St. Petersburg, Russia on a Beautiful Sunny Day

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Geo: 59.939, 30.3158

Up this morning at 5:30am. It's going to be a nice day, sunny and in the low 70s. Mom is not excited about going into Russia. Actually, she's been dreading it for months. We will be with a guide the entire time as required by Russian immigration and our our guide team is rated #1 on Trip Advisor. So Mom prepares to go, under protest, into St Petersburg.

St Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia. It was established by Peter the Great in 1703. The Communists changed the name to Leningrad in 1924 and then back to St. Petersburg in 1991. It's an all weather port sitting on the Baltic Sea.

We finish a quick breakfast and exit the ship a little after 7am. With our passports and tour docs in hand, we go through customs. The Russian agent says nothing via voice or facial expressions. He looks at me, my passport picture, back at me again, verifies that I'm with a legitimate travel agency, stamps my book and waves me through. No good morning, how are you or have a nice day comments are coming from this guy. I wait while Karen follows me with the same results. Just outside the terminal, our tour company is waiting for us, identified by a handheld sign saying "SPB Tours". They direct us to a group of small mini buses where we conjugate with fellow cruisers until all others in our group arrive. Within 10 minutes, all are present and we load up into separate buses, each holding up 18 people.

We leave the terminal for a cursory tour of the city. We pass apartment houses that appear run down and decaying while others look new. Heavy traffic makes it hard for our driver, Vladimir, to negotiate through the city. Our guide, Olga, gives us a history lesson on St Petersburg as we drive alongside canals and sit in traffic. She says most people start work at 9am so the commute is at its peak now. Would we like to see the commute? I thought we were seeing it from our minibus but she offers to take us on the Russian metro, an underground subway.

Vladimir pulls to the side of the street and Olga says, "Grab your camera and leave everything else on the bus. Watch for pickpockets. Stay in a tight group!" Off we go. She gives each of us a small coin for entry, maybe 10 or 20 Russian rubles, which we insert in the turnstile and enter. While few people are going in our direction, there are hundreds coming towards us from the trains. We board an escalator, the longest one I've ever seen and head down to train level, 300 feet below the street, making it the deepest subway in the world. Mom's not excited about this but hangs in. We transfer to another escalator, drop another level and arrive at the trains. I shoot video of the trains which appear much older than the system itself. One person in our group starts to get on a train and Olga rescues him just before the door closes. Whoa! Who knows where he would have ended up? She talks about the metro transportation system, carrying two million passengers a day, while we ascend the same escalators back to street level. That was fun.

Next stop was the Hermitage Museum. A little early for our entrance time, Olga fits in a quick washroom and shopping stop at a Russian shop. By the time Karen finished in line for the WC, her shopping time was up. That saved money! Arriving at the Hermitage, we had an early entrance position allowing us to avoid the crowds for the first half hour. Apparently, about a thousand other people have the same "early entrance permit" and there's a long line. Standing in line, it goes quickly, about ten minutes. Olga got our tickets and we walked through room after room full of artifacts, artwork and beautiful decorated interiors. There's so much that I lose track of where I am. These people knew how to spend money. Upon exiting, I can see the line at the main entrance. It's huge! Olga says 2 hour wait. OK, I guess that permit does work.

Since the city is barely 300 years old, there are few cobblestone streets or any medieval city center but there are many buildings from the 16th and 17th century. They are beautiful and very ornate both inside and out. Olga tells us that Peter I wanted to build a city modeled after great European cities such as Paris, Vienna and Amsterdam. With an open palette, he dug canals like Amsterdam and beautiful buildings of the classic European style found in the likes of Vienna. His version of the Champs-Elysees in Paris is called the Nevsky Prospekt and situated on the left bank of the Neva River, is the main avenue in the city.

We visited The Church of Our Savior of the Spilled Blood. This marvelous Russian-style church was built on the spot where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in March 1881 by a group of revolutionaries, who threw a bomb at his royal carriage. The decision was taken to build a church on the spot where the Emperor was mortally wounded. The church was built between 1883 and 1907 and was officially called "The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood". It's interior walls are covered with tiny glass tiles from Italy. Millions of them. During the Revolution of 1917, the communists were going to tear it down since worship was prohibited. It was turned into a storage building and escaped destruction.

We were all hungry and so our next stop was at a downtown Russian eatery. Now I can't remember the names of the things we were served but it always started with a shot of vodka, pronounced "wodka" here. Next was a seasoned ground meat pastry with vegetables and, for desert, something like cherry/cranberry cobbler. All very good and, Olga says, common in Russia. The meal was included in our tour but we left a $3 tip, big money here.

Next on the itinerary was St Issac's Cathedral, Yusupov Palace and Peter and Paul's fortress and cathedral. St. Issac's is a huge church in town, complete with bullet holes from the Revolution. The Yusupov Palace is one of the most beautiful private palaces in St. Petersburg. It belonged to the family of the Princes Yusupovs – a famous Russian noble family. This family was remarkable not only because of its title and wealth (in the 19th century they were the richest family in Russia), but also because of the role the family played in Russian history. Loaded with all kinds of museum pieces, it's the location where Prince Yusupov shot and killed Rasputin in 1916.

Arriving at Peter & Paul's fortress, young Russian soldiers were all assembled in some sort of military parade which I would rather see than another church but this is also the burial place of many Russian Emperors and so we enter. It's also beautiful. It's the first structure built in St Petersburg back in 1703. We stop at another shop for a break before returning to the ship and this time Mom takes advantage of the opportunity. She finds Father Frost who she has been looking for for some time. A figurine of a man strikingly similar to our Santa Claus. The story is that since all religion was banned in Russia during the Revolution, religious holidays were forbidden. The people moved Christmas to January 1st and, keeping intact all the symbols such as Christmas trees, Santa, gifts, songs and family dinners, Father Frost was born. No religious reference was made and public worship was given up.

We arrive back at the ship but it's 6pm before we get through immigration and board. No fancy dinner for us tonight. Most everyone is exhausted from the day that began for us at 5:30am. There was an optional night out in Russia for $60 that sounded really good when I was planning the trip but I hesitated to book it, thinking Karen might not make it through the day. I was also unable to purchase advance tickets to the Marinsky Theater, home to the Russian Ballet before we left home as a ballet graduation ceremony was scheduled for the only night we would be there. It turns out I'm glad we had no plans. Everyone in our group is done for the day. We grab something quick in the Lido buffet and return to our room. After cleaning up, it's bedtime and Mom is out. I struggle to write this blog but finally concede that I will finish tomorrow. Yes, another busy day tomorrow with our Russian friends, Olga and Vladimir.

Weather: Partly cloudy, 64°F

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Comments

[Scarlett Thomas]

How exciting being in Russia .. However I agree with mom . No on the Metro system way to deep under the ground - I would have freaked out on that .

[Alan & Min]

I just selected those same chandeliers for the house.