St Petersbug, Russia Day #2

I asked our tour guide, Maria, if tourism was a leading industry in St Petersburg. She responded NO because of the stringent Visa requirements. Not only does a foreigner require a Visa, but they are required to have the Visa registered. Because I took a tour from a cruise ship AND with a local company, the tour company provided the registered Visa, in advance. Otherwise, it would have cost minimally $175+ recommendations from a Russian authority for entry. We had to show our tour ticket and go through passport control upon entering and exiting, both days of our tour.

Our tour group met outside of customs earlier today at 7:45. We headed to the center of town where we boarded boats for our guided canal tour of St Petersburg’s waterways. We covered all the major sites from palaces, to churches, to museums, to monuments, to parks, to famous boulevards. It was a perfect morning for a canal tour. St Petes 4th sunny day—in a row. (This is unheard of!)

Next we went directly to Peterhoff, Peter the Great’s dream “garden of paradise”, complete with gilded palace, a variety of fountains (they have lost count), lushly landscaped parks, and monuments to great leaders, (and even statues of Adam&Eve). When Peter designed it, he ensured he could travel by boat from St Pete directly to the Palace. He lived and traveled on the water as much as possible. The most loved section is the vast lower garden. The Great Cascade Fountain comprises 3 waterfalls, 64 fountains, and 37 gilded statues. Many other fountains are contained in the lower gardens including “trick fountains” that are turned on by “magic” stones.

It is hard to believe that when the Nazis were finally driven out of this area, toward the end of WWII, that almost everything was in ruins. Much was restored years later.

We took the hydrofoil back to the city.

Lunch was a traditional pickled soup with meat&vegetables and blinis with ham and cheese. Dessert was pistachio ice cream.

Our final stop was The Church on Spilled Blood, constructed to commemorate Tsar Alexander II on the very spot where he was assassinated. This church is my favorite because of the beautiful, multicolored, mosaic onion domes. Inside more than 20 types of minerals, including jasper, rhodonite, and Italian marvel are lavished on the mosaics of the icons, canopy, and floor. Religious scenes created in mosaics blanket the interior and even inside the domes. It is an impressive structure and reminds me of St Basils in Moscow. The (atheist) Soviets had scheduled the bombing of this church but plans got delayed. In the meantime, it was used as a storage facility for vegetables, for years, while it fell into disrepair. Fortunately, the government undertook its restoration so the world can now enjoy this magnificent structure.

Our tour ended at 5:00. We were back on the ship in time for our 7PM departure.

It was sad saying goodbye to Russia who surpassed my expectations on all accounts.