IT’S ALL INCLUDED
It’s handy to know that all meals are included in the cost of this trip, along with that old cruise bugbear – gratuities – plus hotel stays and all the off-train excursions organised as part of the comprehensive daily programme. Cabins on the
Golden Eagle are incredibly well-designed to incorporate everything you could need, with private en-suite facilities in Gold and Silver Class and extremely attentive 24-hour cabin attendant service to see to your every need.
the sea and with its own private beach. The area holds many highlights but, in particu-
lar, directly on the coast is situated the Massandra Palace and Imperial Winery, where there is the opportunity to tour the cellars and taste some of the wine. The winery itself is situated in a beautiful park containing formal rose gardens, mature trees and shrubs facing the sea.
oday, the collection is stored in 10 galleries with more than a million bottles of fine and rare wines. The Massandra Winery has been recognised as a state treasure and has bottles dating back to 1775 as well as the Tsar’s personal collection. Another Yalta highlight was the visit to the
T
Alupka Palace, which was built for Count Mikhail Vorontsov, former special envoy to the United Kingdom and friend of the Marlborough Family. The Palace is a strange but attractive combination of a Scottish castle with Arabian additions, providing it with an inimitable character. Churchill himself stayed here during the Yalta conference of February 1945, while Stalin stayed at the Massandra Palace. We also enjoyed a private tour of the Tsar’s Summer Palace at Livadia and the site of the Yalta conference, which took place in the White Hall between Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill to decide on the new world order after the impend- ing defeat and surrender of Nazi Germany. A champagne reception in the grounds was fol-
lowed by a superb concert of chamber music and dinner in the restaurant attached to the palace, a superb finale to an utterly memorable voyage.
Put simply, the Crimean Express was a wonder- ful opportunity to journey through cities of great historical importance and natural beauty, where you can discover the history behind some momentous world events. The romance of rail travel, the tranquil pleasure of remote landscapes situated off the beaten track and the excitement of far-flung places and richly historic cities combined with all the comforts of a first class holiday, made this a unique travel experi- ence. I urge you to discover it for yourself.
CRIMEAN EXPRESS FACTFILE
GW Travel offers the Crimean Express Tour by private train in April 2011 and April 2012. The full itinerary includes St Petersburg, Moscow, Minsk, Kiev, Lvov, Kishinev, Odessa, Sevastopol, Balaclava, Bakhchisarai, Feodosiya, Sudak and Yalta. For more information or a brochure, please call 0161 928 9410 or visit
www.gwtravel.co.uk.
Spring 2011 I WORLD OF CRUISING 85
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