| Our second day in St. Petersburg didn't turn out as well as
the first. Our tour lasted the full day and as in Elsinore, we were the
first group to take this new (to the cruise line) tour. In the morning we
took a bus ride around Imperial Russia, then we ate lunch at the Hotel Grand
Europa, then took a hydrofoil to Peterhof in the afternoon. The timing didn't
work out well; we met a chaotic mob scene and thunderstorms at Peterhof
and were late getting back to the ship! |
 |
One of our stops during the morning tour was outside St. Isaac's Cathedral. Inside is a museum which we did not get to see, but it was a nice place to pose for pictures- and one of the few places where we were not shooting directly into the sun! |
 |
 |
This would have been a nicer picture with the sun in a different place! This is a view of an island across the Neva River. In the middle is the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, with a weather vane on top. The Cathedral is the tallest building in St. Petersburg. |
 |
This is the Smolny Cathedral, designed by the same architect as the Winter Palace, the Catherine Palace and Peterhof. It was built for Peter the Great's daughter, Elizabeth. She wanted to become a nun and this was to be her convent. Today the church is used as a concert hall and the convent buildings house local government offices. |
 |
This is the Church of the Spilled Blood, built on the spot where Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. We spent about an hour here and in the flea market across the street. This was an amazing building! The inside was opened to the public in 1997 after years of restoration, but we were not permitted to take pictures. The interior is breathtaking; every wall is covered with colorful mosaics and the columns are granite, malachite or a red rock native to Russia whose name I can't remember. Even the insides of the cupolas were covered in tiles. Maybe it was a good thing after all that we weren't allowed to take pictures; we wouldn't have known where to begin. So, we satisfied ourselves by taking lots of pictures of the colorful exterior!
We also had the opportunity to do a little shopping in the flea market. We had heard quite a bit about the flea market and had been advised to do our shopping at the shipboard "Russian Bazaar" rather than spend money here. We were apprehensive at first, but as we walked around we found ourselves wishing we had more time to browse. There were Matroishka dolls by the hundred for sale, as well as lacquer boxes and other items, in all price ranges from a dollar or two (tiny Matroishkas) to several thousand dollars (lacquer boxes). Rory picked up one of the best finds of the whole trip here- a beautiful set of nesting dolls with pictures of St. Petersburg buildings. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Yes, there is more to the church than the roof and cupolas! This picture of Rory and me was taken from a spot across the street, maybe in the flea market. |
 |
Lunch at the Hotel Grand Europa was supposed to last an hour but it
didn't take a genius to figure out that would be impossible. The restaurant
was located on the top floor, there were a few hundred of us, and the elevators
were slow and on a good day held maybe eight people! This was where we lost
time, but the food was good, the service impeccable, if a bit slow, and
the entertainment enjoyable. A group of singers and dancers performed Russian
folk music and even some not-so-Russian music (a riotous version of the
Beatles' "Back in the USSR") as we dined. |
|
I had a hard time finding a web site with good photos of Peterhof, but I did find a virtual tour of St. Petersburg at www.cityvision2000.com/city_tour/index.htm.
At our second to last port of call I finally figured out how to record short comments to go with my pictures! Some were actually helpful; others were not. As a result this page was a little frustrating for me. Web searches for "Peterhof" turned up lots of pages in Russian (that "translate" button on the search engine is useless- I guess it only knows Romance languages), and pictures of the fountain, the facade and the park. It shouldn't have been a surprise to find so few picture of the interior because the lighting and the size of the rooms made photography difficult. We breezed through some rooms and stood waiting in others. After this experience we all said we were glad we saw and enjoyed the Catherine Palace the day before. |
 |
Here are a few weary travelers on their way to Peterhof from the pier where the hydrofoil docked. It was a long, slow walk. |
 |
At the end of the "Water Road" leading to the palace is this fountain, the Grand Cascade. |
 |
 |
We waited...and waited...and waited...and waited to get in, so I took a picture of the exterior. |
 |
This close-up of the spire on the roof was taken from inside the palace. |
 |
Once inside, we stood, waited some more, and grew increasingly impatient. The comment I recorded with this picture was, "I think Peterhof is Russian for 'Empty Room'!" I really don't know what that room was. |
 |
Most of the rooms in Peterhof are small and square. There is an attendant in each one to ensure that only one tour group is in each room at a time. This door leads into the Gold Room, which is one of the few large rooms. |
 |
Another large room is the Throne Hall. We entered at the back. |
 |
What would a Throne Hall be without a throne! The portrait behind this one is Peter the Great on horseback. The whole thing wouldn't fit in the frame. |
 |
This is the Gala Dining Room. The table service is Wedgwood, one of a kind. |
 |
It was the style at the time to have a room or suite of rooms decorated in an Oriental motif. This room was so small and dark it was hard to get a good photograph. I found a professional slide on the web that didn't look much better than my attempt! |
 |
This music room is part of the empress' suite. |
 |
This is the divan in the music room. |
 |
This looks like a sitting room or study of some sort, probably also part of the empress' suite of rooms. I found a picture of Peter the Great's study, which was decorated very differently, and that's why I think this must have been a more feminine room. |
 |
I don't know what this room is but I liked the painting- at least that's what my little comment said! |
 |
This is one of the bedchambers, something else that was very hard to photograph. |
|
As the ship left port, the Russian Bazaar began. The vendors had for sale lots of Matroishkas and lacquer boxes which the passengers eagerly snapped up. We had reserved our lacquer boxes at the jewelry shop the night before, so we spent some time looking for a Matroishka for me. I didn't see any as nice as Rory's so I didn't get one. |