May 19 2017 Silhouette Baltic (+ Berlin) Photo Review Silhouette Photo Review

[afto]

May 27: Day Eleven (St. Petersburg, Part Three)

 

We would only be in Russia for three days, so I never really became tired of snapping pictures of golden domes, especially when they were contrasted against a crisp blue sky. It was as if the metallic shininess was producing some sort of magnetic force drawing the camera lens upward automatically. It’s really quite an astonishing phenonmenon, given that there are so few metallic parts in my new camera. This is the Grand Ducal Mausoleum, next door to the the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul.

 

 

The blue skies that we had enjoyed in the morning were replaced by a uniform nondescript greyness by the time that we arrived at Peterhof, as you can see in this photo of the Grand Palace Church.

 

 

Even under a canopy of unrelenting greyness, the palace complex with its gardens and many fountains was absolutely spectacular. Standing on the terrace looking out at the Grand Cascade, I had one of those “I can’t believe I’m actually here” moments.

 

 

A few more shots of the main palace and the Grand Cascade.

[More on Peterhof: http://www.saint-petersburg.com/peterhof/ ]

 

 

 

 

[CruiserFromSC]

Enjoying your review very much and appreciated the immigration information. We travel at the end of July and will take your comments into account when we make our departure in St Petersburg! Thank you!

Edited July 1, 2017 by CruiserFromSC

[afto]

May 27: Day Eleven (St. Petersburg, Part Four)

 

Our tour, like most of the standard let’s-see-everything-that-we-can-in-two-days tours, did not include an inside visit to the palace. So we walked at an easy pace from the upper terraces down to the waterfront to board a hydrofoil for the ride back to the city. It was a delightful walk through Peterhof’s beautiful gardens. In May, when we visited, the flower beds were planted with tulips and the other flowers of spring.

 

 

 

More fountains throughout the gardens, all the way down to the Gulf of Finland.

 

 

More tulips, more fountains. Yawn.

 

 

Along the shore, a little lighthouse.

 

 

Alla had provided each of us with a handy little booklet that describes some of the main attractions of St. Petersburg. The booklet notes that Peterhof attracts millions of visitors every year, which is not at all surprising. By the way, the illustrated booklet also included a map of the city centre, a subway map, short biographies of some of the tsars, and a genealogy chart to help us keep them all straight. I thought it was a nice touch. And I brought it home so that family members who might be reluctant to sit down and look at, say, 4000 of my photos could at least get some visuals to accompany my enthusiastic monologue about St. Petersburg.

 

[afto]

May 27: Day Eleven (St. Petersburg, Part Five)

 

I’m not sure whether the captain of the hydrofoil was particularly disturbed by our group or whether he just greets every trespasser on his vessel’s gangway with this facial expression. Luckily for him — and for us — he is not working for Celebrity, so he is not compelled to attend cocktail parties with his passengers. And vice versa.

 

 

In any case, he did transport us from Peterhof back to the city centre, with great views of many of the city’s most well-known buildings as we approached.

 

 

It was late afternoon by now, but Olga thought we might try to fit in a visit to St.Isaac’s Cathedral. On the way, we passed the famous equestrian statue of Peter the Great. It was Pushkin’s tragic poem “The Bronze Horseman,” about the flood of 1833, that gave this statue its nickname. I had never read any Pushkin, but I downloaded this short poem and read it on the plane. You can find various translations of it online; among other themes, it reminds readers that ordinary workers were much more vulnerable to the cyclical flooding that swept this low-lying city than was the founder of St. Petersburg and its elite families in their sturdy palaces and townhomes. Is this description convincing you to read the poem? No? This is why I am not in the sales business.

[More on the statue: http://www.saint-petersburg.com/monuments/bronze-horseman/ ]

 

 

At St. Isaac’s, Olga tried to obtain admission tickets for our group but she was unsuccessful. The visit was rescheduled for our second day in St.Petersburg; for today, we would have to be content with admiring the cathedral's monumental and firmly closed doors.

