July 7, 2017 our 55 Wedding Anniversary, Murmansk, Russia

Murmansk , Russia's located on Kola Bay, Murmansk is Russia's only ice-free port and also the only Russian city found north of the Arctic Circle. We really enjoyed this port, more then we thought we would. First it isn't really pretty at  the port, lots of coal and trains. And in the town a lot is leftover from the communist, so gray and not structures, that were very attractive.  

The guide was Tatyana and she was really good.  Not politically correct, told it like it was, and is. So first stop was a huge monument to all the fallen soldiers, it was up on a very high hill, the tallest in the town. It was very moving, very well done, but I have to admit, not the style I prefer, very much in the Art Deco style. 

Then they took us to a Greek Orthodox Church, only one of three left in Murmansk, the communist destroyed the rest of them. And the people of Murmansk are very religious and almost every one is Christian. So on holidays the three churches are overflowing. 

Then we went for pancakes, with cream and jam, in a Radisson hotel, would you believe?  It was wonderful, and two of the servers were wearing traditional costumes, they were so pretty.  We were able to do a wee bit of shopping and then back to the ship. 

When we got back to the ship we didn't realize that the ship parked next to us was the nuclear ice breaker we could have toured, wops! 

It was our 55th  anniversary so it wasn't too early to start getting ready fo a very special evening. 

The dinning room staff and our friends Karen and Pat had planed out something very special and it was, at the end of dinner, one of the waters from another part of the DR, with a wonderful voice sang "Through the years" to us, which made us both tear up, and then they gave us a bottle of champaign!  

From there we went to the casino bar and listen to Austin Ray sing "Moon River" to us as hat was our song 55 years ago, and they played it at our wedding. 

We got back to the room, and Dominic had mad us two swans one with a red beak, they were in the middle of the bed and he put chocolate harts all around them! All and  all it was a wonderful day