Treasures of the Tsars offers a Russia that surprises continuously, a mosaic of intense images and experiences that intriguingly refuse to gel into a familiar picture. The background is undeniably forest, with morning-misty pools and clusters of wooden houses. But each vivid foreground piece clamours to be focal: Moscow's eclectic skyline, where impressive Soviet monsters vie with glittering onion-domed churches; two Buddhist monks nonplussed outside Louis Vuitton on Red Square; in the metro, chandeliers, stained glass and a bronze dog with a lucky nose; ice creams, dumplings and mead; the Kremlin not grey, but of grand yellow and pale blue facades; Lenin, reclining in his mausoleum, resurrected in the streets with Goldilocks in a group photo of young soldiers; an elaborately apparelled bride waiting her turn outside a row of porterloos; unaccompanied singers moving almost to tears in luridly-frescoed churches; brightly-painted children's toys; playing Volga boatmen; walking through a rustic village that turns out to be a film set; monasteries gushing holy water and offering kids from a local secondary school work experience, practice with spoken English unscheduled but eagerly grabbed; a gentle but stimulating private birch-branch flagellation (memo: take swimming gear); midnight promenading along the Nevsky Prospekt on White Nights (but each season will offer its distinct surprises); a tu-tu-free performance at the Kirov, complete with steam train; a violent thunderstorm over the grandeur of Catherine Palace, where an infant St Francis in Nikes hand-feeds a baby red squirrel .... And another big surprise: the cost of meals in what is generally said to be an expensive country was far less than estimated, because our outstanding Explore leader knew places and made careful arrangements. I'm still reliving all this animation and trying to make sense of it. (GR- 17th June 2010)
Toll Free USA - 1 800 715 1746 
Toll Free Canada – 1 888 216 3401
This is the UK and European website
