St Petersburg – Day 1
Today, we arrived at the undisputed highlight of our voyage; St. Petersburg.
St. Petersburg was its original founding name. It got renamed to Petragrad at some point along the way, and then for about 75 years, it was known as Leningrad, and was, at one time, the capital city of Russia. Russia is a different place, though, these days; the administrative capital is Moscow and gone is the communist regime. Instead; a newly-democratised Russian public where given a referendum, in which 59% voted to revert the city to its original name of St. Petersburg… St. Petersburg it is, then…
Cruise ship passenger options are limited when it comes to visiting the city. Only those in possession of a Russian visa are allowed to travel independently; no visa is required, however, if they belong to an organised ship excursion.
We’re here for two days, so Tracey and I were given escorting duties for a two-day package, which covers a little bit of everything…
The first job was to get through Russian Immigration, which went surprisingly smoothly. Once everyone was on the bus, we headed towards Catherine’s Palace. The weather was cool, but mercifully dry.
I must admit, I lose track of who was married to who in the history of Russian royalty. There was a Catherine the 1st and 2nd, and one of them was known as Catherine the Great; there are several Peters (and a Peter the Great, of course) and umpteen Nicholases. No matter… whichever Catherine the Palace belonged to, I’m sure she was very happy there (or not… since Russian royalty had no qualms about bumping a relative off if they decided they didn’t like them much).
To say Catherine’s Palace is gob-smackingly impressive would be quite an understatement; the main palace buildings, painted in a striking blue and white, with gold ornamentations, seem to stretch on forever. Walking through the interior rooms is an absolute feast for the eyes, with lights, mirrors and gold leaf much in abundance. Vast ballrooms and elegant dining rooms are only trumped by the Amber Room, which is literally covered from floor to ceiling in ornate amber mosaics.
One of the most impressive things about the palace is that the way it appears today is the result of extensive restoration work that has gone on since the 1940s. The buildings and grounds received severe punishment from the Germans in the war, and photos showing the extent of the devastation really bring home how extensive the rebuilding process has been.
After two hours inside the palace, our guide took us on a short tour of the gardens, during which time, it started to rain.
It being an all-day tour meant that we were given lunch, featuring Borsch soup, Chicken and vegetables and Russian Champagne. Very nice indeed. While we ate lunch, however, the rain started to fall heavier… by the time we had finished, it was really quite grim outside…
The final section of our first day’s tour was to the Peterhof Palace Gardens (not the inside of the palace itself). A guided tour of its many fountains left many imagining how much nicer they might have looked on a warm summers day and without the puddles. As it was, it felt a bit like a wet weekend in Scarborough.
Having said that; despite the inclement weather, the fountains we saw (for there are many more that we didn’t see) were truly spectacular. The centrepiece of the gardens is what they call ‘The Grand Cascade’, a multi-tiered display of many fountains and gold sculptures in an installation of such grandeur that one staggers at the immense costs that must have been involved. The whole collection of fountains was nothing more than a grand idea dreamed up one day by one of the Peters (I think), who woke up one morning and decided the garden was looking a little drab. What it needed was a water feature… or two. Amazingly; all the fountains operate purely by gravity… water flows down from the upper gardens, through the fountains, and finally to the Gulf of Finland. Quite awesome!
By the time we’d returned to the coach, the passengers were quite drenched, and happy to be back in the warm and dry.
It had been a long day, but a very rewarding one, despite the rain. Tomorrow, we will be concentrating on the central attractions of the city… that’ll be another long day, then… so an early night is in order…
By the way… I recommend taking a look at Tracey’s Blog (see link to the left of your screen). Not only does she post more photos than me, but she had some interesting passengers on her coach, which makes for humurous reading…
