After Dagmar hosted me in Frankfurt and Koblenz, I took off bikeriding, making it to Halle after 700km or so of riding. At this point I was tired of the constant rain threat and terrible E German bike routes. It turns out the Salle Radweg doesn't really exist yet. One day for kicks I decided to take a picture every time I saw some ridiculous condition on the route, and it wound up being an entire roll. Anyway, after Halle I continued by train, and after some nice bike riding along the Elbe near Dresden, I made it to Berlin.
Berlin is a pretty good city for biking around in.
This event is covered quite excellently on a web page by Richard Muirden. Richard, Daria, Jim and I were treated wonderfully by various people connected with Shostakovich, so that we got a special museum tour, introduction to Shostakovich's kids, a backstage visit at the Symphony, etc. The stay was in St. Pete was made easier by the English language-oriented St Petersberg Youth Hostel. The convent is one of the nicest places around Moscow, which is otherwise quite hectic. The cemetery is large and also has Chekov, Gogol, Prokofiev, Khruschev.