[More on St. Isaac’s: http://www.saint-petersburg.com/cathedrals/st-isaacs-cathedral/ ]

 

 

Sergei then drove us to a large and well-stocked souvenir shop, where we were met by a representative of Alla Tours who collected payment for our tour. I am usually resistant to making purchases at shops when I am brought there by a tour company, and really we are not shoppers at all, but DH did find some painted wooden Christmas tree ornaments that he thought were cute, and he insisted on buying them, so we came home with those. Or something like that. I think the salesperson told me — I mean DH — that the figures represented the story of Father Frost, but it’s possible that I am conflating that with the story of St. Nicholas.

 

When I came home, I googled the story of Father Frost and, like most fairy tales, it was completely horrifying. I think I will hang the ornaments on the back of the tree for a few years until I have forgotten the part about the old man taking his daughter out into the field and leaving her there to freeze.

[The tale of Father Frost: https://russian-crafts.com/russian-folk-tales/father-frost-tale.html]

 

[Crusin Kelly]

SO afto, your review is quite timely, as we sail with Pushka in a few days.... BUT I can't help the feeling that we have been left out in the field Like Father Frost's Daughter (so to speak) as that was the abrupt end of the day's posting... THANK YOU - GREAT WORK. I just hope that my 4000 photos come out half as good as yours.

[afto]

SO afto, your review is quite timely, as we sail with Pushka in a few days.... BUT I can't help the feeling that we have been left out in the field Like Father Frost's Daughter (so to speak) as that was the abrupt end of the day's posting... THANK YOU - GREAT WORK. I just hope that my 4000 photos come out half as good as yours.

 

Sorry for leaving you out in the field, Crusin Kelly! I am gathering my thoughts and images and hope to be able to continue with some Moscow posts tomorrow.

[Pushka]

SO afto, your review is quite timely, as we sail with Pushka in a few days.... BUT I can't help the feeling that we have been left out in the field Like Father Frost's Daughter (so to speak) as that was the abrupt end of the day's posting... THANK YOU - GREAT WORK. I just hope that my 4000 photos come out half as good as yours.

 

 

 

Yes. Agree about the photos. They are excellent. It's actually better for photos taken on a cloudy day than a sunny one. But I do love the blue sky. Leaving for Stockholm today.

[afto]

May 28: Day Fourteen (Moscow, Part One)

 

Going to Moscow! So excited! It takes a lot to get me excited about anything that requires getting up at 5am.

 

Golden domes ahead! These ones belong to the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, just outside the Kremlin Walls.

 

 

A little side note: I have twice re-written my comments about some logistical problems that we encountered with the Moscow tour, trying not to go into excruciating detail about our experience. I have decided not to post those comments here after all because I feel that they may generate some discussion that would be in the wrong place. If anyone is interested in the specifics, you might post a question about the Moscow train on the Northern Europe board. I think you will get multiple responses there.

 

In any case, we were looking forward to travelling to Moscow this morning on the Sapsan. Russia’s high-speed trains are named for a high-speed bird, the peregrine falcon. Apparently the train company’s web content was produced by someone who has never seen a peregrine falcon; they describe it as a “mythical bird.” Peregrine falcons are real, russiantrains.com! Believe!

 

 

We had a bit of a delayed departure from the port due to mechanical problems with our bus but we made it to the platform just in time for the 7:00am train. It’s a journey of almost four hours each way between St. Petersburg and Moscow.

 

 

The train itself was modern and clean, including the toilets. The seats were comfortable enough, but they would have been more comfortable if we had only been required to sit in them for 2 hours instead of nearly 8 hours.

[if you are especially interested in the train, you can read more about it here: http://www.russiantrains.com/en/page/sapsan-train If you are looking for a description of the cars that the tour companies use, scroll down to the information on “Economy Class (Cars #2 - 9)”]

 

The Sapsan is fast, but not as fast as Japan’s bullet trains. Its maximum speed is about 250 km per hour, but the fastest speed that I noticed when I happened to look at the information screen was 199 km. The landscape is flat and not particularly scenic, in my opinion, but then I do live in British Columbia.

 

 

We had heard that the food is not great on the train, so many of us brought some snacks with us, as suggested by Alla. At the time that we travelled, there was no problem in bringing food ashore in St. Petersburg. I have never done this anywhere else and I know that in many ports it would be a serious infraction, but not here. Regulations do change frequently, so be sure to check this out for yourself, but definitely DO NOT TRY THIS IN AUSTRALIA!

