Two Days With Natalia in St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg was the jewel in this cruise's crown. We had two days at sea and change two time zones to get here and the same going back to Amsterdam. So they spend two days and one night here. None of us are permitted through Russian customs and immigration without a document specifying who is our tour guide. Partly as a consequence, the tours are quite expensive, but former model Natalia (with her husband, Dennis, a former ski jumper, as driver) took the four of us around in a late model VW van at a better price than Celebrity's. Mike had found and selected Natalia months ago.

Natalia's English and her knowledge of Art, Russian history and her city were extensive and entertaining. She was the highlight of our stay here. Dennis does not speak English but is an excellent and attentive driver. In contact with Natalia by cell phone, he was always where we needed him. They proved their value added when Natalia left Lene and I with Dennis in a downtown park that was having an international garden show while she drove Linda and Mike to a local hospital staffed by US doctors to look again at Linda's painful healing broken wrist, and then Dennis drove them and Lene back to the ship, about 25 minutes away, while Natalia put her art history training to work on a personalized tour of the Hermitage. I wonder what happens when you are two of forty passengers on a tour bus and your wrist starts to throb?

Hermitage from the Neva, which it fronts,

I helped Natalia with my commentary on these two strategically contrasting paintings by 18th Century Italian painters who were unknown to me. On top Tiepolo's "Dictatorship Offered to Cincinnatus"; he was a Roman general who like our George Washington after two terms, declined to lead the nation but went back to his farm. Below, Guglielmi's "Apotheosis of the reign of Catherine the Great" -- she who loved to wield power.

Exterior from the street side

One of the Hermitage's architecturally  magnificent salons

In addition to various cathedrals, parks, palaces, stores, forts and monuments, we stopped at the massive monument to the 900 day siege and bombing of Leningrad, as it was then known, where Hitler lost his way in WWII, as millions, literally, of Russians starved and froze to death if they were not killed by daily bombing and artillery fire. Terrible brutal times. In the US we sometimes forget that while we made huge sacrifices of blood and money to assure victory in the two World Wars, our primary role was to supply war materials while our Allies suffered the bulk of the casualties. Today, in the war against terror, it is unfortunately our own youth who are doing the bleeding and dying.

The first highlight was our stop in Pushkin, as the imperial summer palace complex of Elizabeth and Catherine is called, also known as Tzaroe Selo, perhaps 25 miles south of the city. This Summer Palace was successfully designed to resemble Versailles, outside Paris. The Russians of the 18th century sure did have a love affair with  France and all things French -- including its language and Napoleon  --until he invaded Russia. When we think of these magnificent art filled museums we have to remember that they represent the Russian serfs' "taxpayer dollars at work".

They make you wear these booties to protect the floors

Lunch in a restaurant owned by a friend of Putin consisting of hot borsht, potato pancakes, hot pockets of dough baked with cabbage, mushroom or meat in them and the best tasting cranberry juice I have had.

We visited Peter the Great's summer palace as well, Peterhof, about 25 miles west of town, on the Gulf of Finland branch of the Baltic. You can see the Gulf at the far end of this grand fountain filled canal.

Same fountains, from below.

I had not known of Peter's training, prowess and love of naval architecture and warfare. Note the interesting cross atop the steeple here, sitting on an anchor.

But his palace is best known for its many magnificent fountains, fed by gravity from lakes high above and flowing out into the Gulf.

We did miss the museum of ship models here, due to threatening torrential rains which hit soon after we began to drive home.

After the rain we got out with Natalia and took the St. Petersburg Metro for a few stops before being picked up again by Dennis for the rest of the ride home. Mike loves to ride foreign subways and this one is designed elegantly and unusually deep beneath the city.

The island fortress of Peter and Paul from the river.

The two Rostrum Towers featuring the hulls of ships sticking out of their sides.

The magnificent Church of the Savior of Spilt Blood, built in the late nineteenth century on the site of the assassination of Tzar Alexander II, who freed the serfs and was assassinated for it.

Shrine at the specific assassination site

 Interestingly, part of the reason for his sale of Alaska to the US ("Seward's Folly") was to raise some of the funds by which he compensated the landowners for the loss of their property. No civil war resulted and the only blood shed was the Tzar's.

Sunset here is at 11:30 and sunrise at 4:30; we have been sleeping through both. Again we have been impressed by the heavy volume of shipping in the Baltic.