Saint Petersburg, Russia--Tuesday, May 27, 2014

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Saint Petersburg, Russia--Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Grey and rainy.

We followed the crowd to participate in the regular routine for getting off the ship in this port: swipe ID card and walk down the ramp, walk the 2 blocks down the pier to the customs building, show our passport and tour tickets to the sullen Russian clerks, walk to the street and board the bus.

Today we are heading to the newly opened Faberge Museum. Prior to this, the collection of 200 beautiful Faberge objects, including 9 of the fabulous Imperial Easter Eggs, were owned by Malcolm Forbes. He sold it in 2004 for 100 million to a Russian multi-millionaire/entrepreneur who added them to his collection.

He was finally able to completely rebuild a palace that had just opened in April. The 4000 objects are now housed in the very ornate, restored, Shuvalov Palace where the public can admire them. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any photos inside the museum but here is their website http://www.faberge.com/news/142-fabergstpetersburgmuseum.aspx that shows you many of the absolutely stunning pieces we admired.

The photos are pictures of some more of St. Petersburg taken from the bus on our way to and from the museum.

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