We arrived very early into the port of St. Petersburg this morning. Rich overheard someone saying they had to meet at 5:45 am for a trip to Moscow! Our tour didn't meet until 8:30 am, so we had it easy. Comparatively speaking, that is.

We boarded a bus and took off for a tour of the city and our first stop was at the Hermitage Museum. It was originally built as a winter palace for the Royal Family, but Catherine the Great loved to collect things and finally dedicated the building as a museum in 1764 so she would be able to display her collections. It opened to the public in 1852 and is one of the largest museums in the world.

We toured the part of the museum that houses works of art by the masters, including Da Vinci, Rembrandt and many others. Our guide, Inna, told us there are only 14 paintings by Leonardo da Vinci and St. Petersburg Hermitage has 2 of them. We also saw a lot of Rembrandt's work. I went a little crazy taking pictures (and so did Pam)--the building is very opulent and the pictures don't do it justice but we had to try! :))

Our tour of the building lasted for about 2 hours and then we were taken to a very popular street in the city called Nevsky Prospekt. All of their main avenues are called Prospekt. We were given a map and told to meet back at our bus at 3:20, which gave us 3 hours of free time.

We found a place to have lunch on the main drag and Rich & I got two Russian dishes, which we shared--beef stroganoff and buckwheat with mushrooms. Mike's looked the best--potato pancakes with sautéed mushrooms. Pam got a Caesar salad--no adventure there! LOL Cost us about $40, which wasn't bad since we all had a soda. I'd read in the guide book not to drink the water, so we didn't.

After lunch we hauled butt to see St. Isaac's Cathedral. I don't know how far it was but it took us 30 minutes of rapid walking to get there. We toured the church and then had to walk very quickly over to the next spot on our list, which was the Church of the Savior of Spilled Blood. It's the most beautiful building! I couldn't get enough pictures of it--just gorgeous in person.

We met back up with our guide and all of us were just pooped. She took us to a market (read that as tourist trap) which was a huge rip off! I had bought a magnet at a kiosk right by the church for 150 Rupees which is roughly $2.15. The exact same magnet was $5 at this place! We didn't buy anything since we figured all the prices were jacked up, and we are going back out again tomorrow.

The guide told us that the city only has about 60 sunny days a year (!!) and since we were having one that day, we were very lucky. They paint their houses (read that as palaces LOL) in very bright colors to offset the gray. She said that most native Russians can distinguish between 347 shades of gray. :))

We have to go through immigration and passport control every time we leave and return to the ship--the officers are not friendly at all and never crack a smile--we wonder if it's a job requirement. :)) They were really checking Rich out since he's lost about 60 pounds from when his passport photo was taken.

We were going to order room service while we were changing for our night time excursion, but decided to visit the Trident Grill for a burger instead. We saw Mike picking up pizza for them while we were waiting in line for our burgers. A quick change of clothes later, and we were back on another bus.

This time our guide was an older woman named Marina and oh my, her Russian accent was so thick that we could barely understand her. Fortunately, we covered a lot of the same ground initially that Inna had discussed earlier that day, so we mostly dozed on the hour+ ride out to Catherine's Palace. In true Russian form, it's painted a very bright blue with gold and white trim. It's startling how much gold they use here on their buildings!!

We toured the carriage house and viewed several of the original carriages used by the royal family. After that we were driven to the main grounds where we were able to enjoy shots of vodka, caviar and other snacks. I opted for the apple juice that was an alternative since I was so tired from the earlier tour. Mike indulged in our shots, so they weren't wasted. LOL

We were treated to a performance by the military band and some folk dancers. After that we were led into the palace which is now a museum. Our guide explained all the different rooms and portraits of who was who and gave us a brief Russian history lesson of the royal family. It was interesting but I can't seem to keep all the Alexanders and Peters and everyone else straight! You just can't imagine how decorative the rooms of the palace are until you see them in person. There's just so much to take in...so much gold and crystal and paintings and statues--it's overwhelming. I had seen the Amber room recently on the Today Show and to see it in person was amazing.

Next was a champagne toast and concert performance by an orchestra that was wonderful. This lasted about 30 minutes which I think was about 25 minutes too long for Rich. :)) We came outside after it was finished and while we were waiting for all of our group (40 of us), the military band began playing and we began dancing. It was a beautiful night weather wise, so why not? Our guide came out and we were all herded back onto the bus for the hour drive back to the ship.

I think I turned my light out at 11:45 pm--that alarm is going to ring wayyyyy too early!!