Baltic Cruise 2019, Part 6: From Russia With Love (Day 1)

On Monday morning, we sailed into Russian waters, and docked at St. Petersburg for a two-day stay. St. Petersburg was treated as the "big stop" on this particular cruise, and I was interested to see it, as I've heard it is quite beautiful.

Sailing through the Gulf of Finland, in Russian waters. 

Our first order of business, after meeting with our excursion group in the Princess Theater, was to get through passport control. Russia was the only country where we had to do this; all of the others just let us in with our ship medallions and a smile.

It was a bit nerve-wracking, because truly...they don't smile.

I'm not being cute, I'm just saying. They're a very serious people. Though I did get a half-smile out of my passport controller (what can I say, I'm just cute). And I got a fancy stamp in my passport, and a little paper with my name in it in Russian.

Another stamp for my collections. I'm now at 15 nations I have
visited. If you count Scotland as separate from England (which
I don't, as they're both UK countries), then 16. 

There are, of course, remnants of the long Soviet era, especially in the block-ish buildings that are home to so many people. But the St. Petersburg of the tsars is beautiful, and worth visiting. Incidentally, it is only a little over 300 years old, having been founded by Peter the Great in 1703.

First, some pictures taken from the bus.

Our first stop was a five-minute stop to hop off the bus and take proper pictures of St. Isaac's Cathedral. It's dome is covered in 220 pounds of gold.

The tsars liked gold.

Looking down a side street.

Next, we stopped to meet our boat for the river cruise, which was, alas...not there! Our guide, embarrassed, called her boss and found that the agency had given the boat operators the wrong time, so we had to wait about 45 minutes.

Dad and I started talking to a couple from Florida and their daughter, who would become ship-board friends after our Russian adventures. I took pictures of the canal and surrounding buildings, and enjoyed the sunshine.

Waiting for Boat-ot. 

Artsy shot

(I'm including phone pictures in these posts, as well, so they might sometimes imitate camera pictures and seem a little redundant.)

Finally, the boat arrived and we all boarded. Sailing through the canals towards the grand River Neva, we dealt with many low bridges.

Before long, we were on the river itself, which is wide and busy with marine traffic.

This is the Peter and Paul Fortress, which was the original settlement of St.
Petersburg. We visited it on the second day.

As we chugged along at a stately pace, this boat, a commuter boat, went
flying past us.

Our first (blurry) glimpse of Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood. 

The cruise offered a complimentary glass of Russian champagne, and, of course, an opportunity to take a selfie with Dad.

After our river cruise, it was off to The Hermitage Museum.

Now, if I were to have my own little hermitage, a place to be alone, it would likely be a tiny little thing. The tsars had a lot more money, and therefore, their idea of a Hermitage is what I would call "extravagant."

These days, it is a museum with an art collection to rival that of the Louvre in Paris. It was closed to the public, but tour groups from the Regal Princess were allowed through with our guides. There is no possible way we could have seen everything, but our guide got us to some of the biggest highlights.

This is just one building of the place.

While we waited to get in, I caught up on the headlines. Ha.

When you step inside, you are greeted by marble and inlaid wood and gilt, gilt, gilt. Priceless paintings and you name it.

I edited my pictures, but left Irene, our guide, in this one.

Like I said earlier: the tsars liked gold.

I loved the inlaid wood floors. 

Local art students come here to study different styles and
techniques.

More flooring

This is a famous clock that belonged to one of the Empresses. 

We saw works by Rembrandt, Da Vinci, and others on our visit; by now, two weeks later, I've forgotten the order, and they got mixed up when I Instagrammed them on my phone. But here's a few shots of what we saw.

Da Vinci. They have a second one, but it is currently on loan
to another exhibition.

Rembrandt

Rembrandt

I believe this is a Rembradnt. 

Rembrandt

Rembrandt

Rafael

I love this green stone. Stunning.

We did a lot of walking in the Hermitage--and because of our long visit there, we had a late lunch. There's just too much to see.

At the end of our tour, we took a few minutes for everyone to use the restrooms, and during this time, I got to see how museums get cleaned, first-hand.

After the Hermitage, we stopped at a small house that was briefly a home to one Rasputin, and because at this time we had been walking for days and delaying our lunch until 2:00, after having an early breakfast and no snack in between, I wasn't as interested in it. I took three pictures, one while I was in line to get in.

So, the story goes that this guy wanted Rasputin dead, so he
poisoned him, but it didn't do anything. So here, he's going,
"What the hell? That should have killed you."

And Rasputin is like, "That was mighty tasty, what's for dessert?"
He did eventually get killed. What poison couldn't do,
bullets could. 

Finally, it was time for lunch. Lunch was part of the tour, both days. And both days, the meal came with water, Russian wine, and a shot of vodka.

Greek salad

 Ahem. Let me just interject here with a little story.

If you know me well, you know I have had a life-long aversion to seafood in almost all forms. I can eat shrimp and crab if I don't think about what I'm eating. I ate halibut on my 40th birthday because I was too polite to tell my kind hosts for dinner, "Ummm...fish. Yeah. I'm not a fan." It was actually tasty, but still, the entire time I was thinking, "Oh, God, this is fish. Kill it in ketchup. More ketchup."

I ate tuna a few times as a kid and never complained, until, at some point, the sight and smell of it became too much. I saw a box of Tuna Helper at the grocery store a few days ago and had to avert my eyes. I've tried salmon (by accident, not by choice), and it was...not good. Not good at all.

Herring is popular in Scandinavia--I was more willing to try reindeer.

You might understand now...I don't like seafood. Not my thing. It's 90% in my head. But there you have it.

So...I ate the Russian caviar.

When in Rome. Or Russia. Whatever. If I'm going to tell my students to be risk-takers, I have to take some myself.

For the record, I tasted a lot of butter, a little bit of olive, and got the texture of the bread with lingering rubbery texture of the caviar. It wasn't terrible, but...I mean, I could just eat bread and butter.

We had some traditional Russian music for a bit while we ate.

Mushroom soup.

Chicken, potatoes. 

Ice cream and coffee for dessert. I put my vodka in the coffee
because I can't do vodka shots. 

Sufficiently fed, we were ready for the next bit of our tour. I took some more bus-window pictures as we drove back to St. Isaac's Cathedral.

St. Isaac's is impressive. It was started in 1818, and took three decades to complete. And as grand as it is on the outside...

...the inside is even better.

We had one last bit of business to attend to: a visit to a very large gift store. We all went a bit wild, because Russian art is quite fantastic.

And some of it is, of course, more authentic than others.

This was our last stop of the day. We would meet with Irene again the following morning, and head out of St. Petersburg to the tsarist version of the burbs. But for now, it was time to get back to the ship, where Dad would crash on his bed to let his tired legs and feet have a break, and I would change into a dress and...go back into St. Petersburg for an evening performance.

But that's for another post.