Our first day in St Petersburg - St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
Day 24, May 9 - Mon St Petersburg, RussiaIt's an early start as we are to be finding our tour outside the terminal by 8am. First we have to get through unpredictable Russian immigration!! We are lined up to go down to the gangway by 7. The ship is not cleared until 7:20, so out we go and get into the only line open in immigration, then slowly more start to open - which one do we take. Ended up with a slow one, but got through and out to the SPB sign, found our tour guide and bus. It is an 18 passenger van with comfy seats and individual air control. Glen and I each take an individual seat on one side of the van. Our guide is Olga and our driver is Igor. We end up having to wait until 8:30 before everyone showed up. We are on our way and today is the biggest holiday on the Russian calendar - Victory Day - the day they celebrate as winning the war against Germany in WWII. They don't recognize the war in the Pacific at all. There are old flags, kids dressed in old military dress of the era, and crowds of people. First we stopped at the Senate and other gov't buildings and the statue of Peter the Great and giant sphynx's, then over past the Horse Guards Manege which has just had a major fire. Next we went to the St Isaac's Cathedral with it's gold copola. Next we stopped at a souvenier shop where we could also use a washroom. They had vodka near the door that you could just help yourself!!! Some people shopped, but I don't have room for more junk. Off we went to The Peter and Paul Fortress which contains the Peter and Paul Cathedral, which we went inside of - amazing amount of gold and carvings and is the burial vault of the Romanov's. We passed by many other large rambling and some very ornately carved buildings. We need to get across the bridge to where the hydrofoils leave and the bridge is closed. Olga is now frantically trying to figure out how to get there. She trys to get Igor back but the traffic is nuts. We are following her back and forth over about 1/2 block. A parade goes by over the bridge and eventually they open it but there are hoards of people trying to get across. Somehow we all managed to stay somewhat together and get to the other side and to the boats. We had to walk through 2 other boats to get to ours. Now it is time to get on our hydrofoil and head out to the Peterhof - the great summer palace of Peter the Great including the Great Cascade, one of the largest fountain complexes in the world - over 60 fountains and 250 statues and reliefs. Due to the holiday there were military bands and flags all over. We walked around the grounds and up to the castle and seeing many of the fountains. It is overwhelming and we didn't even go inside. We got back in the bus and went to lunch. It was a typical banquet hall and served all the SPB tours out that day. The meal was Russian and started with borcht, which was better than the ship's the night before. Then we had a kind of chicken stroganoff with rice and salad, followed by a crepe with raspberry sauce. There was a shot of vodka at each place and it was very smooth. Leaving there we drove about 1/2 hour to Tsarskoye Selo which is the Catherine Palace - a massive palace created by Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, but originally was much smaller and presented to Catherine by Peter the Great, and Elizabeth was their daughter. It is more unbelieveable than the Vatican!! Gold, carvings, statues, silks, delft tile fireplaces, painted ceilings, and more gold - mind boggling. On the way back to the ship we passed a church that caught our eye and Olga stopped so we could get some pics - it was the Church of the Assumption - we went inside and it was dark with no pews - they are not allowed to sit. Modestly decorated inside. Next door was a souvenier shop where I found a book on St Petersburg which helped me write all this! We got back to the ship around 6pm, then back through immigration, not too long. We dropped off our bags then went to dinner. We sat with Bill and Isabell from San Diego and Steve from New Jersey. Nice dinner - we both had turkey. Stopped in Ocean Bar for the music for a short time then back to the room to write this and have a glass of wine. No show tonight as we are staying in St Pete's tonight and have another long day tomorrow but it is all in the city.