 

Tour guides for the many groups from St. Petersburg met us at the station in Moscow and there was a bit of milling about in a parking area while the guides rounded up their own small herds of tourists. Max was our guide and throughout the day I was very impressed with his professionalism.

 

Our day in Moscow happened to be a special day on which people where encouraged to cycle through the streets. After a few minutes stuck in traffic gridlock, Max informed us that if we wanted to make it to the Kremlin in time for our scheduled admittance time at the Armoury Museum we would need to abandon the van and take the Metro instead of the van. We agreed to follow Max underground.

 

 

We emerged from the Metro behind the State Historical Museum, right next to Red Square. The yellow building that you see on the right of this photo is inside the Kremlin walls. No time for an extended photo shoot; we were on a mission to get to the Armoury.

 

 

Kremlin pictures to follow. It is taking me a while to sort out all the shots, trying to figure out the names of the towers and which golden domes belong to which church.

[afto]

May 29: Day Fourteen (Moscow, Part Two)

 

On our way from the State Historical Museum to the Kremlin, I looked to the left and caught my first glimpse of the multi-coloured onion domes of St. Basil’s Cathedral. I may have squealed, “St. Basil’s! St. Basil’s!” while almost but not quite jumping up and down. We proceeded towards the Kremlin and entered through the Kutafya and Troitskaya towers.

 

 

 

The clock in the tower indicated 12:25 pm as we passed through, and this was our first actual sightseeing stop of the day. So you might keep that in mind when you are deciding if it is worth it to you to take a day trip to Moscow: it could easily be six and a half hours from ship to Kremlin.

 

We had to pass through multiple layers of security to enter the Kremlin, including getting past this guy.

 

 

As it turned out etting past that guy was pretty easy. Once inside the Kremlin’s walls, Max led us on a direct path to the Armoury Museum for our timed entry. So much amazing architecture … it was really quite mind-blowing. Most of my pictures had to be taken AFTER the museum visit, but here are a few shots.

 

Roofline of the Kremlin Palace of Congresses with a double-headed eagle crest that is not really recognizable from this angle. Not sure why I took this picture. Maybe it was because of my motto for the day: “All that glitters must be photographed.”

 

 

This huge building is the official resident of the president of Russia. Max informed us that Vladimir Putin does not actually reside here.

 

 

Cathedral of the Archangel.

 

 

Museums and churches inside the Kremlin do not permit photography. SAD FACE! But perhaps it’s just as well, since it made for a calmer atmosphere, I think. I very much enjoyed our visit to the Armoury Museum. It was not too crowded (less so than the Hermitage at least), and the treasures in this building were just incredible to behold.

 

Max did a very good job of reading our group’s level of interest in various sections of the museum and he tailored the amount of information he provided us accordingly. This is a rare skill. We would not have time to learn about everyartifact in the museum, but we had a good look around. Lots of “wow” moments. We started on the ground floor where highlights included a fur-trimmed gold crown dating back to the 14th century. There were glass cases full of coronation gowns and other garments worn by various tsars and tsarinas, and Catherine the Great’s silver and gold wedding dress. Our last stop on the ground floor was a large room full of ornate carriages.

 

Upstairs,we spent a while ooohing and aaahing over a display case full of eggs and other objects made by Fabergé. Some of the group proceeded to another room to see armaments and weapons; some of us spent that time looking at more cases full of gorgeous gold and silverware. Some took advantage of the opportunity to sit down for a few minutes here. I will say that switching over to what was essentially a very long walking tour after we abandoned the van was a challenge for one or two people in our group; both here and in St. Petersburg there was quite a lot of walking and standing and several flights of stairs. We were always on a fairly tight schedule and there wasn't always time to rest or a place to sit.

 

Here’s the link to the Kremlin web site; it has information on the Armoury Museum, the Cathedral of the Dormition (Assumption Cathedral), and other sites.

