Pettropaviovsk was founded by Danish navigator Vitus Bering, in the service of the Russian Navy. Ber

Vladivostok ( Russian for "listen") is Russia's largest port city on the Pacific international discount travel Ocean and the administrative international discount travel center of Primorsky Krai. It is situated at the head of the Golden Horn Bay, not far from Russia's borders with China and North Korea.
The bridge shown here is the Russky Island Bridge from the mainland to Russky Island. The island is where the 24th Summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. will take place this year. The bridge will become the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world upon completion.
Closer to port: The city is the home port of the Russian Pacific Fleet. Russia's Pacific Fleet is parked in the waters off the coast of Vladivostok, in Golden Horn Bay. The population of the city, according to the preliminary results of the 2010 Census, is 592,069, down from 594,701 recorded in the 2002 Census.
As the main naval base of the Soviet Pacific Fleet, the city was officially closed to foreigners during international discount travel the Soviet years. It was at Vladivostok that Leonid Brezhnev and Gerald Ford conducted the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks in 1974. At the time, the two countries decided quantitative limits on various nuclear weapons systems and banned the construction of new land-based ICBM launchers.
My tour started with sight-seeing expedition would take us past the Central Train Station (left on map) and the Lenin Statue en route to the Naval Memorial. Vladivostok is the eastern terminus for the worlds longest passenger route, the Trans-Siberian Railway. An epic train journey from Moscow takes six nights and there are departures every two days.
We began with the Military Memorial area. The Blessed Nicholas Cathedral is located in the repeatedly rearranged historical building of a church-school, built in 1907 in memory of Russian warriors, fallen in the Russian-Japan War of 1904-1905.
Our next destination was the Orthodox Cathedral of the Protection of the Holy Virgin in Pokrov Park. This is easily the most majestic building in Vladivostok. It was built in 1902 but destroyed in Soviet times and the surrounding cemetery was turned in to a recreational park. In 2007 the cathedral was rebuilt and today its five golden domes remind the residents of their glorious ancestry and important traditions.
Our next stop entailed a long upward walk up a hill. Fortunately I had my cane with me. The hike was worth the excellent view of Golden Horn Bay from the Eagle s Nest. This viewpoint provided a bird's eye view of the famous bridge of Vladivostok.
On the way to breakfast this morning I passed by the Lido swimming pool. A strong wind was rocking the boat riling the water in the pool that it fought to get off the ship. The deck was all wet. The monitor on our TV last night listed the wind at 60 mph.
Pettropaviovsk was founded by Danish navigator Vitus Bering, in the service of the Russian Navy. Bering reached Avacha Bay on July 10, 1740, and laid the foundation stone for the harbor town, naming the new settlement Peter and Paul.
After taking care of the interesting Polar Bears, Ian touched upon the ice jam that had stymied our ship. He noted that early explorers to this region had wooden ships that could be crushed from the ice pressure. He used this picture in his lecture.
He spoke aboute the birds that we had seen on the open water. I was wondering about those thousands of birds we had seen skimming along the water. He showed us the remarkable migration route of these short-tailed shearwater birds.