Overload

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Geo: 59.939, 30.3158

As with Tallinn, our return to St. Petersburg (Leningrad, when we first visited) was under far better conditions. We awoke to find ourselves already pulled up to the very large cruise terminal complex. The skies were gray but it was not raining, and the forecast rain held off all day. The cruise area was huge, with berths for at least 10 ships visible from our single mooring. There were, however, only three ships in port this day, including our own. Many other sailings that include St. Petersburg include two days in port, allowing far more time to see the city. We, alas, only had one day -- though we were in port from 7:00am to 6:30pm. Peculiarities with my work prevented me from staying in Russia for more than one day, so we had to use the time that we had. We'd chosen our tour company carefully, as there is quite a lot of competition among a few key local firms that cater to the tremendous amount of summer cruise traffic. We had also carefully chosen our itinerary, but three weeks or so before departure, we received word from our company that they had to remove the Catherine's Palace (and its famous Amber Room) from our itinerary on account of "extreme crowding" this summer. I was dubious, especially as the Amber Room was one of our top must-see sights in St. Petersburg. I suspected a bait-and-switch. I trolled the Internet and several cruise forums and, sure enough, St. Petersburg was having it's busiest tourist summer since records have been kept. I read multiple cases of people on tours with timed entry into Catherine's Palace who ended up waiting more than two hours to gain entry (well past their time), and then to only be crowded in and unable to see anything. Our tour company had dropped visits to the palace entirely through August due to their "frustration" with the managers there who had abandoned any attempt at capacity management. Satisfied that it wasn't all a ruse, we kept our planned itinerary, which had us schedule to meet and depart at 7:30am from the terminal.

We got up early and had a room-service breakfast. The entry process in Russia would be far different than in our other ports. People were allowed off the ship only if they were participating in a sanctioned tour (government approved) or if they had a tourist visa. We had our documentation from the tour company, in Russian, showing that we were legit. Warned to expect delays, we were waiting in the main lobby by 7:00am, in anticipation of hoping to be among the first people off. Shortly after getting in the still-short line, the "all-clear" was given and we got off. There must have been 20 immigration lines and we walked right up to one. We soon cleared entry and almost immediately found our tour guide -- Olga -- waiting for us in the spanking-new terminal building. Along with our seven fellow cruisers with whom we toured in Tallinn and Stockholm, we were joined by an American military family stationed in Germany (two very young children) and a Chinese-Canadian couple from Vancouver. Luckily everyone else had adhered to the advice and gotten off the ship early, so we were able to begin the tour a little early, too.

Needless to say, nothing looked immediately familiar to K or I. Our visit had been in the dead of winter, and most of my memories are of frosted-over bus windows and snow. The vast area around the cruise docks comprised countless new high-rise apartments, though they were decidedly non-Soviet looking. I got the impression that the land itself may have been relatively recently reclaimed from the sea.

We began with a pretty extensive driving tour of the city. Our first proper stop would be the Hermitage Museum, which we were being allowed to enter at 10:00am, half an hour ahead of the public opening, which proved a Godsend. We made several photo stops along the way, and Olga gave us the option to get out and ride part of the Metro system, to which we all unanimously agreed. We only went one stop, but it was very interesting to see the very elaborate Soviet-era Metro stops contrasted to the brand new trains, which were filled with smartly dressed Russians presumably on their way to work given the hour. The station, too, was the deepest in St. Petersburg -- more than one kilometer under the surface.

Our small bus picked us up across the river, at the Metro exit, and we continued the tour. We (luckily, in hindsight) made a short 20-minute stop at a large souvenir store before we headed to the Hermitage. This and one other very short and impromptu stop at the end of the day were our only opportunities to buy anything.

I had some flashbacks of the Hermitage (Winter Palace) from our earlier visit as we approached, but they were fleeting. We walked up to a growing line at the "tour entrance" but were able to bypass them all and walk directly inside, with no delay. Once inside we could see into the courtyard area, in which the "general public" entrance was located. There was already a line as far as we could see there, and the museum wasn't to open for another 30 minutes. We, however, now had pretty much unfettered access for the next two hours. Our guide took us in such a route that by the time the museum opened, we were far enough inside the complex that we really didn't encounter a significant number of other people until the last 15 minutes or so of the tour. Of course, the scale of the Hermitage collection is staggering, and only such a very small percentage is even out for view. The building, too, is a primary work of art in its own right, and we were constantly amazed as we walked from ornate room to even-more-ornate room. We hit the proverbial highlights -- DaVinci, El Greco, Rembrandt, Bernini, etc, and most impressively, we were usually the only people there at the time, allowing us to get surprisingly up close and personal. It was overwhelming without crowds, so I can only imagine that it would have been a far-les-than-satisfying visit had we had to deal with hordes of tourists. Our guide, too, was excellent and displayed an impressive range of knowledge about the collection and building. I distinctly remember, too, from our previous visit, that the floors had all been covered with uneven planks of plywood, throughout the museum, on account of everyone where boots and tracking in snow and grit. This time, however, all of the original parquet floors were open and we walked on them with no barrier. Rather surprising, especially considering the number of visitors.

