Been There Done That Too…

St. Petersburg – Day 1

// September 2nd, 1998 // Russia, Scandinavian Capitals '98

St. Petersburg, Russia – We were afforded two wonderful days in St. Petersburg. Russia is a little different than other ports, in most places you either need to secure a Visa, the ship is able to secure one for everyone, or you don’t need one. Russia puts a special twist on this: As long as we are on an excursion that is offered by the ship we don’t need a Visa, if we choose to go ashore independently we need a Visa. This is one place that we didn’t feel comfortable doing our own thing, because I don’t know the Cyrillic alphabet, which makes reading Russian a little difficult… we also weren’t really keen on visiting the sites with 400 of our closest friends. The ship offered a nice alternative:

We could hire a private guide through the shore excurision office. It was on of the best decision we’ve ever made! The way the private guide worked is a flat rate based on the vehicle you need for the number in your party, and whether you wanted a full day or half day. It included the vehicle, driver, guide and admissions. We booked 2 half days with our guide. It was a bargain – we saw more, and received preferrential treatment at the places we visited. It seems in Russia, tourist with private tour guides get to cut through the lines at all the sites because they’re paying more than the individuals in the tour groups. So we didn’t have to wait in lines (some a half hour or longer)! The biggest thing was – we got to see what we wanted to, and not a bunch of stuff we didn’t. If we had done the “group tours” we wouldn’t have been able to see everything – and it would have cost us more! Our guide met us at the ship and we proceeded to the Winter Palace and the Hermitage Museum. It was a cloudy, drizzly day and St. Petersburg looked rather dingy. Our guide explained to us that the idea behind St. Petersburg was for it to be the Venice of Russia,

with beautiful stuccoed painted buildings – there was just one problem with that… the weather. It seems that there is so much damp and cold here that the finish on the buildings becomes dingy almost immediately. Well, it was a beautiful idea, and unfortunately now they’re stuck with it.

The lackluster exteriors of St. Petersburg’s buildings gives way to incredible delights on the inside. I haven’t since this much gold guilding since Rome! The first stop on our little expedition was the Winter Palace, also known as the Hermitage Museum. The world famous Hermitage museum is one of the largest museums in the world housing classic paintings by the likes of Renoir, Degas, Monet, Cezanne, van Gogh and Gauguin, along with treasures from Russia’s imperial past and other objects d’art from around the world. Technically the Hermitage is an extension of the Winter Palace, the museum/palace actually is actually three different but adjoining buildings; The Large Hermitage, The Winter Palace, and The Small Hermitage. To give you an idea of the size of the museum, the Winter Palace (building) alone has over 1000 rooms and 12 miles of galleries with more than three million exhibits. Unless you plan to spend a few days wandering the halls you need to decide which collections you want to see. One advantage the Hermitage has over a typical museum is that it used to be a palace, though none of the Czars spent much time here, it is palatial. Ornate carvings, gilded walls, murals, frescos, every royal touch you can imagine – the building itself is a work of art, let alone the priceless treasures of art it houses. One of the most interesting pieces is a Peacock Clock attributed to English Jewler/Clock maker James Cox. After leaving the Hermitage we left to visit a small church that now houses on the second floor quality Russian handicrafts – a great place to go souvenier shopping!

We returned to the ship and relaxed for a while, and then left on another wonderful adventure. This one was a tour booked through the ship, it was an evening concert at the Rose Pavilion featuring classical music performed by one of St.Petersburg’s best chamber ensembles. They were incredible – and young! I don’t think any of them were over 25.

Adding to the beautiful music was the atmosphere. We were greated upon arrival by impeccably attired waiters presenting us with a glass of champaigne at the entrance to this gorgeous classical building with cherubs and angles in gold with strands of flowered garland painted on the walls. It was a perfect evening except for the two people in front of us who insists on talking through the entire performance! I swear they’re following us around! Doesn’t anyone have any consideration for anyone else anymore?

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