Wed. July 20: Exploring Splendid St. Petersburg, Russia (Day 1)

After a 4:13 AM sunrise, we arrived in port at 7:00 AM. Beth tried the Nordic pancakes today, and after breakfast, we were ready to go through immigration. 

 
Since Russia requires visas, we had to go through Russian security, get our passports stamped, and receive a visitor's card. My oh my, those Russian immigration officers were quite jovial (not or nyet as a Russian would say!).  Once we cleared Russian immigration, we met our local Russian guide who was very friendly and personable. She works as a guide during the day and an English teacher in the evenings.

We entered the bold and magnificent port of St. Petersburg, on the Gulf of Finland, a city envisioned 300+ years ago by Tsar Peter the Great to be the beautiful northern capitol patterned after the finely planned elegant capitols of Europe. Peter the Great used St. Petersburg as the home of his growing army. Peter the Great's vision for this shining city resulted in grand boulevards, a lacework of canals throughout the city, elegant baroque-style buildings, opulent palaces, and onion-domed churches. Contrasted with the "Commie-block" style of plain, ugly, grey concrete Soviet era buildings, St. Petersburg is a grand jewel and today is the home of several UNESCO World Heritage sites.

We broke into two groups- Beth, Dave, and Meg went to the Peterhof Palace and Gardens and David, Page, and Gary went to the Catherine Palace.

As the Gary, David, and Page group drove out into the outskirts of the city we entered "Pushkin land"- a beautiful area of parks and buildings dedicated to the great Russian poet and novelist, Alexander Pushkin. He embodied the Russian national consciousness and became the pride of the country. An important part of his literary heritage is his fairy tales, based on Russian folklore.

Upon arrival to the Catherine Palace we stood in a long entrance line. The waiting was quite enjoyable as we were entertained by a group of museum-employed Russian musicians who played traditional Russian music to the groups standing in line.

David and Page had fun recreating the "statue look".

 

 

Of the 58 halls and grand salons in the palace, we saw about eight of them, starting with the grand staircase. We donned booties over our shoes so as not to destroy the wood parquet floors. One word captures it all- opulent! We entered the Great Hall, largest room in the palace with sculptural and ornamental gilded carvings throughout. The Picture Hall was quite interesting- painted works of art extend throughout the entire walls. We saw several dining rooms, a room covered with red foil between gold panels, and a pink and green room that reminded me of Wedgewood china. 

 The inlaid furniture was exquisite and the rooms had floor to ceiling "wood stoves" to heat the cavernous rooms. These were constructed from Delft tiles imported from Holland.

Beth, Meg and Dave spent the morning in St. Petersburg exploring Czar Peter the Great's expansive palace, Peterhof (Peter's Palace), and its beautiful gardens. He was inspired by a visit to France when he was enthralled with the French palace, Versailles. Peter wanted to create something here on the shores of the Gulf of Finland that would exceed its beauty while incorporating its extensive use of fountains and gardens. The palace itself stood out to us for its beauty and opulence, including its extensive use of gold gilding. He built it for celebrations and entertaining, particularly when he lived there in the summers.

Surrounding the hilltop palace are beautiful gardens and fountains, often highlighted by gold statuary. Because there were no electric pumps in 1703 when its construction was begun, all of the fountains were created by gravity-fed hydrology as water from the high ground was fed through a labyrinth of pipes and valves to feed dozens of unique and beautiful fountains. Peter created additional, smaller 'palaces' on the waterfront of the gulf so he could better enjoy the seaside  during the short summers at Peterhof. Amazingly, the palace was actually built twice: the original construction under Peter's direct supervision beginning around 1703 and then a second time when it had to be rebuilt following its near-total destruction by the Germans during the three year siege of St. Petersburg during World War II.

 

after lunch we all went on a panoramic city tour together. St. Petersburg is called the "Venice of the North" with its many canals and bridges throughout the city. The main river is the Neva River. We crossed over the Neva and admired the beautiful wrought iron "sea horses" bridge.

Gazing across the river you can see the beautiful gold (yes, real gold!) dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral, which we would see later up close.

From across the river you can also see the gleaming gold spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in the Peter and Paul Fortress. This spire stretches 404 feet into the sky.

 

Along the beautiful Neva River esplanade there are several monuments with nautical themes including two tall columnar monuments with bows of ships protruding from them and a Neptune statue at the bottom. On top there is a flame that is occasionally lit.  Buildings along this stretch of the river, that goes out to see, depict Neptune and other nautical figures.

Next we went inside the Peter and Paul Fortress (and seemed to acquire a new "tour guide"!) and entered the Peter and Paul Church, a Russian Orthodox church built in 1712. The church was quite opulent inside. The main floor includes the white marble crypts of the emperors, tsars , and tsarinas of Russia. After Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alexandra, their daughters and son, their doctor, and a few household servants were executed by the Bolsheviks, their bodies were thrown into a coal mine. It was just recently after the collapse of the Soviet Union that the Russian government recovered their bodies (all but 2) and identified them with DNA analysis. Their bodies now lie in the marble burial vaults inside the Cathedral and the other two will shortly join them.

We stopped at the colorful onion-domed Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood. This onion-domed decorative memorial to the assassinated emperor, Alexander II, is the personification of splendid ecclesiastical Russian architecture. Unfortunately this is one of the areas where bands of gypsies, which travel throughout Europe's tourist destinations, employ their well-developed pick-pocketing craft. Two members of our trip were pick-pocketed here, even after extensive warnings from our guide. One man even lost his passport.

Our last stop, before returning to the ship, was at the landmark Issac's Cathedral. The columns are made of single pieces of red granite weighing 80 tons each. To get a sense of scale, look at this group of Chinese children visiting St. Isaac's and the man standing by the huge door. [note: the picture of the cathedral was not taken with one of our cameras. We didn't have a pic taken far back enough to see the entire cathedral.]

It was time to head back to the ship but not before freeing Meg and Page who were detained at Peter and Paul Fortress for committing transgressions!

 

The evening ended for Beth and Dave with a visit to the concert hall of the former Soviet Military General Officers for a delightful immersion into the native songs and folk dances of the Russian people of the countryside. The brilliantly colored and detailed costumes were exquisite and complemented the rousing enthusiasm of the troupe of approximately 20 singers and dancers. The 2.5 hour performance was exhilarating.. It was easily their favorite experience in St. Petersburg!

A splendid day in the magnificent city of St. Petersburg ended with a 9:54 sunset. We can't wait to see what tomorrow in this city will bring!