Once again I ride the elevator first thing in the morning to see where I am today. My elevator said St Petersburg! RAIN! Again? Well it certainly was raining on my boat. Three days in St Petersburg! A blessing or a curse?
Another day to brave the elements. We docked a good half hour from the city center. In reality it took about an hour to get anywhere due to all the construction and closed bridges.
We were well warned and warned again about how to be good comrades and follow orders EXPLICITLY (or be shot, I am guessing). You are not allowed to leave the ship unless you are with an organized tour. (Well, unless you pay mega bucks ahead of time and get a Visa for independent touring) Upon leaving the ship you HAVE to carry your tour ticket, boat pass and passport and file one at a time through immigration where people without smiles or emotions think about letting you pass through. You could ONLY go out as your group was called. If you went out of order the whole ship would pay the price by immigration closing down. You must stay with your group at all times, IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU REMAIN WITH YOUR GROUP! On the first day I camE back through immigration and they looked at my passport, then me, then my passport and told me it wasn't me...... That was a fun moment. Seriously? Quick thought of what they could do to me danced in my head. They called another officer up to look at me and my passport ..... after a bit, they let me go..... to the ship, thank God.
David got lost.
Yep. He signed up for a panoramic bus tour. These tours are usually just "look at tours' with photo ops, no walking. This time they went to Peter and Paul Fortress. Once off, the bus left, and as the group walked through the massive gates, David realized the distance. He walked a bit but could not walk further or keep up with the guide. He stopped and they went ahead. No one noticed or counted.... OhOh. He stopped at some garbage cans to rest and wondered what now? As the next Regent tour came up, the guide did not understand the language. The second Regent group came and they tried calling his group and there was no answer. He did not know where the group was exiting and there were no busses in site as busses were not allowed to stay there.
Finally, after 40 minutes his group came back through the same gate. He blended in to the group and no one said anything or noticed. He got back on his bus. Had he been caught without being in his group could have cost him permanent residence in Russia. I took a tour of the same site the next day and we entered and exited tow different gates. It was a lot of walking over tough uneven cobbled stones and a ton of standing. David could not have done it. Happy ending though.
Traffic in St Petersburg was a nightmare. One tour, which we cancelled was a private tour at Catherine's Palace and dinner with the Tsars. The tour started at 6:15 and was supposed to be 4 hours. They got home at 2AM!!! There was concern about getting back to the ship as gates to the islands are opened at night so you can't get back to the ship. They lucked out getting home but the traffic, 2.5 hours to the Palace was crazy long. No one obeys lights here. They pile through the intersection and block it to the cars crossing over in the opposite direction. It is one jam packed parking lot here. No honking, people seem expressionless in their cars while they wait.
David pretty much stayed on the ship during the three days we were here. I toured each day.
I went on a canal tour in the rain and saw Yusupov Palace. I enjoyed Yusupov Palace and the story of Rasputin. We were in the cellar here he was poisoned. I could feel his presence. His Palace is lovely. We then toured Peter and Paul Fortress, where David got lost the day before. Peter the Great was laid to rest here. He was tall, 6'8" (like Grandpa Lukas?). It is said he was very cruel. Several coups against hem ended with mass executions. I am not a forte fan but I did love the stories and I saw where the Romanoff family was burried. Of course, Anastasia was the tomb that capture my attention. I am so thankful I did not live in Russia during those times.... rich or poor it was horrific times where no one could be trusted. I need to read more Russian history.
I visited the wonderful Hermitage and had a private tour of the Gold Room. We did this last time we were here also. We were given individual head sets so we could hear our tour guide. As we doned our individual headsets our guide asked if they were all working. She had a great sense of humor. She said if any headset was NOT working they would locate the engineer who made them .... and shoot him! Her humor had us laughing all day. The treasures in the Hermitage are beyond belief. I never saw so much gold, so many diamonds and jewels. Their art collection is the finest, more then 3 million works, from the stone age to the present. If you visit the Hermitage and spend one minute at each painting it will take you two weeks (with no sleep) to see it all. Amazing. Worth Doing. I would have loved to have more time here.
Lastly I visited Catherine's Palace and the Amber Room, in Pushkin, again. Worth doing each time you visit St Petersburg. We saw pictures of the destruction after WWII so we much appreciated how beautifully it was restored. Restorers are amazingly talented people. They actually moved into the Palace as it was being restored. After our tour, we stopped for lunch at a local restaurant which was an old hunting lodge. There were animal heads and furs all over the walls. Doing as the locals do, (We were told) I downed a shot of vodka before I started eating. We were given champaign with lunch.. :) We had mushroom soup and stroganoff with mashed potatoes. There were more mushrooms then beef in my stroganoff. You know my love for mushrooms :). For desert we had an apple strudel.
Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood and its Byzantine domes. The name refers to the blood of Tsar Alexander II of Russia who was mortally wounded here in 1881.
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