Day 10 and 11 - St. Petersburg Russia

Canals and Cathedrals in St. Petersburg

One day sunny and one day with rain



I am going to deviate from my normal update to cover a two day period in one sitting as I would like to summarize the experience of St. Petersburg Russia that we enjoyed over the 2 days that we were there. Paul had contracted Den Rus, a tour company, to trip us around and to show us the best of St. Petersburg. They offered us a tour for 11 people for a good fee and the services of one driver and one tour guide and guaranteed that the team would be the same for both days.



After a very early breakfast on Tuesday the 29th we disembarked the ship to face Russian Passport Control for the first time. We had been warned that these folks at the border services were not very polite, interested, anxious to let Canadians into their city or forgiving in any way. All of those things proved to be true and after a thorough examination of our passport, visa and tickets to join a tour company they let each of us enter their city. We assembled outside while Paul found our guide amongst the several guides who were awaiting their flocks. We only waited a few minutes for Svetlana to show up and demonstrate that she was a vivacious, pretty, fashionable and knowledgable young woman. Her clothing was well finished and appeared to be professionally tailored for her. She was not typical as the other guides were dressed in more standard wear of the Russian men and women. She introduced herself and Sergei our driver and we loaded into the white Inveco bus that seated some 15 people.



Over the two days we saw a very good cross section of the historic, lavish and well attended Palaces and Museums of times that have passed by. The history is not stellar as it appears that the monarchs and leaders were pretty wealthy and pretty self centered and since they had the money and control they could and would do whatever they wanted. In the interim, the average people did not live like they did and many had to work very hard to forge a living. For a long period several families shared a flat and each family only had one room to themselves while they shared common rooms such as the kitchen and bathrooms. These apartments were expensive to boot and since the Russian people are not generally friendly, they often found they were living with enemies and the atmosphere in the apartments were less than agreeable. Over time, with each new leader, they evolved or devolved, depending on the leader, and their daily lives either improved or weakened. Lana's opinion was that the 80's and 90's were the brightest times for the people of Russia.

On our first day, in brightness of sunshine, we motored through the city stopping from time to time to see special sites and to take pictures of their monuments and buildings. They was liberal use of gold trim for decorations, statues and roofs of special churches and state buildings. We stopped at a souvenir place where we could purchase a coffee, nesting dolls or Faberge eggs of other souvenirs. We continued our driving tour and it became apparent that the city had many canals with the river playing a big part in the landscape of St. Petersburg. Our first stop was at the Peter and Paul Fortress and St. Peter and Paul Cathedral. From there we took a boat ride through the city to see the amazingly uniform and decorated buildings. Svetlana provided a running dialogue about the city as we moved about and rolled out many facts about the city.

City Facts:

400 Museums

5M people live in St. Petersburg

Winter Palace and Hermitage - made up of 2000 rooms and 170 staircases

90 Universities

100 Theaters

7 Ballets

80 rivers and canals

500 Palaces

500 bridges

Nazi siege lasted for 900 days during which a good part of St. Petersburg was damaged or destroyed

St Isaac's Cathedral

St Isaacs Cathedral (with its solid gold domes) was not destroyed but it was damaged while being used as a sniper location for the Nazis - it took 5 years to rebuild

A good deal of the construction was as a result of Catherine's orders and she proved to be quite eccentric in her own right. She had some 64 boyfriends and had a pension for eating as was demonstrated in her Palace.  In her palace she had several dining rooms each with its own distinctive style and appearance of the decorated rooms. Catherine became the Empress after her husband was killed by one of her boyfriends. She became the first female to rule even though she was basically not in line to become the ruler of Russia. A good part of the show and flash of the city was influenced by Catherine and the need to demonstrate wealth and strength in everything that was built.

We stopped for lunch at Favourite Place which is a restaurant in the middle of the city. It was not exceptional but provide us with a functional meal that was made up of a chicken salad, chicken breast and gravy and a strawberry flan. After lunch we continued our drive and Svetlana talked a bit about life in St. Petersburg. We stopped at the Hermitage Museum where we were to spend a few hours checking out some featured exhibits. Apparently there are millions of artifacts on rotation in the museum and if one was to spend full time looking at individual items for only one minute it would take 12 years to complete. It is the Russian Vatican of sorts. As the tourist season was in full swing there were thousands of people surging around as we observed and listened to the tales of the origins of many of the prized possessions stored in this Museum.

Spilled Blood Cathedral

The better part of the afternoon was spent there until it was time to return to the ship for the evening and night. Some of our gang had made arrangements to see the Russian Ballet perform Swan Lake while some of us relaxed after a full day and had dinner on the ship.

At the break of day we started again with Svetlana and Sergei our driver and we drove to another site to look at souvenirs. I managed to send some postcards from there. Then off to the cleanest and most beautiful subway station to hear about their subway system. We were warned, strongly, to watch out for pick-pockets as that was a serious problem in such public areas and the consequences of losing a passport we quite serious as the only consulate in Russia was in Moscow. We rode the busy subway for two stations and ascended the steep escalators to the surface to find Sergei parked nearby. We drove 35 km south of the city to spend some time in the Summer Palace of Catherine. This morning it was raining and Svetlana called this weather more typical of the weather of St. Petersburg. Her expression was simply that their weather was made up of "Nine months of expectation and three months of disappointment". She certainly was not a fan of the weather. The rain lasted pretty much all day long and she offered us plastic ponchos (disguised garbage bags) to try to keep us dry. Once we got to Catherine's Palace we were herded through the huge crowds to hang our wet clothing as it was forbidden to have wet clothes in the museum. That took quite some time to navigate around the groups of pushing tourists some of whom showed little spect for others. Finally we were on our way to view the exhibits. Svetlana knew the ropes and she guided us through the Palace to her favourite spots where she regaled us with her knowledge of art, architecture and the individual items on display. The many rooms were all garishly decorated to display wealth and ownership for any who entered the doors. We spent a fair bit of time there enjoying the extensive floors, ceilings, wall decorations and the individual museum pieces and stories. We then went for a brief walk in the garden area to see some of the out buildings on her property.

Ceiling in Catherine"s Summer Palace

We then drove south-west of St. Petersburg to see a summer residence of the Russian Czars in Peterhof - the Russian Versailles. We stopped at Summer Palace Restaurant for a real Russian meal in a gorgeous building that could accommodate about 400 people. We were served a tomato and cucumber salad, followed by a borsch with bread, beef stroganoff and potato and finally a strawberry pudding on a soft pastry. This was all complimented with a glass of champagne and a bottle of water. It was a lovely lunch served by formally dressed individuals who we pumping the large groups through.

We then went for an extensive walk, in the rain, through the Fountain Park where Svetlana talked to us about individual statues and fountains. We enjoyed the walk, despite the wind and rain as we spent the better part of 90 minutes there. From there we drove back to the city in traffic stopping at an operational church for a photo opportunity. Once at the ship we took a group picture and we said farewell to our guides for the last two days. Paul gave them Canada-Russia flags and of course the accumulated tips for their efforts. They were truly good resources for us in St. Petersburg.

In the evening we had dinner and relaxed as the last two days had been pretty full but extremely enjoyable. Lucy, Bruce and I went for a nightcap in the Wheelhouse to listen to some of the available evening entertainment on board. We had a few laughs and spent some time chatting with the singer and other guests.



The fountains of Peterhof Palace