St. Petersburg Russia

What’s worse than a sore knee? Two sore knees. Today we experienced Russia first hand. We docked in St. Petersburg, a 300 year old city, at 8:00 am and promptly arrived in the ship’s theater to await our turn to go ashore and go through Russian customs. Michael and I had the same excursion and after a delay of 45 minutes, we finally made it to our respective buses for our tour of St. Petersburg. The skies threatened rain, but we actually got some sunshine and in the afternoon a lot of wind. The tour was 9 hours long and made 8 stops, including lunch. In and out of the bus all day viewing the sights, counting the ducklings, keeping track of the strays….. it was an exhausting day.

Everything about St. Petersburg is BIG. The buildings were four to five stories high, but covered an entire city block. One after another. There were palaces and mansions everywhere. They were adorned in every pastel co lor you can imagine with ornate cornices, gargoyles, curly Qs, doodads, and tons of gold leaf. There were bronze monuments in every park, on top of buildings, in traffic circles. Speaking of traffic – it is unreal. We spent a lot of time driving or waiting in traffic. The streets (except for the main thoroughfares) are narrow and people park anywhere and double parking is common, so streets are easily blocked making it difficult for the buses to get through. There are also several rivers running through the city, the largest is Neva. Peter the Great loved the idea of canals like in Venice, so people got around using boats. It wasn’t until 1903 that the first bridges were built across the rivers. I also noted that there were many women with badly dyed blonde hair.
Other miscellaneous notes: at this time of year, there is 19 hours of daylight and it never gets dark. They call this “white nights.” Those nesting dolls that are very popular in Russia are called “matroshka” dolls, and originally symbolized fertility. The large doll represents the mother and the smaller, nested dolls represent her children.

We drove for about an hour to Catherine’s Palace, a lavish summer residence of the imperial family until the time of the last tsar. This is a breathtaking palace full of gilded carvings, mirrors, vast ceiling paintings, and LOTS OF GOLD LEAF everywhere. There were so many rooms; each was used for a specific task. We experienced a mass of humanity as we waited in line to go through the palace. OK, maybe not that many people, but it sure was crowded with bus loads of tourists arriving all at the same time. The highlight of the tour was the Amber Room. The walls were covered in white, yellow and red amber forming intricate and ornate patterns and picture frames. Even the furniture had amber in it. It was a sight to behold and is not easily described.

We then had a typical Russian lunch at a local restaurant. They were set up for 4 bus loads of people and Michael and I even got to sit together. They didn’t serve borscht. They served a salad; creamed vegetable soup; potato pancakes; rice with chicken, peas, and carrots with a sauce over it; desert; champagne and, of course, a shot of vodka.

Then it was off to Peter and Paul Cathedral, where all the tsars and members of the royal family are buried. My bus load of people was treated to a private recital from 4 priests singing there. We also saw two magnificent cathedrals that were a wondrous sight to behold – Church on Spilled Blood and St. Isaac’s Cathedral. We also saw the Battleship Aurora that fired the first shot in the Russian Revolution of 1917. We saw so many churches, cathedrals, domes, fancy palaces and buildings that I don’t care if I see another church for a long time.

Tomorrow we do the Hermitage and after that 3 hour tour, I go on an additional 3 hour tour of Jewish heritage of St. Petersburg. I’m going to need a vacation when I get home!