[Slugsta]

Great photos of Moscow! I am very glad that we didn't have to 'do' Moscow as a day trip when we were there (we visited the USSR for our honeymoon in 1984 and travelled by plane between the cities), it sounds utterly exhausting :(

[afto]

May 29: Day Fourteen (Moscow, Part Three)

 

We left the Kremlin temporarily to have lunch at a nearby restaurant. Right across the street we passed a huge statue of St. Vladimir, erected in 2016 under the direction of another Vladimir. Hard to miss; it’s almost 60 feet tall. It was a provocative decision.

[More on the political controversy in this newspaper article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/04/vladimir-great-statue-unveiled-putin-moscow ]

 

 

Across the street, the V. I. Lenin Library, which is named for another famous Vladimir.

 

 

We had lunch at this place, which was distinguished by a plastic stork nest on its roof. I decided that you did need a photo of the restaurant sign, but not of the stork.

 

 

I would say that the food here was more typically Russian than the meal we had been served the day before, and I enjoyed it more, especially the little meat (beef?) dumplings (something like perogies). I think it was a love-it-or-hate-it situation, and some in our group did not enjoy their meal.

 

After lunch, we walked back over to the Kremlin for a visit to the Cathedral of the Dormition. The cathedral was built in the 15th century, and its interior walls are covered with frescos. No photos are allowed inside, but it seems that I don’t have any photos outside either. This was something that I noticed when I got home: I have few photos of the exterior of many of the sites that we visited. Because we are led around by a tour guide and often entering through back or side doors, it is not always obvious where we are going and there is no sense of having arrived. We often found ourselves inside a museum or a palace without having had an opportunity to notice or photograph the exterior.

[More on the cathedral: https://www.rbth.com/arts/2015/07/17/the_kremlins_dormition_cathedral_russias_sacred_crown_47829.html ]

 

After we left the cathedral, we made a few more stops on the grounds of the Kremlin. Max pointed out the enormous Tsar Bell, which was damaged in 1737 before it was completed and has never been rung.

[Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the Tsar Bell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bell ]

 

 

The Tsar Cannon, with the domes of the Church of the Twelve Apostles (top) and the Cathedral of the Annunciation (far left) in the background. The cannon weighs 39 tons and has never been fired in combat.

[information about the cannon: http://www.moscow.info/kremlin/palaces/tsar-cannon.aspx ]

 

 

The Ivan the Great Bell Tower, tallest building in the Kremlin and Moscow’s first “skyscraper.”

 

 

At one point a little bird (a wagtail) hopped across the paving stones and Max noted that this was a brave intruder. Apparently, the Kremlin employs falcons to keep birds out — I suppose that a lot of pigeons could damage the building. More Kremlin photos to follow.

[afto]

May 28: Day Fourteen (Moscow, Part Four)

 

Should I start this post with some more golden domes? I vote yes.

 

 

Another couple of parting shots from the Kremlin: the clock in the Spasskaya Tower and a gaggle of cathedrals.

 

 

 

After leaving the Kremlin for the second time, we walked across Red Square. It was nice to see St. Basil’s close up. There is a lot of construction going on in Moscow and it was hard to find an angle that did not include an intrusive crane, as you can see. We traded cameras and took pictures of each other in front of the cathedral, and Max took a group shot of us as well.

 

[

 

Lenin’s mausoleum was already closed for the day, but I did wave in his general direction as we passed by on our way to the GUM department store.

 

 

Inside, GUM was decorated for a spring sales campaign. Max guided us to a café beside this fountain, where we ordered beverages and gave our feet a break for a few minutes.

 

[afto]

May 28: Day Fourteen (Moscow, Part Five)

 

Some of the group opted to linger over beverages in the café at GUM, and some of us followed Max to see the KGB building. It was a 10-minute walk up Nikolskaya pedestrian street, which looked like it belonged in Western Europe somewhere, maybe Italy.

 

Rejoining the rest of the group at GUM, we then began our trip back to the railway station, with a tour of the Metro along the way. In contrast to the unremarkable stations that we had transited this morning en route to the Kremlin, our afternoon travels took us to some of the more elaborately decorated stations in the system.

 

Novoslobodskaya Station. Try saying that after a few vodkas.

 

 

Kievskaya Station is decorated with images of workers.

 

 

Something about that fellow on the right made me think that he must be on his way to or from KGB headquarters.

