St Petersburg

Thursday-Sunday with Viking River Cruises

We are here in St Petersburg for 5 days total.  2 ½ with the ship and 2 ½ on our own.  I will catch up on the blog but for ease of reading and writing, will break it up by days.  Also I may come back to it to insert more info as I regain access to some paperwork I have been using…  Hope you enjoy

September 1

Hermitage

We had a scheduled tour of the Hermitage that left at 1015, so we were able to sleep in a bit.  When I woke up I just put a t-shirt on to go to breakfast.  But when we left for the Hermitage I decided the weather was crummy so put on a long sleeved top and my fleece vest – this was the wrong decision because The Hermitage is NOT air conditioned and there were tons of people inside – it was extremely HOT!  On average, The Hermitage has over 70,000 visitors per day!!  According to our guide it was not so busy that day – only a 3 out 10 for crowds – I would hate to have been there any other day…ugh!  Shoulder to shoulder with hot, sweaty people (and that was just our bus – j/k lol!)  - there was a line-up to see Da Vinci’s painting, Madonna and Child.  It is gorgeous and all the more awesome realizing how historical it is.

The Hermitage itself is opulent – chair rails, door and windows covered in gold inlay; paintings of famous artists on the walls; and beautiful rooms painted soft hues of greens, blues, pinks and yellows.  The furniture is similar to the era, but not direct replicas.  During a fire, all of the art had to be rescued some even thrown out the windows to avoid being destroyed.  The Hermitage was then rebuilt and is home to this amazing museum. 

There is a cute story of it being overrun by mice, so the city of Yaroslavl sent all their cats to the Hermitage who redeemed the place from the rats and became heroes.  Today there are still descendents of the original cats in the Hermitage – however not in the museum proper, as they became lofty & arrogant and were often found sleeping on the thrones and furniture of this palace…lol!  Many paintings have a cat in them and every year for one day, the children of St Petersburg are invited on a “cat hunt” – sort of like Where’s Waldo, but with paintings…lol!

In spite of the crowds and my claustrophobia kicking in, I enjoyed visiting The Hermitage – being cocooned in the art, the history and the atmosphere was awe-inspiring…

                

Catherine’s Palace

We considered skipping this tour, because it left at 745am!  UGH!  But it is outside the city by ½ an hour, so not so easy to get to on your own, so I rolled out of bed at 730am to arrive at bus 1b on time.  We encountered 2 different mini-marching bands as we walked to the entrance.  It was fun and I was almost awake by the time we arrived…lol  Catherine’s Palace is gorgeous!  Again gold inlay everywhere, beautifully designed parkay floors (we even had to wear paper booties over our shoes), chandeliers in every room and elaborately painting ceilings drew the eye upwards.  The rooms once again were brightly painted so as to provide a cheery atmosphere.  

It is said that St Petersburg only has about 70 days of sunshine per year (and we managed to get 3 of them) so Catherine built this palace to remind her of blue skies and sunny days.  That is why the whole castle is painted blue on the outside.

We also toured the gardens of the palace.  There are 3 large bodies of water, a boathouse, a banya (Russian sauna, for those of you that don’t remember) a cathedral, a guest house and acres of flowers and landscaping.  It was a lovely day and perfect for a walk in the gardens.

We were tired by the time we arrived back to the ship in time for lunch. 

Originally I had signed us up for the afternoon walking tour of St Petersburg, but  we decided the bus tour would be adequate, especially since we had 2 extra days here…  So we had 2 hours rest and off to the city tour.

City Tour

Most times I have not been too worried about where we sit on the bus, but because this was a bus tour, I boarded the coach ½  an hour early in order to get good seats.  I like the one halfway back, that is by the back door.  The viewing is better and I don’t feel so claustrophobic with no one in front of me.  The bus was not full so B sat on across from me, that way we had both sides covered for viewing…  St Petersburg is also a large city but traffic is not near the same problem as Moscow.  It only took us about 20 minutes to travel from our ship to city center.  We saw several cathedrals, famous statues and the University.  The Church of the Spilt Blood is my favorite and is amazingly gorgeous.

We stopped at another great viewpoint where you could see The Fortress, The Hermitage and the Neva river.  It is a beautiful sight.  Unfortunately, a British lady tripped on a cobblestone and cracked her head when she fell.  Fortunately there is an American clinic not far from where we were and she and her friend went there…  We were all concerned for her, and found out later that she needed a few stitches but otherwise was fine. 

