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Published: August 27th 2013
Welcome to St Petersburg. Finland was a new country for us, but Russia also is a new country for us too.
Where to start the story? Last night is a good place. Just before sailing from Helsinki they made 2 announcements asking a married couple to contact customer services. This typically means someone did not return and it was time to pull in the gangway. Hopefully this couple came running up the pier and dove onto the gangway before the ship sailed, otherwise they were stuck in Finland and would have to find their own way to catch up with the ship. Hopefully they made it or they may have to wait until the ship reaches Estonia on the 27th before they get back – making a spontaneous visit to Russia sounds pretty difficult to us – maybe they had at least taken their passports ashore.
Anyway, the ship arrived in St Petersburg’s port a little after 6:00 AM. We had gotten up at 5:30 (minus one extra hour of sleep due to the time change again), got quickly dressed, had a fast breakfast in the Horizon Court (they opened early knowing many people had
Peterhof Fountains
St Petersburg, Russiavery early excursions today), and went to the Michelangelo Dining room to await our tour. From our cabin balcony (before going to breakfast) we had a good view of the harbor. We also had a view of the Emerald Princess arriving in port a little after us. Our tour was called a few minutes before the scheduled 6:40 time and we started following the crowd ashore and into Russian Immigration. Janet had filled out all our paperwork beforehand and we made it through into Mother Russia without any hitches. However we had lost sight of the rest of our tour group and we went out the wrong side of the terminal looking for our bus – the sign we saw said buses were to the left, but no buses were to be seen. Someone redirected us to the opposite side of the terminal and we dashed around the whole building hoping they had not left without us. Anyway, we got on our tour bus – not quite the last ones. They knew how many to expect and were waiting for the stragglers. FINALLY, a deep sigh of relief as several of the possible problems had not occurred and we were
Canal Cruise
St Petersburg, Russia ready to start our tour.
The first thing to know is that there are 5 cruise ships in port today, but somehow we were the first bus to leave from our ship, and just about the first bus away from any of the ships. So we got out of the terminal area and headed off to our first destination (anticipating a pack of buses hot on our heels).
Our guide for both days is named Leo and he had spent his college years (and several more) in the USA, so he spoke English very well and did not have a thick Russian accent either. Over the next two days he shared a lot of information about life in Russia. Near the port we had our first view of typical Russian apartment houses. They are high rise buildings made of gray concrete and block windows. Building after building look pretty much alike and Leo said these were typical residences for most people. The location out by the sea port makes them cheaper than those found downtown, but almost everyone in Russia (we can vouch for St Petersburg) lives in apartment buildings – about 5% have
Drinkis with Lunch
St Petersburg, Russia single family houses and many of those are dachas of the very wealthy. Some are historical buildings with long histories, others are fairly new, but many are 1970 vintage when buildings were mass produced to house the people.
We went through town (being Sunday morning the traffic was light) and we got on a new highway, heading toward the Peterhof Palace about an hour outside of town. When we got there (about 8:30), we were actually the first tour bus in the parking lot. Entry tickets were already purchased for us and we were led directly into the palace. NO PHOTOS are allowed to be taken inside (apparently they used to be allowed without flash but too many people broke the rules, so no one gets to take pictures inside any longer). We had to put on little booties over our shoes to keep from scuffing the beautiful inlayed hardwood parquet floors. Every room had gorgeous floors, which would have been difficult to make these days, but they had been hand-crafted in the 18
th century. Completed in 1725, the awe-inspiring palace and grounds are often referred to as the Russian Versailles. Work on the palace was continued
St Isaac's Cathedral
St Petersburg, Russia after Peter the Great by subsequent generations and today it is an incredible sight to see.
During WWII, the Nazis wanted to capture several of the palaces in tact, to they did not bomb them. When the Soviet Union took control, they wanted to use the palaces as propaganda to show the mass population how decedent the rich had lived and why communism was better for everyone. So fortunately some of the original palaces and churches have been preserved from long ago. That is partly why Peterhof is so grand to observe today. There is a large amount of vintage paintings, tapestries, and furniture to see as we were led though the rooms. We were told there are many times more art works stored in other rooms of the palace, but what we saw was incredible. There is 24 carat gold leaf in many of the rooms, on the doors, paneling, trim work, etc, as well as the furniture itself, overlaying the wood. Original mirrors abound throughout the palace to enhance the original lighting from windows or candles.
After touring inside, we had about an hour to walk through the gardens and look at
parts of the 64 acres of carefully designed gardens, foot paths, lawns, and trees. Promptly at 10:00 AM they turned on the fountains and we got to see the cascades of fountains flowing from numerous figures, eventually flowing into the “grand canal” which links the palace to the Bay of Finland. It was a real spectacle, and to us, it appears that it certainly does rival Versailles. We headed back to our bus and we were on-board in plenty of time to leave at 10:45. We then had an hour’s drive back into the city, with lots tidbit of information sprinkled in by Leo.
Our next stop was a canal cruise about noon. The bus stopped near the canal and we boarded a private boat, just for our tour group (about 28 people). One of the first things was for them to give everyone a glass of Russian Champagne. It seemed a little early for us, but this seemed to be the custom and we didn’t want to insult anyone, so we enjoyed our liquid beverage. We cruised along some of the canals and into a part of the Neva River. We cruised past the Hermitage Museum
(originally the czar’s Winter Palace), past the Aurora battleship (which fired the initial shot to launch the Russian Revolution to overthrow the czars), under quite a few bridges, and past many other buildings which slip our minds at this time. With very few exceptions, they look well maintained and reflect distinctive architectural styles of a century or more ago. It was an interesting and restful cruise which we enjoyed.
