of the looming typhoon which meant that our captain sailed the ship towards Vladivostock.  We had another sea day (wow, seven sea days!) but we did sail into Vladivostock in the late afternoon.  We sailed under their newest bridge, which had just been completed this spring.

And here is a photo of the cruise ship terminal.

 

After dinner we donned our light jackets and headed out, sans visa.  In this particular Russian city we did not require a special visa, unlike visiting St. Petersburg.  Some Princess passengers were upset as they had signed up for shore excursions with the cruise line as they had been told that no one could visit the port without a visa. We had researched and asked others who had done this cruise, only in reverse, in April of this year, and they informed us that no visa was required.



We walked around the port/street area for about one hour until it got dark.  We noticed the many newer cars parked on the streets, which were for the most part, fairly level and in good repair.  Some of the cars were right hand drive and some were left hand drive, and many of them were of Japanese origin.

The next morning saw us off the ship by 8:30 am so we were given a map of the city.  We decided to walk to the Submarine Museum (easy 20 minute walk, approximately).  My dear husband never thought he would ever get to visit this port as it is one of those mysterious places that you read about, but you never really think you will get the chance to visit it.  Another Bucket List check mark!!

Here you can see someone enjoying himself:

 

 

And of course, I had to get into this submarine with my Swimco bag!

Here I am at the bow of the sub:

And here, you can see the submarine and the exit portion (as the museum is inside the sub):
In the background, one of the bridges.

We were so very fortunate to have a wonderfully warm day.  We also went into this Church that was located very close to the Submarine museum.

That day we just walked and walked.  We even went into the small GUM store which was in the 1950's style of the Vancouver BC Bay (Hudson's Bay) store. 

As many people know, this port is the terminus for the Trans-Siberian Railway and during the Second World War, it held an important position as a military port.  We decided to walk to the Fortress Museum to peruse what remained of the underground military formations.

Visiting the Fortress was  a highlight for us, plus the Museum downtown which had a vast array of taxidermy and of course, a room with interesting posters and even a bust of Lenin.

All in all, we enjoyed our 1 1/2 days spent in this Russian port city, which was very European in appearance and feel.  And yes, we did notice the many gorgeous tall Russian ladies wearing their high heels!  How they walked on those heels on some of those streets mystifies me to this day.

As were were returning to the pier area, we decided to dip our toes into the slightly chilly water:

Vladivostock was not what we expected.  Here we were greeted by fairly friendly people, surrounded by sunshine, fairly modern buildings, but we did notice this too (we wandered away from the tourist area)

A last photo as we sailed away from Vladivostock:  the ship's Bridge and the new bridge.