After 2 yrs of planning, I was finally landing in St Petersburg about 9 pm to start my exciting 2 weeks here and in Moscow. My Russian friend from my south American trip, Sergey had a week off and was wonderful enough to meet me at the airport, get me to my hotel in a taxi , and then be my Russian guide for the whole week in Spb. The lst full day did not start early as I slept in after the long trip. We then took a bus from the nearly new Marriott Courtyard about 1 mile into the city center and Nevsky Prospect, the famous main shopping boulevard. Walking to the main rail station, I bought the tickets for the high speed bullet train to Moscow next Wed. The several high speed trains each day usually are sold out. It was fun to window shop and see some of the high end stores and interesting architecture of the buildings, such as the Singer Building. Spb is a classic European city with no high rise buildings . It was extremely clean . We walked by the landmark Russian Orthodox, and famous onion domed Church of Spilled Blood, toured the huge Palace Square with the former Catherine the Great's Winter Palace ( now the Hermitage Museum ) and walked the river bank with its wonderful views. A fun lunch at a small cafe was where I was introduced to Okroska, a cold Russian soup and also some small pancakes filled with meat and diced vegetables. The towering Gold Dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral is the tallest point in the city, and it is set in a lovely park at the Neva River's edge. I returned to the hotel, and then later that evening, I got to enjoy the Swan Lake ballet in the Grand Old Ballet building. The world famous home of the Kirov ballet in the Mariinskiy building was being rebuilt. All in all it was a busy and fun lst full day , my 2nd day in Spb.
Day 3 started with a bus ride to the Sadovaya Metro 1 station and a ride to the rivers edge Admiralty stop. There we got off and walked to board a hydrofoil for the hour boat ride out into the Gulf of Finland and across to the incredible Peterhof Palace on the oceans edge west of Spb. The 5 metro lines, serving 2 million passengers a day, are the worlds deepest metro lines. They are buried over 300 feet deep near the river. The speedy escalators that take one up and down to the lines are something to experience. Peterhof Palace and grounds are called by many to rival or top Versailles, and I can see why. I have never seen anything like the amount of gold plating on the fountains, the statues and elsewhere throughout the wonderful grounds. The grand canal from the sea to the palace center and grand entrance ends in what is called the "Golden Cascades". The opulence within the palace was stunning. I toured the palace and also walked the immense grounds before exiting out the back side of the grounds to a bus. Then it was back to the red line metro 5 stops, the blue line metro 1 stop and a short bus ride back to the hotel. Last night I had a wonderful stroganoff and borscht and this night I tried Russian Pelmeni. I always try local dishes when traveling.
Day 4 was a half day in the Hermitage Museum. One could spend days inside what is billed as 2nd only to Paris's Louve as the worlds top museum. The art and paintings by the Dutch and French masters had to be seen to be believed. That afternoon, Sergey led me back to St Isaacs where we climbed to the very top for the city view. The 300 step climb to near the top reminded me of climbing to the top of St Peters in Rome. This church is the 3rd largest domed cathedral in the world, and the view from the top is the best in Spb.
Sunday we took an outing southwest of Spb into the countryside to Pushkin and the opulent , gilded magnificence of the Tsar's Palaces and lovely surrounding grounds. Thanks again to Sergey the trip was easy. We took the bus to the metro and out to the end of the line, where we boarded another bus out into the countryside to Pushkin and the wonders there. Clearly the Catherine's Palace was the most gilded and ornate of all. We toured the incredible palace interior, then walked around the large lake in the Versailles sized park like grounds before touring the smaller Alexander Palace . After a peek at the Pushkin Lycee, we returned to Spb. That night we went to a wonderful night of Russian folk dancing that included cossack dancing . Afterwards our enjoyable evening was extended with a late evening stop at the New Holland center park, plaza, open space and beer garden on the canal bank. Sergey told me not long ago this was an "off limits" military base. How times change !
The last two days in Spb were spent with one day across the river , touring St Peter and Paul's Cathedral and grounds area on the island across from the Hermitage. The city views were wonderful. Then we walked over to Vasilievsky Island to see the sites, walked through the sprawling Spb State University and finally back across the bridge to the metro and bus ride back to the hotel. I was impressed with the cleanliness of the city, the friendliness of the people, the common use of English signs along side the Russian signs in the tourist places and Hermitage Museum, and finally the lack of nearly any visable police or military presence . There seemed to be far fewer police in view than in any other city I have been in throughout Europe. However, I felt very safe the entire time.
The final full day was spent downtown again and included another photo trip to the Church of the Spilled Blood. That is a stunning visual sight , with its unique architecture and appearance. We also took the metro to the far south of Spb to see the Park Pobedy or victory park. The park had lots of construction going on and was disappointing. While we were far south, we also toured the unique, candy stripped Chesme Church. Finally, a last dinner in Spb, a last overnight, and then Wed we were off to the main rail station and the high speed bullet train across Russia to Moscow.
The pictures are below and can be seen by scrolling below from here:
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| Art in huge Palace Square in front of Hermitage Museum or old Winter Palace |
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| view across Palace Square |
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| St Peter and Pauls Cathedral across river from Hermitage |
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| Historic old Singer Building on Nevsky Prospect |
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| Magnificent Church of Spilled Blood near city center on one of the Spb canals |
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| Another view from rear of Church of Spilled Blood |
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| Chesme Church and its facinating architecture and candy cane appearance |
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| Peterhof and the guilded fountains of the Golden Staircase in front of main entrance |
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| Enjoying the incredible view of Peterhof |
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| View from palace entrance overlooking Golden Staircase and canal into Gulf of Finland |
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| Golden spires at end of main palace |
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| View of Peterhof's grandeur from grounds behind palace |
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| A view of city after climbing the 300 steps to top of St Isaac's dome. |
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| St Isaac's towering above rivers edge park |
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| view of Hermitage near main entrance |
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| One of the many world famous original statues and paintings in the Hermitage |
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| one of the many Rembrant paintings in the Hermitage |
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| A knights and armour room within the Hermitage |
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| another of the original mostly Dutch and French paintings |
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| View from within of the vast central gardens and courtyard of the Hermitage |
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| an example of the guilded opulence of some of the Hermitage rooms displays |
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| Famous painting |
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| View of vast Palace Square from within Hermitage or Winter Palace |
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| Stunning scene of Catherine's Palace and grounds in Tsar Palace Park and complex in Pushkin |
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| A view showing the immense size of the Catherine's Palace |
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| The unbelievable Grand Ballroom and all of its guilded interior |
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| Have you ever seen so much gold? I felt underdressed :-) |
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| Catherine's Room in her grand palace |
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| one more of the nearly endless opulent golden rooms of the grand palace |
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| View across the front of palace out towards the lake and vast park surrounding palace |
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| another view of the amazing palace and its wonderful grounds |
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| view at far end of good sized lake in the huge park like grounds of the palace |
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| The much smaller but still elegant Alexander's Palace |
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| land mark monument at edge of river in Spb on Vasilevskiy Island |
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| View of St Peter and Pauls Cathedral from bridge over Neva River |
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| view looking back towards Hermitage across river |
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| another view from island itself of the St Peter and Pauls |
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| View within the cathedral being refurbished inside and out |
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| Burial casket of the tsars family |
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| more of the Tsar family burial caskets |
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| another casket of the Tsars |
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| View of the St Peter and Paul Cathedral from the front showing reconstruction |
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| Cruiser Aurora, that signaled the start of the 1917 Russian Revolution |
