{"id":56,"date":"2014-10-21T22:59:18","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T21:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/?p=56"},"modified":"2014-11-21T17:55:13","modified_gmt":"2014-11-21T17:55:13","slug":"st-petersburg-russia-day-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/st-petersburg-russia-day-one\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg, Russia – Day One"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Today, we arrived in St. Petersburg, Russia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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First job of the day, after eating breakfast, was to go out onto the open deck, to assess how cold it was. Answer: VERY COLD! Zero-degrees centigrade, to be precise, with a snap to take your breath away. From where we were berthed, all you could see were the port terminal buildings, and large clusters of grey apartment blocks beyond the far edges of a wide open, un-developed no-mans land. Somewhere in the distance, the city lay; we would have to wait until the afternoon to see more…<\/p>\n

Unlike any of the other ports-of-call on our trip (in fact, as far as I know; unlike any port-of-call that we’ve ever been to before), St. Petersburg is a place that you can’t just head ashore and wander around freely by yourself. Only visitors in possession of a pre-purchased Russian visa permit, or a ship-excursion ticket would be allowed to pass through immigration; without either of them, one would have to spend the whole two days of our visit on board ship, which would seem a bit daft having come all this way.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, both Tracey and I managed to secure escort duties for two trips (this afternoon and tomorrow morning), and have paid for a third tomorrow afternoon.<\/p>\n

Our first trip, this afternoon, was to visit the Church of the Spilled Blood; built on the site where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881; also known as The Church of the Resurrection, it’s one of St Petersburg’s most famous tourist landmarks. As we disembarked, the cold hit us, and fine drizzle in the air was turning to light snow. I was thankful that I’d packed my walking boots and a long scarf to go with my thick walking fleece and hat; the word is… it’s going to get even colder as the day progresses… and it did.<\/p>\n

Tracey was escorting on one bus and I another; three coaches in total had been laid on for this particular excursion. One of the first things I noticed on our journey in was how the driving is a bit of a free-for-all, with parking high on the list of poor driving examples. It seems, when a Russian driver fails to find a parking spot large enough for the length of his car, he either finds a space that’s large enough for its width and simply drives it straight in, with the two front wheels on the pavement and its back end sticking out into the traffic, or shunts his way in; I have video evidence of a driver that had done just that, and the ensuing exchange between the two drivers was a sight to see, with one car neatly embedded into the other.<\/p>\n

In many ways, poor driving aside, St. Petersburg appears to be no different from any other large city in the world. One thing that can be said for it is… it is truly massive! On our way, the guide pointed out palace after colourful palace, a couple of submarines and endless monuments and statues.<\/p>\n

At the Church of the Spilled Blood, were emerged from the stifling heat of the coach into the breathless cold air of the October afternoon. From the outside, the Church of the Spilled Blood is an impressive sight, with its five Russian-style onion-skin domes and ornate exterior. Impressive as it is, it isn’t until you step inside that its full impact really hits you. It’s a huge building, with great square pillars and curved ceilings; and every single surface is covered in the most magnificent mosaics… all quite awesome, actually.<\/p>\n

We spent almost an hour in there, marvelling at the artwork around us, until it was time to emerge, once more, into the cold. Our guide led us a short walk, down the street, away from the church, towards a meeting place in the corner of a snow-sprinkled park sporting a statue of Alexander Pushkin. At this point, all three groups were given the freedom to wander at will for the final hour and a quarter of the tour, so Tracey and I wandered off for a short walk, seeking out some classic views of the Church of the Spilled Blood, and enjoying as much of the city for a couple of blocks as we could (in the knowledge that we would be coming back tomorrow).<\/p>\n

It’s been a great introduction to Russia’s city of culture; the cold air and dusting of light snow added to the atmosphere of the place, and both of us felt slightly drained as evening approached. It’s going to be another long day tomorrow (and we might have to break out the thermals), so an early night is in order.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, we arrived in St. Petersburg, Russia. First job of the day, after eating breakfast, was to go out onto the open deck, to assess how cold it was. Answer: VERY COLD! Zero-degrees centigrade, to be precise, with a snap to take your breath away. From where we were berthed, all you could see were the port terminal buildings, and...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}