One of the most exciting places we’ve visited was St. Petersburg, Russia. We got to spend two days exploring the amazing city and it’s surroudings during our first cruise, a tour of the Baltic Sea, after Honeybun had just turned three and Sugarplum was 11 months.
Though hubby frequently traveled to Russia for work during our time in Ireland, it was one place I never expected to be able to go but since getting a tourist Visa while visiting on a cruise ship is relatively easy, we took advantage. We booked a two-day private tour through DenRus since there were six of us (hubby’s parents were cruising with us) and it was actually cheaper than doing the ship excursions and we were able to travel at our own pace, use the girls’ car seats, see what we wanted to see and have a private tour guide to answer all of our questions plus we still got to use the tour lines at the attractions that were always shorter than the individuals lines! The tour package included a driver and tour guide who spoke very English very well (she was a teacher and we were there during her school holidays in the summer) and was very eager to answer all our questions.
Our first day started with a driving tour of the city. We were shown all the most famous and popular sights and stopped at a few to take pictures (though this was a bit difficult at times with the girls needing to be buckled in and out of their car seats each time. We stopped into a nice (but admittedly touristy) shop as well where we bought way too many souvenirs (faberge eggs, ballerina paintings, handpainted toys and rings for the girls) and also sampled local vodkas and brandies.
We had lunch at a local little restaurant where we tried a myriad of delicious meat and fruit pies before heading to the Hermitage. One of the largest and oldest museums in the world, the Hermitage boasts the largest painting collection in the world. On par with the Louvre in Paris and the Vatican Museum in Italy, the Hermitage definitely did not disappoint! We saw just a sliver of the enormous museum and were fascinated. Housed in various buildings including the Tsars’ former Winter Palace, even the girls had more than enough to see from the elaborate ceilings and architecture to the fascinating art and furnishings. You could easily spend hours upon hours (or even days!) and get lost in the museum.
After the Hermitage we headed to the Peter and Paul Fortress which contains the Cathedral where the majority of the later Tsars are laid to rest. The fortress also houses the state Mint, a Tsarist prison as well as a city museum. We only visited the Cathedral with its rows of elaborate tombs which reminded me of Westminster Abbey in London and the Les Invalides in Paris which houses Napoleon’s tomb.
We returned to the ship for dinner and then hubby and I headed back on shore (leaving the girls with Grandma and Grandpa for the night) to see a production of Swan Lake. While I was a little disappointed we didn’t get to see the Mariinsky perform, the production was beautiful (though it had the Soviet ending where no one dies unlike the original story) and we did drive by the Mariinsky theatre (pictured) so I at least got to see it. I have to say though that I was really disappointed in the etiquette of the audience which was mainly made up of tourists (presumably cruise ship passengers like us) who took pictures, talked loudly and even took videos throughout the production!
The next day we headed outside the city to visit a few of the Tsar’s Summer Palaces. After many exhausting (but exciting) days hubby’s mom decided to stay back on the ship and while she missed some great sights, I don’t blame her for taking the day off. We walked and walked and walked that day, through the rain and puddles.
After our first stop at an Orthodox cathedral which I forewent to stay in the car with a sleeping Sugarplum, we headed to Catherine Palace. The palace was the Summer home of many of the Tsars from Catherine I through Catherine the Great though it was rebuilt, remodeled and refurbished numerous times before being completely destroyed by the retreating German forces at the end of World War II. Much of the palace is yet to be refurbished but what has been completed shows the decadent and magnificent style of the Tsars past and puts the palace on par with many of the other great European Palaces and Castles we visited.
We stopped in Shuvalovka, a quaint little Russian village for lunch. We were lucky that we were able to slip in for a quick bite before larger (scheduled) tour groups came in. It is a lovely little, quaint village with traditional style buildings (and for some odd reason between three tourists, we have no pictures of it!)
After our lunch which helped warm us up and dry off, we headed to Peterhof. The large palace complex and gardens are often referred to as “The Russian Versailles”. We only had time to visit the gardens (and luckily the rain had mostly subsided) but Peterhof welcomes visitors into the main palace as well as many of the numerous other palaces, buildings and museums. The gardens, which were constructed in the 1700s feature an advanced and unique pump system which delivers the water to all the fountains. We wandered the gardens for a few hours including some time at the water front where Peter the Great built his Monplaisir Palace and I’m not sure we even saw all of it.
I’m sure there are a million more things to see in St. Petersburg and maybe some day I’ll make it back but for now, I am so pleased with everything we got to see and the fact that we got to go at all!