By then it was about 1:00 and time to head for lunch. The bus drove through town and past many more buildings (often described as interesting to see but not consequential to the history of St Petersburg). We got to the restaurant about 1:30. It was up a couple for flights of stairs (nothing is ever on the ground floor). The room was laid out in Harry Potter style with long tables arranged end-to-end down the length of the room. They initially served us a lettuce salad, along with a bottle of water, a glass of champagne, a glass of red wine, and a shot glass of vodka. Janet drank her champagne but David had to drink her wine and vodka, along with all his glasses too. After
the salad we each had bowls of soup. David thought it was a kind of cheese soup but Janet thought it was squash soup – in either case it was tasty. We had chicken and potatoes for the main course, and then they brought ice cream for dessert.
After lunch, we boarded the bus again and went to St Isaac’s Cathedral. It is no longer an actual church but instead is a religious museum. That meant we could wander wherever we wanted and take pictures as we pleased. There is some repair/cleaning being done on part of the outside, but it still was an impressive building. It has a massive dome that is lavishly covered in 220 pounds of pure gold. The main doors were said to weight 12 tons. There were enormous columns all around the outside of the building.
After that, the bus took us to the Fortress of Peter and Paul. It was built by Peter the Great in 1703 to protect the city from Swedish attacks. The fortress later became a political prison. Trotsky, Lenin's older brother Alexander, Dostoyevsky, and Peter's own son, Alexei, were once held inside these walls.
In the center stands the impressive 280-year old Peter and Paul Cathedral, the burial place of Russian Emperors and Empresses from Peter the Great to Alexander III. It was the first church in St. Petersburg to be made of stone.
They started the habit of firing one blank cannon shot from the fortress each day at noon, to signal all the townspeople what time it was (this was back before watches were common). We were well past noon, but we did hear it the next day. The approach to the cathedral is over a large courtyard of cobbled stones which everyone agreed were very difficult to walk on. Inside the old church the sarcophagus of the Russian nobles. All of these are made of white marble and look identical (except for the names/dates). There are two exceptions which Leo would not explain but said it would become clear on the next day (Monday). Anyway, we toured around and then headed back across the cobblestones to the bus.
The bus returned us to the pier area about 4:30. We cleared back through immigration and on-board through the ship’s security. We got back to the cabin
Royal Carriage
St Petersburg, Russia about 5:00. We needed to return to the bus at 7:00 for an evening extension to today’s tour. The weather all day has been nice and bright/sunny, and it felt somewhere around 70 degrees.
Leo had told us it wasn’t necessary to get fancy dressed, but just to wear something comfortable. Knowing the evening event included dinner, he told us to get a bite to eat before returning, unless we usually eat dinner at 10:00. So we got cleaned up (wearing comfortable clothes/shoes) and got sandwiches in the International Café on deck 5. Then we went back through immigration and rejoined the bus. Immigration the second time was much easier since they were only checking to see if we had already gotten the passport stamped.
The bus took us on about an hour’s drive to Catherine the Great’s Palace outside of St Petersburg. We were overwhelmed with the initial view from her front gate, into the courtyard, and looking at the palace. But before we could go in, we were expected to have a glass of Vodka or Champagne and make a toast to Catherine. Since there were extra glasses of vodka (we were
expected to finish all of them) so David had a second to make up for Janet’s zero. Then we entered the palace and immediately had to put on booties again. We were the second tour group through the palace, so we did not have a crowd, but we did have to keep moving because there were other groups arriving after us. The interiors were even more ostentatious than at Peterhof, with more elaborate details and fancy woodwork, paintings, sculptures, furnishings, tapestries, etc. If Peterhof rivaled Versailles’ gardens, then this palace surpassed its interior (which is real praise). We were thoroughly impressed!
We visited many spectacular rooms in the palace. One of the most spectacular was the famous Amber Room (see picture). It is beyond description, especially since it is covered all over with Amber. We saw many rooms (here and elsewhere) that were covered in gold, but this is simply beyond description. Also, the inlayed floors are spectacular. Maybe it is because David enjoys woodworking, but these floors are simply amazing. And not to left out, the ceilings all of the palaces (especially here) are decorated with incredible works of art - if you don't look up then you would miss them completely.
We finished the tour in the grand ballroom – you can imagine how it looked if
they called it grand – it was incredible! As we entered we were greeted by waiters with more glasses of champagne and we were escorted to chairs to listen to a 7 stringed musicians playing classical music. As they played, more and more groups arrived and were seated with us. Eventually all the groups were there, and that’s when Catherine the Great made her grand entranced (escorted by archduke somebody). She greeted us in Russian, we watched a pair of dancers in vintage costumes, and listened to more music. When this was over, we were directed (as one very large group) back outside to the courtyard to watch another band play a little more music and a couple more dancers. Finally we were directed to the Carriage House, where we got to view the royal carriages which have been retained from that time. After this portion of the tour, we returned to our bus, which drove us around to the other side of the palace for a dinner, in what was originally the kitchen but is now a full scale restaurant.
We had more wine and vodka, had dinner (salad, crepes with caviar, a chicken and potato meal, and Raspberry sorbet), and were entertained by typical Russian musicians (in costume) playing for us. The meal was actually just so-so, but all the rest of the entertainment for the evening was wonderful. Finally we boarded the bus and were driven back to the cruise terminal. We got back there just about midnight.
All through the day, David had been taking pictures of virtually everything he could see (we’re not likely to come back again anytime soon). It is going to take some time to got through them and select just a few to add to the blog. You will be informed when they get added.
That completes the end of our first amazing day in St Petersburg, as we come back through immigration again. For the rest of the story, please continue reading Aug 26th
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