Blue Moon - The Summer Palace

Not only was the summer palace eggshell blue, but the welcome band was playing blue moon. This is the how-not-to-make-a-movie lesson, complete with "oh, we never realized it was on" and "what do you mean don't shoot into the sun" ;-)
Everyone has to start somewhere, even Tarkovsky !


Summer Palace, June 23rd 2008 from karlusmagnus on Vimeo.

St.Petersburg, The Hermitage

This was some footage we shot on the boat tour of St.Petersburg, and you see the Hermitage as well as the Peter and Paul palace (gold spired building).


Hermitage, St. Petersburg, June 24th 2008 from karlusmagnus on Vimeo.

The Captains Dinner - A Movie

This was the ubiquitous Captains Dinner, complete with Champanski, as well as with our tour partners and dinner companions.


Captains Dinner, June 29th 2008 from karlusmagnus on Vimeo.

and more


Captain's Dinner 2, June 29th 2008 from karlusmagnus on Vimeo.

Red Square, the Movie

A little piece of red square, this time shot again with our trusty little camera, a Ricoh Caplio R4.


Red Square Moscow, June 30th, 2008 from karlusmagnus on Vimeo.

Martin, the Movie

Our buddy on the cruise, Martin, made an impromptu performance of a traditional russian guitar type instrument.


Martin's Movie from karlusmagnus on Vimeo.

Russia - The Movie

While in Russia, the river cruise people organized a concert at Pushkin theater in downtown Moscow. A russian orchestra complete with Soprano or Mezzo-Soprano and russian traditional instruments galore, played their heart out to us tourists. Toward the end you will see Martin, one of our group as well as another lady from our tour group, who were selected to accompany the orchestra and became our entertainment. Martin in particular is fabulous. I laugh every time i watch this clip. The problem with the video is the resolution - it sucks - but the sound is pretty good. If I can manage it, I will try and load Martin's piece on its own in higher resolution. The video was taken with a Ricoh Caplio R4 camera, hence its suckiness. Enjoy the sound at the very least. After Martin's piece, there is Lara's song, which you will recognize from Dr Zhivago, as well as a cartoonesque piece that could have come from a russian road runner type cartoon with its fast paced crescendo echoing the soviet union's hurtling toward progress like a runaway train in Siberia ;-)


Russia - The Movie from karlusmagnus on Vimeo.

Carrera 2 China

There are 2 crazy belgians, who are trekking from Belgium 2 China in a bahama yellow old porsche 911.
They were in Iran, and now are in India, near Amritsar. Here are some shots from Iran ...
(the pale dude on the right is the Belgian ;-)

Tintin with some local porsche fans
Some hot-rodders eager to give it a go
A shot taken on the road from Darab to Bandar Abbas
Mechanics and various car fans at Minab. They worked on the rear wheel bearing

The cats at play

Some video that Nikki shot

Winter video

a little bit of winter, @ -20C or zeroF

Caitlins Sweet Sixteen Party

Video from last nights party for Caitlin. Great time, and really fun seeing everyone. Nice touching moments for Sean and Liz.


Caitlin's Sweet 16th from karlusmagnus on Vimeo.

Russia - Mockba - various

The BMW M-Power billboard which stretches for a couple of hundred yards!Had to put in the D110! love these babies
Ahh, what color macaroon to pick?
Lambotown! Pretty cool and apparently they sell a lot
Presidential palace inside the Kremlin and home of Medvedev

Russia - Mockba - various

The russian taxi of choice, a Maybach !Inside the shopping center on the Red Square, having a coffee, which is all we could afford inside here.
The KGB boys, inside the Kremlin, on the lookout for trouble, undercover and posing as "4 wild and crazy guys" from saturday night live
The germans are here! German version of "2 wild and crazy guys"
Too much of a photo op to miss !!!

Russia - Mockba Kremlin etc

The home of the KGB !!! now FSB.Red Square
Tsar Bell. Biggest bell in the world.
Lenin's tomb
Annunciation Cathedral, inside the Kremlin. In here you will find icons by Andrei Rublev (most famous icon artist and subject of fantastic Andrei Tarkovsky movie in 1966)

Russia & Mockba: Inside the Kremlin

Our intrepid tourists venture inside the Kremlin. Below you see one of the churches inside the Kremlin. It is the Church of the Dormition where all the Tsars were crowned. Big gun, eh? Part of the Armory.
Doorway of the church of the Dormition
Your intrepid guide
Single golden domed Church of the Deposition of the Virgin's Robe (methinks;-)

Russia - More Mockba

Into the subway we venture. Down down down down in the bowels of Mockba we go.Very beautiful stations abound
Napoleon mural, I believe. Or Napoleon getting a comeuppance.
Station maps. So easy to understand.
This church was not in the subway !!! It was near the entrance to the Subway system where we entered. It's name escapes me. A free pint to the reader that correctly identifies this church!

Russia inc - Mockba

Moscow ... and the Red Square, the Kremlin, St.Basil's church. It is just like it appears on tv. Very impressive and beautiful. Very well kept, and in good nick. You have to pinch yourself when you find yourselves in the red square. It definitely lives up to the hype. You can just imagine goose-stepping soldiers at Mayday parade and Topol ICBM's being paraded past the leadership. St. Basil's church.
More St.Basil's
Gateway to the Kremlin. The Kremlin is like a little Vatican, in that it is a mini-city, fortress like in the heart of Moscow.
Big department store on the red square, outrageously priced, little foot traffic, quite beautiful. Typcial tourists such as ourselves had a coffee in there. About all we could afford ;-)

Russia - even more - Yaroslavl etc

Look, its Lenin!Church of the Fractured Skull
Church of the Proletariat ............. just kidding ... its the university!
Church of the Spilled Blood ... just kidding ... it's the Church of St. Elijah the Prophet
Vladmimir the Putinator

Russia - the voyage

Some of the colorful locals at the monasteryYe Olde Local Merchants
Sometime after 10pm. Remember its white night time.
Finally, after midnight and the sun starts to descend
About 12h30 or 1am ... the sun goes down, only to reappear a few hours later

Rooski Inc.

Along the Volga, Nikki feeding the birds, with some lovely Indian ladies from Chicago that we met. Soon after, an announcement came across the PA system. "Lady and Gentleman. Please do not give food to birds. Birds shit all over deck. Thank you for co-operation". Very direct these russian PA announcers.
A fort at the mouth of one of the inlets. Or rather part of a fort.
We stopped at Goritzy, and went to the renowned Kirillov-Belozersky Monastery, founded by Saint Cyril in 1397
Very nice monastery indeed, in a lovely setting
Way to go Cyril!