St Petersburg is Russia’s window on the West and is supposedly one of the worlds most beautiful metropolis’s. For 2 centuries St Petersburg was the capital of Russia. It is now the second largest city in Russia and has an undeniably eventful history. From witnessing the February and October Revolutions of 1917 to its fierce defence and siege during WW II, she has become one of Russia’s intellectual and cultural hubs. It is called the Venice of the North because of her copious bridges and natural canals of the Neva River, Fontana River and Moika River.

I never thought I’d visit Russia. I have to say I was excited and afraid at the same time. It’s the only country on this tour where we needed a visa and it takes about 6 months to get one and it is costly. However, if you use a Russian tour company they provide a special tour visa as part of the tour. The only catch is you have to be with the guide at all times. So we opted for the tour here.

First thing, we received a note in our cabin saying that because the U.S. closed the St Petersburg consulate all visitors, but U.S. citizens specifically, needed to take special care not to lose their passports. Then we experienced an immigration control procedure that took 45 minutes. And those Russian officials are scary. Not a crack of a smile or a word except to bark orders. It was disconcerting. At no other port did we have to go through immigration, let alone this bs!

Vic ended up getting through immigration first so I told him to go through and find our tour guide as we were late because of the hubbub. We booked a 2 day tour here with 3 other Princess cruise couples we met online. So when I finally got through I went out the gate and saw the tour guide. She said “You must be Liz” and took me to the bus where the rest were waiting. Guess what? No Vic!!! I said he got through first! So off the guide went to look for Vic. She came back a few minutes later with a sheepish Vic in tow. He didn’t see the guide when he got through so he went looking for her amidst the tangle of busses. They must have missed each other.

So we finally got going about 3/4 of an hour late. We did an hour tour of the city to get an impression of it. My first impression was that it is a city of contrasts. On the one hand you have the HUGE, concrete, dull, grey, blocky Soviet buildings and right next to them there are beautiful facades and jaw dropping landmarks. I could go on for pages describing everything but I think I’ll give a quick summary and let the pictures do the talking (if I can get them downloaded). I can hear the collective “thank God” sighs from here.

First stop: Peterhof (Peter the Greats Palace on the Gulf of Finland) with a metro ride on the way. AMAZING! Peterhof, called Russia’s Versailles, sits atop a hill in a 300-acre park. The Grand Cascade is a fountain that depicts Sampson prying open the lions jaws as water cascades down terraced steps.
The Metro would put the TTC to shame. AMAZING,Here’s another contrast. The Metro was like a Palace and then the train pulled up and it looked like it was from the 1950’s.

Next stop: Pushkin and St Catherine’s Palace (her summer manor) with the famous amber room. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed in this room but google it. It truly is jaw dropping. The baroque Palace was designed by Rastrelli and features a gold dome crown set in 1400 acres of spectacular gardens and parks.

We then drove back to St. Petersburg and visited St. Isaacs Cathedral, next to St Isaacs Square. The Cathedral’s central gold dome is one of the largest in the world and is covered with 220 pounds of gold. It was commissioned by Alexander I in 1818 and took more than 3 decades to complete. AMAZING! When we arrived there were several special armed forces police in riot gear all over the place. Then a bunch of people started running, waving flags, carrying placards and yelling. The sirens started wailing and the cops starred pursuing them. We went int o the Cathedral very fast. It was some political demonstration apparently.

That took up 10 hours of our day. Needless to say we were exhausted when we returned (immigration was a wee bit better but not much). We showered and went to dinner. Then we tried to catch the Russian folkloric show but my head was bobbing so we came back to the cabin to sleep. It’s another full day tomorrow.