Our Baltic Sea cruise on Princess Cruises - Thursday, August 4, 2011-St. Petersburg, Russia (Day One)

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We arrived in St. Petersburg Russia. It is 9 hours different from back home. We are here for 2 days. We were able to sleep in this morning, however you know me, up and at ‘em early, 5:30am. We decided not to take a tour this morning, rather in the afternoon. It was absolutely beautiful both in temperature and sunny. The temperature was to be in the mid-70’s. We later heard that it is only sunny 60 days of the year. We got lucky on this day. Our tour guide told us that in the winter it will get as cold as -35C and only 4 hours of daylight. I am ready to move, not….. It was interesting to see we arrived at a new port, much nicer than in 2003 where were docked at an industrial dock. This looks brand new. In the distance, there were several new high rise apartments/condos that are very trendy looking. This is really neat to see considering not too long ago this was Iron Gate country which kept everyone tightly closed.

After lunch we meet our tour at the dock. Before getting on the bus we had to go through passport control, yuck. I have memories of doing this last time we visited. The process takes forever and no one has a personality. Oh well. What are you going to in a former communist country?

Today we are scheduled for 2 tours, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. They include St. Petersburg River and Canal Cruise and the Russian Ballet.

St. Petersburg River and Canal Cruise
We drove through the port passing by all the new construction and very nice apartments and condos. We also passed by several historic sites including the Peter and Paul Fortess, Hermitage Museum, St. Isaac’s Cathedral, etc.. St. Petersburg consists of several islands surrounded by rivers and canals. Our first stop was at the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. This is probably one of the most colorful church structures I have ever seen. The only downside was the sun angle. Capturing the colors in a photo is tricky. We were not able to enter the church. After a few quick photos we were given a short time to shop and view the sites in the area. One of the really cool things we saw while in the area was seeing so many bride and grooms and their wedding parties posing for photos in front of the several beautiful bridges. There was some particular significance about crossing this bridge when you get married. I will need to do further research.

After our time at the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood we boarded a boat to tour the city on the rivers and canals. Part of our tour was on the Neva River. This water tour put a whole new perspective on this historic city. Again taking photos was tricky because of the sun angle; however the photos really did turn out nicely. A funny thing happened every time we went under a bridge there was a young man on top of the bridge waving at us. He would run from bridge to bridge waving at us. He must have run 6-7 miles or more. At the end of the river cruise he was waiting for us looking for tips. I was a sucker so gave him a US dollar. He sure did have a stack of cash with him. One more thing about the river cruise, we all had a glass of champagne while we were cruising. I found out later my son 15 year old son had a glass, my goodness. Sorry, one more thing. We did pass a ship sitting on the banks of the Neva River. It was called the Aurora cruiser. It was used to fire the first shot to start the Russian Revolution.

Evening at the Russian Ballet
When I think of Russia, I think of Ballet. This evening we were going to a Russian Ballet. The trip, by bus, was short to the performance location. The location was small from the exterior, but also the interior. Nothing real fancy. Our seats were close to the front which was cool. We were so fortunate to watch Swan Lake, a real classic for ballets. What a treat. The show had two intermissions. During the first intermission we were served champagne, this is the second time today. The only downside to the show was there was very little air conditioning. It got real warm. We truly did enjoy the show. Fun was had by all.

We returned to the ship around 11:15pm, pretty late for me. We again had to go through the annoying passport control, no personalities again. Amazingly when arrived at the ship it was still daylight, however the sun was setting ever so slowly. We grabbed a little snackage before going to bed. We have an early morning the next day, 5:30am for day two of our St. Petersburg tour.

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