Our days have been very full and I’m behind on my blogging. I can't believe it's been a week and we've been to so many cities - St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm and Berlin. Here are a couple of entries in an attempt to catch up.
Russia! It was pretty amazing to step foot on Russian soil. After so many years of the Soviet Union and the Cold War, to think that we are vacationing in Russia is … well, amazing! Since this was a 2-day stop we decided to take a private tour rather than the one offered by the ship. Boy, are we glad we did. As we disembarked and went through passport control, I could feel my parent’s uneasiness. Dad and I breezed through then it was Mom’s turn. As she approached the window she couldn’t find her tour ticker which also acts as the visa. Panic set in. Fortunately as her documents were scrutinized (she looks so much like a shady character) she continued looking for the document and found it. She made it through and we all breathed a sigh of relief. We met Irena (our guide) and Slava (our driver) at the dock and were soon settled in our touring van and off to the city. Our first view was of high rise apartments from the 1950s. There were a lot of them and more being built. Every building we saw, Irena told us when it was built, who the ruler was at that time, what the building was originally used for, and all about the surrounding buildings. The woman had an amazing mind for details, not to mention an enormous amount of national pride. Once she started talking though it was almost impossible to ask a question, not to mention take in what she told us - there were so many details and she constantly spoke so fast. She could breathing in while she talked without missing a beat. Every other phrase was “Have a look on the left/right…” Our heads felt like they were on swivels!
St. Petersburg has 5 rivers, countless bridges and lots and lots and lots and lots of monuments. Did I say they have lots of monuments? Everywhere you look there is a monument to celebrate a victory over someone or some country, or a monument to honor a ruler, musician, artist, poet or other noteworthy person. We visited most of the “must see sights” in St. Petersburg and since we were on a private tour we were able to get in out and round much quicker than the large groups from the ship. When we visited Peterhof, the summer palace of one of the Czar's names Peter (I'm sitting in the internet cafe on the ship writing this while Mom and Dad sleep. Unfortunately my notes are in the cabin with them. Suffice it to say, "Peter"), we were unable to go inside, but our tour of the grounds was fabulous. There were fountains everywhere - the gilded ones that are main focal point, but also trick ones that periodically spray the poor unawares (or the kids that played waiting for them to spray). We visited St. Isaac’s Cathedral (a Russian Orthodox church that can hold 14,000 worshippers at a time!), Church of the Spilled Blood (a church made of mosaics on the sight where Alexander the IV was killed), Catherine’s Palace, Peter and Paul’s Fortress, attended a Russian folk show, rode the subway (the stations are works of art!) and of course, the Hermitage Museum, the former Winter Palace. The art work is stunning and priceless - there were originals by Titian, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Michelangelo to name a few of the big guys we saw. The building itself is amazing. Each rooms is a work of art itself - the walls, ceilings, and floors are all breathtaking. We were at the museum at the end of the day and we running out of energy so when she said our time there was over we were so ready for the van. We know we could have spent days at the Hermitage alone enjoying the magnificent works of art, even then we wouldn’t have seen it all. The museum itself holds about 25% of the collection at any one time - the rest is in storage. Our two days in St. Petersburg came quickly to an end. I do know that I would come here again to visit. I’m not so sure it would be in the wintertime like Irena suggested though! Enjoy these photos. There are a lot here since we were in St. Petersburg for two days.
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