 

 

We arrived at the train station with plenty of time to purchase drinks and snacks for the return journey. We settled in on the Sapsan, which was no easy task due to the same logistical problems that we had on the outbound journey. As the train pulled out of Moscow, DH and I agreed that our time there had been well utilized and from our perspective it had been a really fantastic day. We had not had the driving tour of the city that was on our itinerary, but we had spent more time than expected at the Kremlin. We were very pleased with that trade-off. Members of the two other Alla groups in Moscow had a completely different experience in the city — not necessarily non-fantastic, but just different. Tour guides make such a difference to how the day goes.

 

We returned to the ship and found that the neighbourhood had changed again. The Regal Princess had docked near us that morning, but not until we had already left, so this was our first glimpse of her.

 

 

 

There was also something called the Thomson Celebration docked behind the Eclipse; cruise ship design has changed drastically, and not always for the better, since that wee guppy was built. For some reason, it had not even been listed on the “Ships in Port” web site, so I was not expecting to see it. The Koningsdam had departed earlier in the evening.

We were very glad to know that we did not have to meet at 5:45 am again the next morning.

[afto]

Great photos of Moscow! I am very glad that we didn't have to 'do' Moscow as a day trip when we were there (we visited the USSR for our honeymoon in 1984 and travelled by plane between the cities), it sounds utterly exhausting :(

 

Thanks! Wow ... 1984. A real sea change in Moscow since Soviet times. And yes, it was a long day, but there was a chance for a nap on the trains so not as exhausting as I thought it might have been.

[afto]

I think 2 pictures were missing from my previous post, so I will try again.

 

KGB building:

 

 

Nikolskaya Street:

 

 

More St. Petersburg tomorrow.

[afto]

May 29: Day Fifteen (St. Petersburg again, Part One)

 

The next morning I watched the Norwegian Getaway sail in. Another new arrival that day was the MSC Magnifica. The Regal Princess and the Eclipse would be leaving with us that evening. St. Petersburg is a very very busy cruise port.

 

 

This was our third day docked in St. Petersburg and we had a busy schedule ahead. Olga and Sergei met our group as scheduled and we stopped for a quick look at St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral on the way to the boarding point for our “city tour from the water angle” this morning.

[More on the cathedral: https://www.expedia.ca/St-Nicholas-Naval-Cathedral-St-Petersburg.d6066691.Vacation-Attraction ]

 

 

We passed so many beautiful buildings during our cruise along the Fontanka and Neva Rivers. I can’t remember the names of a quarter of them, but this one is St. Michael’s Castle.

 

 

And this is part of the Hermitage complex, if I remember correctly.

 

We sailed past the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Winter Palace. Olga took a head count periodically to make sure that none of us had fallen overboard.

 

 

Some schoolchildren waved at us as we passed under one of the many low bridges. So cute.

 

 

The cruise was about an hour. We enjoyed it although it was a bit chilly in the outdoor seating area until the sun started to warm up the morning. I am not sure of the name of the boat company Alla used for this trip but after matching up my photos with a map I think our route was very close to the same as the blue route that this company offers. [scroll down for the map on their web site: http://anglotourismo.com/ ]

[bluwes]

Loving your trip report. We did a similar itinerary in 2013. Seems things have got stricter security wise in St Petersburg as we didn't experience any of the issues with long lines that you did.

We also had private tours with Alla, both from Wermerunde to Berlin and the two day itinerary in St Petersburg and they were great as far as I can recall.

 

We would have loved the Moscow excursion, maybe one day.

[bluebelle]

Have loved your review so far! Amazing photos and humour! You are in a class of your own. "Avian n'er-do-wells" is a phrase I hope to use in the future. You are so funny!

[afto]

Welcome and thanks for the comments to new readers from the UK bluebelle and bluwes.

May 29: Day Fifteen (St. Petersburg again, Part Two)

 

After the river cruise our next stop was a church of many names, often abbreviated to the Church on the Blood. Here, I was really wishing for an extra half an hour to walk around and take some exterior shots of the building. DH knows that I have a tendency to stray but, like a good border collie, he gave me an occasional nudge to make sure that I remained with the rest of the flock. So I settled for a few quick exterior shots of this building which was built to resemble St. Basil’s in Moscow.

