Russia

Saturday night we left Finland on our way to three days in St. Petersburg.  We have scheduled a three-day private tour in St. Petersburg and after a very long and serious immigration process we met our guide, Sophia, and our driver Sergei, a serious and very knowledgeable couple of Russians!

So up front I will tell you that the Russians apparently have no sense of humor.  Grunting and heavy brows take the place of smiles and lightheartedness, not unlike the Germans really, but Gordon, Jillian and I worked on our team for three days and at the end, I think they were sad to see us go.  Sophia actually hugged me and we had several guffaws during our three days with them.  Quite the accomplishment!

Day one began at 9:00am at the cruise terminal and consisted of a tour about the old City of St. Petersburg ending with a canal tour.  We visited three cathedrals, had lunch of meat and veggie pies in a local restaurant, and visited the Russian Art Museum and the Peter and Paul Fortress.  The City is full of canals and was built on marshland.  The rivers are lined with granite and the palaces and buildings are painted pastel shades of pinks, blues, yellows and greens.  While the city only enjoys approximately 35 days of sunshine per year we managed a beautiful, sunny and warm day.  We were back at the ship at 5:00pm and dined in our room.  By the way, now Gordon has Jill’s cold!

Beautiful palaces on the Neva River.

Statue of Peter the Great that Catherine the Great had erected.  The huge granite base was brought from Finland.

The Neva River.

"Eat Fresh" Russian style!

Cathedral of the Spilled Blood....our next stop.

Entrance to Spilled Blood

Interesting pay toilet with a gal sitting in the middle collecting money.  Horrible job!

The dome of the Spilled Blood

At Peter and Paul Fortress and the cathedral where the Czars are buried.

Look closely at people standing up tanning against the Fortress Wall!

Nicholas and Alexandra and their children's final resting place.

St. Isaac's Cathedral Dome

Yes they do get sun in Russia!

Russian Museum

Canal tour under the arch between the large and small Hermitage.

On the right is the Winter Palace and Hermitage.

Day 2 we were picked up at 8:00am and driven to the countryside to visit spectacular Peterhof built by Peter the Great!  It was FABULOUS and beyond anything I expected.  On the way there we passed through St. Petersburg again and followed the road of the Czars to their summer palaces.  Along the way, other wealthy families built smaller but still beautiful palaces and there are new areas of homes sprouting up which Sophia called castles.  These castles were homes not unlike the size and design of what we live in, in the States.  Curious that the less wealthy Russians consider these homes “castles”.  Just a different use of the word I suppose.

Anyway, once past these smaller palaces and castles we arrived at spectacular Peterhof for an early entry and personal tour of this unbelievably massive structure.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures indoors but suffice to say gold gilt was the style!  Doorways, moldings, statues, chandeliers, cornices, you name it and it was covered with gold leaf.  Absolutely stunning room after room after room, each more exquisite than the next.  And after all the fabulousness of the interior, we departed to view the rear gardens that rival Versailles!  60+ gold fountains all run on gravity flowing to the Gulf of Finland in the distance.  There are acres and acres of beautiful forestry and gardens and statuary and all kinds of additional fountains including “tricky” fountains!  It’s seems Peter the Great had a wicked sense of humor and had designed fountains that squirted his guests at his whim!  He employed people to hide in bushes and operate the “tricky” fountains for his pleasures soaking his guests while he hid in his smaller garden palaces and enjoyed the show!

After a quick bite to eat with Sophia, we met up with Sergei again and drove to Tzarko Selo, or Catherine’s Palace, about 45 minutes away.  It was originally built for Peter the Greats wife, Catherine I, but ended up being Catherine the Greats palace and she made many changes to it editing the baroque style to a more European style.  The palace, while grand, didn’t impress me as much Peterhof but it was still fantastic.  The grand ballroom could easily house three houses the size of Gordon’s and mine in Pleasanton!

Anyway, by now, Gordon and Jillie are both fading and it’s getting late so we left without seeing the gardens, not as spectacular as Peterhof anyway, and went back to the ship, dined in the onboard Asian restaurant and prepared for day three.

The church just outside of Peterhof

Peterhof's own cathedral

Front formal gardens

Rear AMAZING GARDENS.  That's the Gulf of Finland in the background.

The back of Peterhof

Yes we were there!

The large forested gardens.

A swan boat would bring visitors up from the Gulf of Finland

Imagine arriving to this view!

Tricky Fountains!

The blonde woman got caught by the trick!

Another tricky fountain.

Headed to Catherine's Palace

The entry gate

Catherine's Palace

Lots of gilt

And beautiful painted ceilings.

The grand ballroom

Dining rooms...

and dining rooms

Silk walls

Formal gardens

The rear of Catherine's Palace

Jillian needed a day off on day 3 so, although dragging, Gordon got up and joined me for a morning at the Hermitage, the Winter Palace and now incredible museum housing some important and varied works-of-art by many, many famous artists and sculptors.    

Inside the Hermitage.  It's just too HUGE TO PHOTOGRAPH!

A room full of crystal chandeliers

And parquet floors that reflect the ceilings

Another grand ballroom

Gordon and I walked into this room and recognized the Vatican ceiling.  Catherine sent painters to the Vatican to duplicate this room in the Winter Palace

More parquet floors

Michaelanglo

A room of statues

Bacchus!  Soon to be the entire Oceania Corsie family!

The line waiting to get into the Hermitage.  Fortunately we had early entry.

"Bloody Sunday" square behind the Winter Palace.

Ah, back on board and enjoying a cup of tea and a cookie in the library.

We were scheduled to go to Yusopov Palace afterwards but Gordon’s cold was catching up with him and he needed to go back to the ship.  Once we said our final goodbyes to Sophia and Sergei we decided to hit up the tiny dive bar across the street of the passport control to take-in some free wifi and check in with Natalie and Alison.  We couldn’t go through passport control and come back through because we could only do that if we had our tour guide with us.  Unless you have applied for a visa on your own, which isn’t likely you’d get without jumping through hoops, you may not travel unaccompanied within Russia.  So we bought a beer and received the password for the free wifi and checked our email/FB and Facetimed our girls even though it was 2:30 am in California and 5:30 am in NY!  BTW, Natty answered in CA but Alison didn’t!  Can’t blame her.