RobO and I typically belong in the ‘independent travellers’ category, but we decided to do a Baltic Sea cruise specifically because tourists can access St. Petersburg without having to go through the arduous Russian visa process. Needless to say, we were very excited to arrive at this first port.
On Friday night we started our explorations with a quick city tour followed by a nighttime boat cruise. It was a great way to get the lay of the land before our full day in the city.
The next morning we had a full day of interesting history and art lessons, starting with a trip on the St. Petersburg metro system. It is the deepest metro in the world, with the immaculately clean and decorated stations being used as bomb shelters during war times. It was difficult to capture the depth, but the escalator was going down at literally a 45 degree angle!
Our next stop was the Hermitage which started as a palace but is now the largest art gallery in the world. It is a maze of opulent rooms, each remarkably different. I think I took a picture of the ceiling in every room that we visited. We saw works from 3 different ninja turtles (missing Donatello) and other notable artists. Wow.
The Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood was our next stop. It was built as a memorial for Czar Alexander II. Interestingly there were numerous serious attempts to assassinate the Czar before someone was eventually successful. The cobblestones with his ‘spilled blood’ were kept and serve as an altar in the church. The church, almost as a mirror of the Czar, has also survived numerous demolition attempts (from the Bolsheviks, the outlawing of religion during the Soviet era, and even a bomb that was found undetonated!).
The outside was spectacular (even with scaffolding), but the inside was equally impressive. I was especially amazed at how the light shines brighter on the gold gilded mosaic tiles making the halos and heavenly rays look remarkably real.
Our final destination was Peterhof, a summer palace a hydrofoil boat ride away from the city. Peter the Great built this palace to feel like the palace of Versailles and was especially into the gardens and fountains.
The entire day had spurts of rain and cold wind but it always seemed to be at the worst when we were indoors. The best part was the sun coming out at the end of the day for glorious shots at Peterhof.
This was a perfect way to spend my 41st birthday. I’m planning to keep this 7 year streak of birthday travels alive! At the restaurant last night there was a Happy Birthday song and cake delivery to a gentleman at the table next to us. I couldn’t believe the coincidence that we shared a birthday. It was only after the servers had left and he was eating his cake when he leaned over, laughing, and said, “I don’t know who this was for because it’s not actually my birthday”. It turns out the waitress had mixed up our table numbers. I’m sure the whole restaurant was surprised when yet another birthday song and cake was delivered to me.
We’ve decided that St. Petersburg is going back onto the bucket list as is deserves more exploration. We’ll be back!