Our next stop was to be the palace complex at Peterhof, which is located outside of St. Petersburg. To get there fairly quickly, we were to take the hydrofoil from a pier about a block down from the Hermitage. As we exited the Egyptian collection into the main entry hall, we were greeted by a literal sea of humanity. There were hundreds if not thousands of people spilled across the expansive lobby, all attempting to funnel up through the grand staircase, to begin their own tour of the museum. It was chaos, against which we pushed to exit on the far end. We were, thankfully, going upstream. Timing was perfect and we boarded our hydrofoil a few minutes before its scheduled departure. The hydrofoil was less modern than I had expected. Fast, but not modern, and the pollution it belched could not have met any European emission standards. Despite the fumes, we welcomed the opportunity to rest our feet and even doze.

The ride to Peterhof took about 30 minutes by boat -- our return by bus took nearly an hour. Peterhof is actually a large complex of palaces, gardens, and smaller structures. The postcard building so often referred to as Peterhof is actually the Grand Palace. The complex dates back to the founding of St. Petersburg, and was started by Peter the Great in 1705. At the time, it marked the furthest point sea-going vessels could travel on the Neva River. Peterhof was expanded numerous times after that, with Peter looking to build his own Versailles. You can see a lot of that influence, in particular, in the gardens and elaborate fountains. The palace itself is not open to view and, evidently, its original contents were all destroyed in World War II.

Though the Germans never succeeded in capturing Leningrad in World War II, they did advance far enough to occupy Peterhof. Workers attempted to bury many of the fountain sculptures, but there was not sufficient time. As the Germans retreated, most of the fountains were intentionally destroyed, and the Grand Palace was left to burn. To their credit, the Soviets began rebuilding immediately after the war, but they claim that restoration work continues to this day. We didn't see any evidence of that, but our guide said it was so.

The crowds at Peterhof were considerable. Interestingly enough, they almost all seemed to be Russian. I don't recall seeing any other organized tours, let alone tour guides marching around with umbrellas or something above their heads. We were truly strangers in a strange land. Our guide later said that Russians traditionally travel abroad in August, but now that the ruble has devalued by so much, more and more of them are traveling within Russia.

We met up with our bus here at Peterhof and traveled a short distance to a small hotel in town, where we had a "traditional Russian lunch." We again welcomed the built-in break, though the meal was okay at best. It comprised the obligatory bowl of borscht, followed by a chicken dish of some sort. We also each received a shot glass of vodka. Few partook of the offered liquor.

As I noted earlier, the ride back to the city took nearly an hour. It was interesting, however, to drive through several new upscale suburbs in which we saw large Western-style single family homes, blocks of modern condominiums, and at least two huge shopping malls. Suburbia comes to Russia.

Traffic was particularly bad as we entered the city itself, and we crawled along at several points. Our destination was the Church of the Savior on Blood, also known as the Church on Spilled Blood. The incredibly ornate Russian Orthodox church was built in the late 1800's on the site where Czar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. The czar was killed in a grenade attack while riding in his carriage along the canal. The church is built directly on that location, with the attack site denoted by a portion of the original railing which ran along the canal, which runs next to the church. Here, as in Peterhof, the outside square and church itself were packed with overwhelmingly Russian tourists. All day we had been warned to be extra vigilant against pickpockets, and this was by far the most dense (and therefore most dangerous) crowd we'd encounter. We clutched our valuables while the guide got our tickets (the church is, in fact, no longer a church but a museum, so paid admission is necessary). Inside was breathtaking, but there were too many people to have a meaningful tour, so we got the basics and then explored on our own.

We were to be back at the pier no later than 5:30pm, and it was already approaching 5:00pm by this point. Our guide assured us we'd be okay and spoke of planning to allow us time to walk and shop along the famous Nevsky Prospekt street. Once back on the bus, traffic was again heavy, so she dropped the Nevsky stop and we headed back to the pier after a short stop at a second souvenir shop closer to the water. As we rounded the terminal it was 5:25pm and we glimpsed the long line stretching outside the building. It was obvious that most every other tour had also just returned. As we unloaded from the bus, more buses pulled up behind ours, so we joined the sea of people waiting to re-clear Russian immigration and get back on the ship. The metal detector stations were all deactivated and we just joined the steady shuffle of people inching back toward the immigration windows. Waiting to process there and then rejoining lines on the other side to physically board the ship took at least 30 minutes. Our scheduled departure time was obviously in jeopardy as we could clearly see that the line to clear immigration still stretched outside the building while we were on board.

The cruise line was smart and realized that people would be off the ship all day, and in no mood to dress for dinner, so the recommended attire this evening was thankfully casual. We dropped our bags in the cabin and headed straight down to the dining room. We pulled away from the pier while we ate. We brought a couple of glasses of wine back to the cabin and set ourselves up on the balcony to enjoy the slow cruise out of St. Petersburg. It was particularly interesting to see the St. Petersburg dam on the Neva River, which was only completed in 2011, having been worked since the early 1990's. It separates the Neva River and Gulf of Finland and is supposed to protect the city from storm surges. We went through several docks, all of which were open as the seas were calm. We also went by several obviously military installations, some in better condition than others.

I believe we skipped the show on this evening, but I honestly have already forgotten, as it was surely inconsequential compared to all that we'd seen during the all-too-short day in St. Petersburg. I do recall, however, that we all were happy that the coming day would be a day of rest at sea, as we'd been on the ground and on the go for three straight days.

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Photos

K and A in front of St. Isaac's Cathedral
Largest Russian Orthodox cathedral in the world, and fourth largest cathedral overall

Coming Up in the Metro
Deepest metro station in St. Petersburg

K outside the St. Nicholas Cathedral
The only cathedral in St. Petersburg to continually operate through the Soviet era.