 

 

The very traditional Russian-style interior that visitors see today is largely reconstructed after being badly damaged during the Soviet years.

[More about the church: http://www.saint-petersburg.com/cathedrals/church-resurrection-jesus-christ/ ]

 

 

 

Outside, people were enthusiastically hawking guide books and souvenirs and there were some stalls selling matryoshka dolls and other trinkets. Not too many takers as far as I could see.

 

 

Our third church of the day was St. Isaac’s Cathedral, which has been a museum for the last nine decades or so, including six years as the State Antireligious Museum. There are plans to return the building to the Russian Orthodox Church in 2019. Most of my exterior shots are cluttered by the presence of a certain human that I inserted into the images for the sake of showing the scale of the building’s very massive and very impressive columns, so I will just include one little look at the interior. As you can see, it is very different from the Church on the Blood. [For more information, I will once again refer you to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Isaac%27s_Cathedral ]

 

 

At some point in the afternoon, we passed the Aurora, the naval vessel that fired a shot to signal the storming of the Winter Palace in 1917; this was the best photo I could get through the window of the van. Good thing the windows were very clean: thank you, Sergei.

 

 

This is one of the sites that I would definitely be visiting if I were on a private tour.

 

[There’s a better picture of the ship here: http://www.saint-petersburg.com/museums/cruiser-aurora/ ]

 

 

Next up: the Hermitage.

[afto]

May 29: Day Fifteen (St. Petersburg again, Part Three)

 

The Hermitage. This was number 1 on my “must visit” list for St. Petersburg, along with Peterhof. Alla had notified us in advance that, because of the very busy weekend in the city, we might not be able to enter the Hermitage early as had been planned for the first day. As it turned out, since we were delayed for such a long time at immigration we would have missed the early opening on the first day even if that option were available. (As others have said, immigration is very quick after that first morning; in most cases, coming or going, we walked right up to the desk.) Our second day in St. Petersburg was a Monday and the Hermitage is normally closed but they had made arrangements for tour groups to visit that day. So I was relieved to hear that.

 

There was a limited area of the Hermitage open for groups that day, including some of the grander state rooms and the galleries that most people would want to see on a short visit: those with the Da Vincis, the Rembrandts, the Titians, the Caravaggios, the peacock clock, et cetera. In this case, “et cetera” covers a lot of ground.

 

This area of the Hermitage is likely to be crowded with visitors at any time. Visitors to the Hermitage should also understand that the building itself, especially the Winter Palace, is as much a point of interest as the art works that the museum contains.

[More on the Winter Palace: http://www.saint-petersburg.com/palaces/winter-palace/ ]

 

We entered via the Jordan staircase.

 

 

We then visited some of the state rooms. As the web page below notes, “Many other rooms in the Hermitage feature beautiful - arguably more tasteful - interior decoration, but for a picture of the Russian Empire at its most grandiose extravagant, [the state rooms] are not to be missed.” This is the kind of excess that could make a person start thinking about a revolution, or think about starting a revolution, or something like that.

[More on some of the State Rooms: http://www.saint-petersburg.com/museums/hermitage-museum/state-rooms/ ]

 

The memorial throne room of Peter the Great.

 

 

The floors throughout the Winter Palace are all different, and all beautiful. At Catherine Palace, we would be asked to wear paper booties (“safety shoes”) over our own footwear, to protect the floors. This used to be the case at the Hermitage too, but Olga said that they are now using some kind of protective coating which makes the booties unnecessary.

 

 

So many wonderful works of art, but very little time to linger. In a room full of Rembrandts, here is the artist’s wife and model Saskia as the goddess Flora.

 

 

There were a few students in the galleries, learning from the masters.

 

 

Marching on; schedule to keep.

 

 

As we left, I estimated that we had been there for about 10 minutes. Checking the time stamp on my photos, it seems that we were actually there for just over two hours. Time flies when you are moving so quickly from one room to the next and have very little time to stop and appreciate the works of art that they contain. We had a timed entry at Catherine Palace that afternoon, and Olga was understandably very conscious of the clock on our last day in Russia. We had also mentioned to her that very morning that we were rather hoping to be back on board the ship when it sailed that evening.

