I was in St. Petersburg once before during a college student trip in 1972 although it was called Leningrad then and I don't remember what we saw or did. This time we had 3 full days of tours here and it is exhausting. Th first day started touring at 8:30 am but it takes a while to go through Immigration, so we left the ship around 7:30 am. Again our group is only 10 which is good. First stop was the Saints Peter and Paul Fortress and Cathedral. This is the oldest church and very ornate, or so I thought. It's also where many of the Royal family are buried including the last Czar Nicholas II. We took a ride on the Metro for one stop. The station was beautiful and very far underground, necessary to get under the rivers. Our station was completed In 1955 and had beautiful art work all over. We had a nice lunch at a restaurant near the World Cup 2018 Fanfest site. These are the last days of the games and Saturday was the last game in St. Petersburg.
The afternoon was devoted to the Winter Palace, aka The Hermitage Museum. It is so hard to fathom that these palaces were built by the Royals and nobles and that so few people lived in them. I know they are similar to all the other palaces in the world, but you don't often get to see inside them if they are still owned by royals. Since all of these were nationalized after the revolution in 1917, they are now available for tours as most of them are museums of one kind or another. The Hermitage has 11 buildings in all and we went through 5 of them. We also went to a separate part of the museum in another building which houses the Impressionist paintings. An amazing collection, supposedly most of which were bought from bankrupt German collectors. I think there were some stolen Jewish owned things in there also, but that wasn't discussed.
The second day started earlier but Immigraton takes seconds once you've gone through the initial screening. You can't just get off the ship and go about on your own. You need a visa issued by a licensed tour company or a ship's tour. First thing was a river cruise to see the amazing buildings from the water side. The weather has been very warm, in the 80's and sunny so it was nice to do this early. I didn't realize how much water is here; 3 rivers make most of the city into islands. All but one of the many bridges are draw bridges and they all go up at 1:25 am for 2 hours every night to let boat traffic through. Next was the Faberge Museum, which is actually a private collection located in the Shuvalov Palace and has nine of the Imperial eggs which were bought from the Malcolm Forbes estate. Next was the Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood, a rather descriptive name since it was built on the site of the murder of Alexander II. This was more ornate than the first one yesterday. Finally we went to St. Isaacs Cathedral. This church was really over the top in ornateness, if that is possible here. Just when you think it can't get any more glitzy, you see that, yes, it can. I kept looking at this stuff thinking how could one family need all of this. And, of course, they don't, but they needed to show their wealth, just like the millionaires at home during the Golden Age (and today also I suppose). On the way back to the ship we requested a stop at a typical supermarket which was fun. It was very nice with beautifully displayed produce and meats. We were quite amused by the yard high tube of Pringles - something special for the World Cup apparently.
The last day was a little less strenuous. We met at 9:00 am and headed to Peterhof, 26 km away by way of the new toll road which is quite nice. Peterhof is hundreds of acres of gardens. It was commissioned by Peter I who had quite an engineering mind. He devised a way to water the gardens and run all of his fountains by using gravity. Of course there is a huge palace which we didn't go into and a smaller palace where Catherine spent time, exiled basically by her aunt. We had a nice lunch in an air conditioned restaurant which included a shot of vodka and pickled herring. The afternoon was spent at Catherine's summer palace. The size and opulence are again overwhelming. This is the home of the famous amber room which consists of wood panels covered in amber which is around 2 million years old. The palace was very nearly destroyed during the 3 years of Nazi occupation, but has been fully restored based on pictures and records.
We saw lots of German and Japanese cars - even a Hummer limo. There is a Russian car, Lada, but it's not very popular. The income tax is a flat rate of 13% and there is a VAT (sales tax) of 18%, increasing to 20% soon. The tax rates in Sweden and Denmark were around 47% but they get complete education through university and full health care, of course. Swedes get 13 months paid maternity leave.
Our tablemates relayed their tale of returning to the ship. Ray went through his immigration line with no problem. (You need to go through both coming and going.) He waited on the other side only to see Maureen being led away somewhere. No one would tell him what was happening and he spent a few anxious minutes figuring how he was going to tell the family that Mum was in a Russian gulag. Turns out she was in the wrong line and they escorted her go to the correct one. No signs indicated there were specific lines.
I had a different picture in my head of St. Petersburg than what we found. I thought it would be darker and smaller. Our guide said it is sometimes said that St. Petersburg is the most European Russian city and the most Russian European city. Seems to sum it up. I thoroughly enjoyed it and have a new understanding and appreciation of Russia and it's place in history.
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