Another lazy, slow day. We head out of the hotel shortly after 11 Am and head down to the beach area and from there to the Vladivostok Fortress and it's museum. It is called the Bezymiannaya Battery and it dates back to 1862 when smoothbore guns were installed in a dirt and wood fort. The battery, however, lost its military significance after the construction of more powerful batteries and forts on nearby Russky Island in 1909 -1914. It was disarmed in 1923, with a brief re-arming during the Second World War.
We arrive there before 12 noon, as they have the firing of the noon gun at that time. The place is filling up with Japanese, Korean and Chinese tourists. We did not realise there were so many tourists in this city - never really saw them. We wander around and are on top of the roof of one of the bunkers when it is almost noon. We are trying to figure out where to go for the gun firing, when we realise that it will be taking place right in front of us. The gun is a four wheeled anti-aircraft cannon that is is in the courtyard below us.
The soldier gives a signal and then - BANG!!! It goes off with a blast and the strength of the sound wave that surprises us. Our ears pop and the ground shakes. Car alarms nearby start to go off. Everyone is startled. It is then time to go and explore around. They have guns, tanks, mortars, rockets, torpedoes and all sorts of other cool stuff all over the place.
Jacqui climbs into one of the gun turrets and she quickly finds out that all the moving parts are still working. We can spin the gun around a full 360° and raise and lower the gun barrels. We test out a number of the other guns and discover that we can do the same. Some of them are heavy guns with huge turrets.
We then go and explore inside the museum itself and we are pleased to see that the exhibits have labels in both Russian and English. This makes it very informative. The exhibits are quite wide ranging, with models of many of the forts in the areas, a history of the city and its defense, all sorts of guns and lots of pictures and maps. They even have a working military telephone. One of those you need to crank a handle before making a call. I go to the other end of the museum and Jacqui calls me - it works very well and is very clear.
We spend a bit more time wondering around the outside of the fort, taking some pictures of the bay and the city. The weather is starting to clear up and become sunny. At the same time it warms up. We leave the museum and head back down to the beach. We grab something to eat from one of the many stands (it is amazing the variety of beers and snacks they have on sale) and walk along the beach front and then up to the pedestrian street. We stop off at the internet cafe and check our emails. Then off to the bank to change some more money. Finally we have some shopping to do. We buy the Tupperware that we will take with us on the train to help us with our meals and food. We also get some food for lunch tomorrow as we will be traveling most of the day.
We return back to the hotel for a few hours to drop off our shopping, do some laundry and take a nap. But the weather has turned for the better and we want to get out and enjoy it. We decide to have a beer on the beach front before dinner. Everyone is out taking advantage of the nice weather - it was deserted yesterday, but today the place is packed. And it is a Thursday. We have a beer and some chips and popcorn. The small bag of chips is twice as expensive as the beer. The Russians have their priorities straight.
We have a quick dinner and return back to the beach for one more beer and to enjoy the last light of the sun. But as we are sitting there, we are approached by a very drunk Russian who wants to talk to us. The problem is that he does not really speak any English and he just hangs around there talking away in Russian. He asks us our names about four times. He is leaning so heavily on the table, that we are afraid it will fall over. At this same time we also observe two very drunk Russian ladies dressed in tight, short black dresses and stilettos get into a fight, and not just a verbal fight. There is some pulling of dresses and limbs and they chase each other up and down between the tables. None of the other Russians sitting around here pay any mind. After a while, we make our excuses from the drunk Russian trying to chat with us and head on our way back to the hotel, where we need to finish packing.