As was the case with the Berlin tour, there were a lot of us going ashore in organised tours today. An organised tour is the only way we could go ashore as Visas are required in Russia and are not that easy to obtain - there is an exemption for organised tour groups. Going through emigration was a long drawn out process. Each person took forever to process. We had been warned on the ship that this was the case so I guess things were not too bad.
Outside we met our guide for the two days we were to be in St Petersburg, Katya who turned out to be quite a gem. Very clear English and quite a sense of humour. When not involved with tours she spends her time as an interpreter.
Our first appointment for the day was at the Hermitage Museum, the largest museum in Russia and what many consider as the most prestigious museum in the world. As we had a little time up our sleeve we started with a drive around St Petersburg, a photo stop outside the Church of the Savior on Blood (Church of the Spilled Blood)/
 |
| The Church of the Savior on Blood without its scaffolding |
This church was built on the site where Emperor Alexander II was fatally wounded by political nihilists in 1881. On March 13, as Tsar Alexander's carriage passed along the embankment, a grenade thrown by an anarchist conspirator exploded. The tsar, shaken but unhurt, got out of the carriage and started to remonstrate with the presumed culprit. A second conspirator took the chance to throw another bomb, killing himself and mortally wounding the tsar. The tsar, bleeding heavily, was taken back to the Winter Palace, where he died a few hours later. The construction was funded by the imperial family and began in 1883 during the reign of Alexander III and completed during the reign of Nicholas II in 1907. The church is prominently situated along the Griboedov Canal and is currently being restored so lots of scaffolding etc around it at the moment.
Before heading off to the Hermitage we even had time for a coffee at Starbucks – A$7.20 a cup with soy milk thank you very much.
At the Hermitage (The second-largest museum in the world) Katya proved to be an excellent guide. What she didn't know about the Hermitage wasn't worth knowing I'm sure. What an amazing place and I know we only just touched the surface in our couple of hours there. The Hermitage was founded in 1764 when Empress Catherine the Great acquired an impressive collection of paintings from the Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky and has been open to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display, comprise over three million items including the largest collection of paintings in the world.
Next stop was lunch at a banquet hall in the city – an unusual building in what appeared to be the basement of a building. Along with our shot of Vodka and wine we had a salad starter and then a chicken and potato dish followed by ice cream. Not sure how authentic Russian that might be.
After lunch, it was a stop off at the Spit of Vasilievsky Island for views of the city. St Petersburg (situated on the Neva River), was founded by Tsar Peter the Great in 1703. On 1 September 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, on 26 January 1924 to Leningrad, and on 7 September 1991 back to Saint Petersburg. Between 1713 and 1728 and in 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of Imperial Russia. In 1918, the central government bodies moved to Moscow, which is about 625 kilometres to the south-east.
Both the cathedral and the fortress were originally built under Peter the Great and designed by Domenico Trezzini. The cathedral's bell tower is the world's tallest Orthodox bell tower. Since the belfry is not standalone, but an integral part of the main building, the cathedral is sometimes considered the highest Orthodox Church in the world. The cathedral houses the remains of almost all the Russian emperors and empresses from Peter the Great to Nicholas II and his family, who were finally laid to rest in July 1998. Among the emperors and empresses buried here was Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia for 34 years.
As we came out of the Cathedral we were treated to a very loud helicopter landing outside. You could take a ride over St Petersburg if you had a spare US$500 according to Katya. The helicopter looked pretty old to me – probably X military from Cold War days.
We were back to the ship around 4:30 and then had to face the slowness of emigration once again to get out of Russia. To think we have to do that all over again tomorrow!! A bit of a rest before dinner, tonight in the Buffet, as we did not know what time we might get back. At 9 pm it was off to the Theatre for a night of Russian music and dance. The dancing was pretty impressive but the singing not so. There was one female singer whose voice just grated. Was worth a watch all the same.