 

Leaving the Hermitage, I was thinking that it’s a good thing that we saw the Yusupov Palace on day 1, when we were still easily impressed; if I had gone there AFTER the Hermitage and Catherine Palace, I would have thought that the time spent at the Yusupov could have been put to better use. And I am thinking that now too, although others may hold different opinions. It depends where your personal interests lie. Certainly, although I do not regret choosing this tour with a day in Moscow, that choice precluded any leisurely site visits in St. Petersburg. I hope DH isn’t reading this, because I have not yet convinced him that there should be a “next time” … but next time I will spend all of one day at the Hermitage. Except for a couple of hours in the early afternoon for lunch, fresh air and, in an ideal world, a foot massage.

[suzzek]

Thank you for your entertaining and amazing trip report! We will be doing a similar itinerary next June, also on Silhouette. I am going to bookmark your review so that I can reference your wonderful commentary. Your photos are outstanding!! Can't wait for the next installment!!

[Slugsta]

Hi afto,

 

It is lovely to see the interiors of the churches. Many of them were closed up when we were there in the 80s. We have been back to SPB on a cruise (2009) and things were, indeed, very different!

 

The first time, we stayed in SPB/Leningrad for 4 days (having already stayed on Moscow, Bukhara, Tashkent and Samarkand) and were able to wander around at our leisure. The second time we did the ship's tours and were shepherded around. There were a lot of changes - street names in the Roman alphabet, neon signs to name but 2!

[upwarduk]

Outside, people were enthusiastically hawking guide books and souvenirs and there were some stalls selling matryoshka dolls and other trinkets. Not too many takers as far as I could see.

It was recommended that we should leave our bags and money in the 'van' on our SPB tour in 2015, as a precaution against pick pockets.

 

It is lovely to see the interiors of the churches. Many of them were closed up when we were there in the 80s. We have been back to SPB on a cruise (2009) and things were, indeed, very different.

 

On our visit in 2002, we were driven around to view buildings from the OUTSIDE only. Unfortunately, many had a green baize around them, as they were being renovated in preparation for the 300th ? anniversary of the Russian state.

Renovations were still ongoing in 2015. The church at the Summer palace wasn't open for visitors, even though the guide thought that it soon would be. She also told us that it was only very recently that all signs had been dual Russian/ English, to encourage tourism.

Edited July 5, 2017 by upwarduk

[texasgirl29]

Excellent review! Brought back all the good feels from our Baltic trip on the Eclipse in 2015, with a bonus from our Amsterdam overnight last month also on the Eclipse British Isles cruise. I love your flippant writing style, and 4000 photos -- pffff, so few? (Seriously, I only did 1000 last month but my husband took 3000. He's prone to taking photos of signs and other quirky things.) I do have to add, "Yikes!" to the immigration fiasco in St. Petersburg -- we had nothing like that in 2015 (toured with SPB -- are all drivers named Sergei?) but we were 20 minutes late getting off the ship in Cobh, Ireland and we thought that was a catastrophe. I'm looking forward to more.

[afto]

Hi afto,

 

It is lovely to see the interiors of the churches. Many of them were closed up when we were there in the 80s. We have been back to SPB on a cruise (2009) and things were, indeed, very different!

 

The first time, we stayed in SPB/Leningrad for 4 days (having already stayed on Moscow, Bukhara, Tashkent and Samarkand) and were able to wander around at our leisure. The second time we did the ship's tours and were shepherded around. There were a lot of changes - street names in the Roman alphabet, neon signs to name but 2!

 

I too was surprised to see so much Roman alphabet signage, although that was not the case everywhere. I once (well, twice actually, and with similar results) took a course in Russian but did not get much beyond learning and then promptly forgetting the alphabet. But some of that came back to me on the trip and I actually found it very entertaining to try to sound out the words on signs as we drove by. DH did not find my random interjections of "restaurant!" to be all that entertaining. I guess it was like driving with a 5-year-old who is just learning the alphabet.

 

I was quite pleased with myself for sounding this one out and concluding that this object was a mail box, although I think DH had this one figured out long before I did.