While we were waiting, a fellow passenger borrowed $10 from B – of course this was a marked bill for his Where’s George hobby –  Brad wanted to buy a hat.  He asked me to help make sure it was a good size and that $10 was fine.  I knew it was a marked ten, so made sure Brad gave it to him folded up – lots of foreign sellers don’t like “defaced” currency.  So I hustled him onto the bus as soon as he got his hat.   About 5 minutes later he looks at the money and comes towards the bus.  We tell Brad to duck, but I forgot my blue hair sticks out…lol  Anyways, he does not board the bus, but comes to the door & asks if anybody would change the bill.  We all ignored him…Seems only B has money and ALL of his is marked…  lol  The seller finally leaves grumbling and Brad is still wondering what happened…  Ah!  Adventuring with Where’s George….

We eventually departed for the Fortress or walled area of St P where we again exited the bus for a walk-around tour – sure was a lot of walking for a bus tour…lol!  So the guide offers a convenience stop as we enter the Fortress and points to 2 blue buses that have been converted to toilets…  I decided I wasn’t that desperate…  As we were waiting there was a flag ceremony with Russian military.  Some of us took photos, but the guide did not explain or did not seem happy about foreigners taking pictures of their troops. 

We went into the Church of Peter and Paul (B wondered what happen to Mary? Lol) which was quite beautiful.  Green interiors with marble tombs as this is where Peter the Great and his descendants were buried.  There are about  12 sarcophagi and the guide proceeded to explain in detail about each person buried there…  OMG!  I think B & I have had enough tours to last a lifetime!   Once we exited the church the guide pointed out the mint, and B’s ears perked up.  It seems that is where all Russian subway tokens are made as well as some coins minted.  Would have been more interesting to tour that than one more 50 minute tour of another church…lol!

Just as we were  leaving the Fortress a helicopter also departed the grounds – it seems you can take a 10 minute air tour of St P for about $100-several of our folks thought about doing it the next day…

About a half hour back to the ship and it would soon be dinner time.  I am afraid that B & I never participated in the ship’s night life as we were pretty exhausted each evening.  Luckily, the next day we had our last tour scheduled but it was not until 145pm.  Yay!  We could sleep in and I could finish up packing…

Faberge Museum & Canals of St Petersburg 

Well I managed to get all packed in the morning and B & I went to lunch.  After our meal we got on separate buses as B had no interest in Faberge eggs…lol  It was another beautiful sunny day – about 68* and windy on the canals.  B said he enjoyed seeing St P from the boat and took lots of photos…

I went with a small group of about 20 to the Faberge Museum as I have always enjoyed the story of Czar Nicholas and the eggs.  Most of the group were women, but about 4 guys were there.  We once again got paper booties for our shoes and then the guide split us up into 2 groups.  They spaced each group about 10 minutes apart and the museum had a/c.  So already it was 100% better than The Hermitage…lol  The museum has about 6 display rooms but only 1 with Faberge eggs.  There are gorgeous – diamond and gemstone encrusted, with solid gold ornamentation.  Each egg is enclosed in its own glass case & I had to wait till the folks moved on to the next in order to take pictures without people in them.  Some of the other rooms had additional art pieces by Faberge like cigar boxes, lighters, & figurines.  Two rooms were art and one painting was by Renior… 

My favorite egg - The Laurel Tree  

  It was an interesting trip and except for having to stand for 2 hours, I enjoyed it.  Most of the other museums had benches, but this one had security that asked you to not even lean against the walls…

When we got back to the ship, I went to the souvenir shop and bought myself a tiny Faberge egg replica…  I will use it for a zipper pull and let it remind me of our trip to St P…

On Sunday we disembarked the Viking Ingvar with our 6 pieces of luggage – lol! – and were met on the dock by Andrey the owner of the Pride Mini-Hotel.  I researched hotels on Trip Advisor as I wanted to stay at a traditional Russian place not an American chain hotel.  This place is 2 blocks off of Nevsky Prospect (the main shopping area) and just down from the Church of the Spilt Blood.  Great location and terrific price – about $150 for 2 nights, breakfast and transfers from and to ships.  Andy even took me to the laundromat so I could wash clothes.  Other than that we have been very lazy, mostly resting in our hotel as we enjoyed the river cruise, but it was not relaxing…  We had supper at a diner just down from the hotel and ate Russian cheese bread (sort of quesadillas in pastry dough) mashed potatoes and lamb kebabs…it was all yummy…  Tonight we meet our friends, Michelle & Charles, that we met on the Viking, for dinner…  Tomorrow, Tuesday 6 September, we board the Princess Regal to slowly journey back to America…  We are looking forward to a Jacuzzi, more good food and trivia!  Lol!  Sorry this is so long but had 5 days to catch up on – we may have limited internet access while cruising, so the blog will be posted as often as I can….  Do svidaniya my friends 

Brian, Brad, Charles, Michelle and Me  

our waiters Armando and Jay Ar