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Published: September 6th 2018
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We were making our way through the entrance to St Petersburg as we awoke this morning. The sky was heavy with dismal looking clouds and we thought it was wintery but by 10am the sun had burnt the cloud off and it was a gorgeous blue sky day. We breakfasted in La Terraza and then found some more parts of the ship we hadn’t seen before, making our way up to the library lounge at the top of the front of the ship. We spent some time in there before wandering back down to our suite. I’ve been madly reading my book and just want to sit and read (The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton), but this is not to be done.
We had an early lunch up at the pizzeria above the pool deck - we shared a small but delicious pizza, but Tom did not feel like he’d had lunch so we went down to La Terraza where we had some roast guinea fowl and veggies. On returning to our suite we prepared ourselves for our afternoon‘s shore excursion - Splendid St Petersburg. After the gangway we had to go through a little customs shed to have our
passports/visas checked. We don’t have visas for Russia, so that means we can only come and go if we have a programmed tour to join, so we have to show our tourt tickets as well. As we emerged from the little border control hut there was a violinist playing, and when he glimpsed our passports he started playing “Advance Australia Fair”! We were amazed. We then joined our coach where we had the lovely Alexandra as our local guide. Our first stop was St Isaac’s Square, in front of the fourth largest basilica in the world, St Isaacs. We also saw the Yusupov Palace (where Rasputin was killed), the Stroganov Palace (where beef stroganoff was invented - although we’ve been told two different stories regarding its invention), the Peter and Paul fortress. We also had a canal cruise featuring the highlights, including the Winter Palace. During winter the rivers freeze over (the Neva River and the Fountain River) freeze over and they run an ice breaker through them to take the pressure off the embankments. We then stopped at the Church of Resurection on the Spilled Blood. One of the tsars had his legs blown off when a bomb was
thrown into his carriage (which we later saw in the carriage museum), and lay dying on the embankment of the canal. He asked to be taken to his palace to die, which he did, but his son built a church over the place where the tsar had lain dying, even extending it out into the canal to incorporate the entire area. We also drove down Nevsky Prospekt, st Petersburg’s Main Street.
It was 6.15pm when we returned to our ship, and our next shore excursion, thank heavens, had been changed to 7.15pm, so we had time for a nap! This next excursion was to Catherine’s Palace, the summer palace, a one hour drive south to Pushkin. We were taken through the Imperial Carriage Museum immediately upon our arrival - 23 coaches, both the beautiful and the bomb-damaged, as well as luxurious sleds.
When we’d finished in the carriage museum we walked to the back lawns of the palace where a band played wonderful music, and then some costumed dancers came out to give it context. We then entered the palace for an extensive tour of many grand reception rooms, including the Amber Room (totally lined with amber, said
to have great healing powers). They had grand heaters that had been imported from Delft (Netherlands). We concluded the tour at the Grand Hall where we were refreshed with Russian sparkling wine (very tasty) and presented as a group to the tsar and his wife who welcomed us to their palace We were then entertained by some wonderful Russian music.
At the completion of the reception we were taken to a restaurant in one of the outer buildings on the palace grounds for a lovely Russian meal, featuring vodka, wine, caviar and stroganoff. Then it was time to return to the ship. We arrived back after midnight and found a tray of cakes, biscuits and chocolates in our room, left by Addie, our butler! As if we could eat anything more!
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