PETROPAVLOVSK- Is it a bird?, is it a Plane? not its a place in Russia

Actually, Kamchatka is a spectacular landscape dotted with Volcanoes, actually 150 of which 29 are still active and the largest brown bear population in the world of about 10300,give or take a few, counting their legs and dividing by four is not easy after a couple of Chardonnays. It is also the home of the largest Eagle in the world , the Stellar Sea Eagle with about 4500 birds currently. It is also a salmon fishing paradise with an estimated one third of the world Pacific Salmon stocks.

We arrived in Port at around 07.00 this morning and we were awake due to the continual losing of one hour per night, and so we were up a bit early. A quick breakfast and then wait for our tour to be called which is the Highlights of Petropavlovsk  and we were due to leave at around 10.00, so not to early.  But shortly before 10.00 we were called to the show lounge to collect our passports and immigration cards and then proceeded down to a very modern terminal where we went through immigration and on to a waiting bus of uncertain age. The first stop was the recently constructed, and still being finished, Russian orthodox church which was quite interesting and lots of gold but just as were were leaving it would appear that it coincided with a funeral and so we had to quickly move out of the way as four men struggled with an obviously heavy coffin, they were not the UK typical well suited and booted guys you get but a bunch of lads who were earning a fast buck. Then on to another important site which was under refurbishment so we could not get clear photos of the place. Great that's two places where construction is taking place. Wow this is getting exciting. Then up to the top of the hill to get the view of the major harbour only you could not see anything due to a thick fog, so not to good so far.
Now to the famous Kamch

atka Museum which was a bit antiquated and the group for about 25 of us listened to the Museum staff explaining what is obviously taking place in the picture and or scene and then being translated in to English and after about 20 minutes people were beginning to lose interest., Jennifer did follow it all the way through and found it interesting but Noel is not good for long distance standing and so found a convenient chair to wait for it all to be over. Then back to the Bus and on to the famous market!
The market is very new, announced the tour leader, in the last couple of years, which may be true but the roads surrounding it and to the market belong to the dark ages and as it had rained that morning there was mud everywhere. This explains why there are so many Toyota Land Cruiser here, I guess every third vehicle is a Land Cruiser it look like. Anyway in to the market we went and indeed it was quiet new with downstairs with clothing and rubbish electronics and other tourist stuff, there was also a meat section and a large fish section with mostly Salmon and lots of caviar, and I mean bucket full’s. But after about 25 minutes of wandering around we decided it was not for us and headed back to the coach.
The building designs we saw en-route were quite amazing from one perspective but absolute rubbish from another and most buildings were either new, one they  very much like the White House in Washington but many others decrepit and falling down although they are trying to improve the centre of town with a new tourist site by a lake and perhaps in a year or two it would be Ok. Then back to the Immigration and the guy had to check my passport, which is brand new for this trip, several times and then show it to a colleague before allowing me to leave the country, but then again why would I want  to stay?
We were back on board for a brief lunch by the patio pool and at 15.00 retired to the suite and Jennifer went off to do some washing and Noel caught up with some photos and tried to do some stuff on the internet but it is so painfully slow you could grow old waiting for the page to appear and so in the end gave up. We had a little glass of plonk and went for dinner at La Terraza where they now all know us and aware of Noels food restrictions and again the Head Chef came out to check if everything was OK, which of course it was.
Boy we lose another hour tonight, actually i mean we gain an extra hours sleep as we head onward to Japan, in fact we have to lose another three hours after tonight so that when we arrive we will be in time with there clocks but hopefully without any jet lag perhaps just some boat lag caused by excessive amounts of Chardonnay, Whew I joke of course.
We have two sea days ahead so not much to do unless you join in the bridge classes or name that bloody tune etc. and so to bed.