Hello all,
Monday we toured St. Petersburg. Another early start for us. We had arrived
back to ship at 1:30 AM from Moscow, went straight to sleep and then up again
at 5:30 AM for a 7:00 AM tour of St. Petersburg.
We started our tour with a visit to the Pushkin (the
summer palace of Catherine the Great). Of special interest in this palace is
the Amber Room, which was once considered to be the 8th wonder of the world.
Beautiful room, "tiled" floor to ceiling in amber. We weren't allowed
to take photos but I tried to sneak one and got told-off in Russian by one of
the museum docents.
Our guide Victoria was very nice, but much slower than
Lubmilla our guide from the day before, painfully slower. Oh, by the way, did I
mention that Lubmilla was 70 years old!
Yep, the one we had to run to catch-up with. I hope I have her energy
when I'm her age. She reminded me of my grandmother, no nonsense - she just got
the job done.
Anyway, back to Victoria. She walked slow and talked slow
and her loudest voice was a whisper at best, but we managed. We stopped for
lunch and had a nice three course meal complete with caviar and a vodka shot,
but we needed to keep things moving as several other groups were right behind
us and I could see Victoria was slacking a bit so I went over to her and
"suggested" she make an announcement to our group that they should
try to use restrooms between courses (to avoid long lines) and be prepared to
board the bus at a specific time. She
made the announcement. My plan worked!
We didn't have any long bathroom lines and we exited the restaurant
ahead of schedule, which went more time for shopping and ahead of the other
groups. BUT, unfortunately the bus
driver took the scenic route (aka - got lost) and we still only had 45 minutes
for shopping. UGH! I tried.
Our next stop was Peter and Paul's Fortress, the first
structure built in the city. Peter and Paul's Cathedral is the burial place of
the Russian Czars.
By this time we ran out of time (thanks to our bus driver
getting lost) so we only had a few minutes at the Church of Spilled Blood (this
is the famous landmark church with the colorful domes). Our guide explained the
domes to us - the large center dome represent Jesus and the smaller domes
surrounding represent the Apostles.
A few thoughts on the country - Russia is not a welcoming
country. From the visa process to the availability of currency, their message
is clear that they do not want foreigners in their country. The visa process is
lengthy and expensive ($400 for a visa), two lengthy application forms (I
probably signed off on giving them my first born) and 3 week processing time! The currency is restricted, which means that
you can't buy it outside of Russia and good luck trying to find a merchant or
bank in-country that will exchange US $ for Rubles. Not to mention that their
language is very difficult to read and understand (have a look at their
alphabet) and very few people speak English.
Let's just say hospitality is not their strong suit and leave it at
that.
I'm glad we decided to see Russia as part of the cruise
and not make a specific 10 day trip to Russia alone. It is not an easy country
to site without an escort and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone any other way
(otherwise, safety is a concern). We saw the best of it, learned what we wanted
to about their history and drank smooth vodka. Check the list and pin in the
map!
We got back to the ship and had a nice dinner and
champagne to celebrate my birthday (thank you all for your birthday wishes. I'm
looking forward to more celebrations when I get home). Then we went to the
casino to play Roulette and I won $50 when my luck 26 hit.
Sorry this one was so long, more tomorrow from
Estonia.....
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