From Russia....with Love

Welcome back vicarious travelers-

We are just leaving the port of Tallinn, Estonia headed for St. Petersburg, Russia. We are afraid that as much as we looked forward to St. Petersburg, it is going to be somewhat of a disappointment. Russian visa requirements are such that we can only leave the ship on official cruise line sponsored tours. We have signed up for only two. The problem is that some of the tours we were interested in only do drive by’s of some of the sights, particularly cathedrals. So it looks like we may spend a lot of time on board looking over the railing at St. Petersburg. We will, of course, report more later.

As for Tallinn; like Riga, Latvia, Tallinn was a treasure that we thoroughly enjoyed. Tallinn is a considerably smaller city than Riga so it did not have quite the same touristy feel of Riga which means it was almost non existent. Like Riga, Tallinn also had an old and a new town with us spending most of our time in the old town. Because of its topography, Tallinn was a bit more picturesque than Riga. It was more hilly and the architecture was different. Again, like Riga, Tallinn was filled with many inviting restaurants and cafes. What we saw more of in Tallinn was art galleries featuring works by local artists. We really enjoyed visiting these galleries. We also visited a Russian Orthodox Church that was breathtaking in its beauty. It was not as large as some of the other notable cathedrals we have visited but it certainly rivaled them in beauty. We also had a successful day of geocaching. Even if we end up being disappointed with St. Petersburg we will be able to look back on Latvia and Estonia as being wonderful travel finds.

St. Petersburg has NOT been a disappointment. The first day was spent on the ship which was ok. Because we are so far north the sun does not set officially until 11:00 p.m. and rises at 5:00 a.m. One of our guides told us that this time of year is know as white night because it never really gets dark. Our body clocks are severely out of whack. After resting all day we spent the evening at the Palace of Catherine the Great. We were greeted by an 8 piece military band. After a tour of the palace that included the magnificent Amber Room (!) (see picture) we ended up in the Grand Hall where waiters waited with flutes of champagne for us. We were entertained by a string quartet that was considerably better than the one on board our ship. Next, Catherine and her husband, Peter the Second, welcomed us with a champagne toast. This was followed by dancing; entertainers not the guests. We were than escorted outside where we were met again by the military band which actually did some simple marching maneuvers. They did not hold a candle to the Spartan Marching Band. A horse drawn carriage came flying in carrying two people who ended up doing some more dancing. Finally, we went to dinner. It actually was great fun. We had hors deurves of caviar along with shots of vodka. After a nice salad that included excellent cold roast beef, and an interesting cold mushroom soup, we enjoyed a main coarse of salmon with a shredded carrot and turnip or parsnip accompaniment. We had unlimited amounts of red wine, which was very good, and vodka. During dinner we were entertained by traditional Russian folk singers. We returned to the ship at 11:00 with the sun still shining brightly. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

On our second day we did two excursions. In the morning we went to the Hermitage which is also the winter palace of the Tsars. The Hermitage contains one of the most important collections of art in Europe. There was a fine collection of Rembrandts as well as other Dutch and Flemish artists. The impressionist and post impressionist collection, which is our favorite, was not nearly as impressive. However, just seeing the many rooms of the palace was a treat in itself. The opulence of some of the rooms is beyond description. In the afternoon we visited three Russian Orthodox Churches: St. Isaacs, Our Lady of Kazan, and the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. St. Isaacs and the Spilled Blood are no longer churches as such but are museums. Both were breathtakingly beautiful. The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood (see pictures, outside and inside) was built at the end of the 19th century on the spot where Tsar Nicholas II was assassinated. Hence the name. We need to check with Tim’s sister-in-law to see if she is related at all to Our Lady of Kazan as Kazan is her maiden name. This is a working church. Other than the Icon Stand, Our Lady was not particularly attractive inside. The Icon Stand is probably what we would consider an alter. At Our Lady of Kazan it was extremely beautiful. The stand includes an icon of Lady Kazan. She is considered to have great powers for solving problems of people who pray to her. There was a long line of people waiting to pray before and kiss the icon of Lady Kazan.

St. Petersburg is an interesting city. The two most notable things about St. Petersburg is that 1) it is quiet and 2)much of it is very drab. As you would expect with a city of 4 million plus people, there is much traffic. However, you hardly ever hear car horns honking. It sounds more like downtown Mason than midtown Manhattan. As we were riding the bus out to Catherine’s Palace last night we had a hard time figuring out where the major shopping street was located. When our guide finally explained that we were on it we were surprised because there is no glitz or buzz to the street. Even today when we drove down a street that actually had a Gucci store, it was a very plain and ordinary looking street. Interestingly and probably what you would expect, our Russian guides seemed to be very proud of how cosmopolitan St. Petersburg is, particularly in comparison to Moscow they said. The “drab” parts of St. Petersburg are off-set by the pastel paint colors of many of the buildings and the enameled onion dome cathedrals and gilt painting on some buildings. The Stalin-era apartment buildings are awful but there are still some spectacular Georgian and Baroque buildings that almost make “drab” the wrong impression.

On Friday, our third day in St. Petersburg, we took a bus out in the country to Peterhof, the summer palace of Peter the Great. (see picture of us in front of the Palace) This palace was occupied by the Nazi’s during WW II and they pretty much destroyed it as they were retreating from St. Petersburg, Leningrad during the war. What we saw was a complete rebuilding of the palace. Unfortunately, we were unable to take any pictures inside the palace and neither of us is a talented enough writer to adequately describe what we saw. It was stunningly beautiful but that doesn’t really do it justice. We also really enjoyed walking through the gardens around the palace. These were the first large scale gardens we have seen on our trip and they were lovely. There were many fountains mixed in with the ornate gardens, more Italian than English.

Because we could only leave the ship on officially sponsored tours we are pretty tired because we don’t do tours well. No stops for a drink which is more the pity. However, we both agree that St. Petersburg would be a very difficult city for us to visit as independent travelers. Language would not be problem but most of the signage is in Russian only, meaning we would have no clue as to what the sign said. We have thoroughly enjoyed St. Petersburg and, despite our fatigue, are glad we went on the tours that we finally chose. Tomorrow we are in Helsinki and hope to find a wifi café so that we can post this blog entry. We will also include pictures.

Tim and Lynda