June 2, 2014 - St. Petersburg, Russia

Another early day – our tour started at 7:20 this morning! We started off with a canal boat tour on the Neva River. It probably is lovely on one of the 65 sunny days St. Petersburg has, but it was raining this morning, and it was difficult to enjoy the views through the raindrops! Oh well! We had a tourist shop stop across from the Admiralty Building before heading back to take a hydrofoil to Peterhof.
Peterhof was quite interesting. Hof in Russian means garden, and the palace which is considered to be the Russian Versailles, is definitely surrounded by gardens. It was built in 1711 and has many fountains, all of which are gravity fed. It is so amazing that this palace was also built for receptions and the czar’s family never lived there – they stayed in a smaller palace nearby.

One of the fountains was designed to look like chessboards and another the triton. We marveled at the engineering that went into building these fountains – and we were thankful the tour provided umbrellas!

As we left Peterhof we drove past a palace located on the Gulf of Finland that is now home to Russian President Putin!

After a lunch stop, we drove to another palace – Catherine’s Summer Palace (Catherine I), which was also used only for receptions. After the Revolution, the palace was renamed Pushkin Palace because the people did not want to honor the czar’s family. There are 64 rooms in the palace. During WWII, the Soviet people took more than 40 trainloads of art, china, and smaller sculptures to Siberia to protect them from the Nazis which included several pieces from the palace. They were actually able to save about 70% of the art! When the war was coming to an end, the Nazis tried to destroy as much of the palace as they could, so they wouldn’t leave anything for the Russian people. While the palace originally took eight years to build, it has taken almost 70 years to restore. They are still working on it!



The Apollo statues on the front on the palace were originally all covered in gold, but it has worn away and is very expensive to replace.

Inside the palace we were able to tour several of the rooms. The first – and probably most impressive – was the Great Hall. Windows, mirrors, and gold covered the hall. During the Nazi occupation, it was completely destroyed!


Peter also loved the Delft porcelain from Holland so he had several heaters installed which were built using tiles from Holland. This is also one of Catherine’s gowns.

There were two rooms in the palace where they found original flooring that has not been restored. We had to wear booties over our shoes on the tour to protect them. The picture below shows part of the original parquet floor which was beautiful.

When we left the palace, we were able to see the bridge which connected the palace to the yellow building on the right. The yellow building was established as a school for noble boys.


We headed back to the ship after seeing this palace. I think I will need to add another post just with pictures and information about Russia and St. Petersburg as it is today. There was just so much to take absorb, it is hard to put into words!

June 1, 2014 - St. Petersburg, Russia

What a long and busy day! Up at 6 and ready to leave the ship at 7:30. Even though the ship had not cleared customs we got in line because we needed to pass through Russian immigration and meet our tour as quickly as possible. We were the first in our group of 14 to meet our guide! Maria is very knowledgeable and gave us lots of great information about Russia, the Romanov family, czars, take overs, the Soviet Union period, as well as general information about the country.

Our first stop was the Hermitage where we spent two hours viewing the architecture, the art, and learning more about Peter the Great, Catherine II, and who sent who to a convent and who overthrew her husband so she could take power. So many notes, so much history, too much to put in this space!





We had lunch at a local restaurant – one meat pie, one cabbage pie, one cream cheese pie, and one apple pie and drinks. It was very good and just what we needed to refortify for the the long afternoon and evening that was ahead.

After lunch we visited the Church of the Spilled Blood, where Alexander II was killed by a terrorist after he abolished the serfdom system in Russia – just like Lincoln did with slaves in the USA. The church took 27 years to construct and opened in 1907. At one point our guide needed to go get tickets, so she had Tobey hold our tour sign to keep the group together.




We next went to the Peter and Paul Cathedral – the first Russian Orthodox Church built. The exterior is very European in appearance because the architect was not Russian. It is the burial place of the Romanov family. Now it, along with the fortress surrounding the cathedral, serve as museums. Only one building is not, it is the Russian Mint, where coins are produced. It was interesting to learn that many political prisoners were held at the fortress – even up to WWII, while they were awaiting their fate – exile to Siberia or execution.



We went to another palace that is now a museum – I am guessing at the spelling, Yusopov Palace. I will have to look it up! It is the place where Rasputin was killed. Interesting history, but we were not allowed to take pictures there.

From there we went to St. Isaac's Cathedral. INCREDIBLE! It will hold 12,000 people! It took 40 years to build and was completed in 1858. There are 112 granite columns. Most of the pictures inside are glass mosaics, not paintings. It was interesting to learn that in the Russian Orthodox Religion, people attending services are not allowed to sit – they stand through the entire service – even the royalty did.



After visiting churches and museums, our tour visited the subway station. The Admiralty Station is 90 meters, yes 90 meters (almost 300 feet) below ground! The station has lots off mosaics and art. It was an interesting stop.


Tobey and I signed up to attend a Russian folkloric show so our guide dropped us at the theater where we had almost a 2 hour wait before it began. We took a brief walk around the neighborhood then went inside to wait. We were entertained with Russian folk music, dancing, and singing. During the intermission they served champagne, juices, soft drinks, and had fruit and hor d’voures – including caviar!

The weather was mixed again today – sprinkles off and on with a good rain at the end of the day, but the temperature was warmer. Back on the ship we had a light dinner and will soon be off to sleep. Our tour begins at 7:20 tomorrow morning but it hard to believe it it almost 11:00 pm and the sun is JUST NOW setting! Tomorrow our tour begins at 7:20 AM! Goodnight!

May 31, 2014 Tallinn, Estonia

Today our port of call was Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn was first inhabited in the 10th century and was chosen for its favorable geographical position – a hillside in the immediate vicinity of the port, which has remained on the East-West trading route of the Baltic.
We met our SPB tour guide, Nikola, to start our 10am tour in the rain which continued off and on all day. He provided great historical background, as well as information about the current politics of Estonia. It was interesting to learn how progressive the country is regarding technology. Over 98.6% of the country has access to the internet and elections are now held online. Over 46% of the country voted in the last election. The President is only 34 years old and he is well liked by most of the country. He said there isn’t much corruption in the government, perhaps because the country’s entire population is only 1.3 million! It was fun to learn that the inventors of Skype were two young men from Estonia who ended up selling their idea to Microsoft!







The country has been invaded numerous times with control changing from Estonian to Danish, to German Teutonic, to Swedish, to Russian. It gained independence in 1918, but was lost again when the Russian Empire conquered the country again in 1940, then Germany again in 1941. Estonia has finally regained freedom after the fall of the Soviet empire in 1991. It was interesting to see five different types of architecture in the old town square representing all of the cultures.




Our tour took us by the Parliament building (was the former Toompea Castle), Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, St. Nicholas Church, the Merchant Guild’s building, several shopping areas and even to the 1980 Olympic village. It was interesting to learn that the Soviet Government built a church in the Olympic Village for the games, since religion had basically been outlawed during the second Soviet regime. After the Olympics were over the church was converted to a fitness center. Now there is a small chapel in the upper level!



We had a lunch break near the Old Town Hall square at a Hansa Restaurant. We were served meat pies and apple pies. YUMMY! Tobey and I had hot tea while most others had coffee.

After lunch Nikola arranged for us to go to the top of the Radisson Sky Hotel – 24th floor – and have a great look out over the city.

We ended the tour after visiting the current home of the President (outside only), but it was amazing that we were able to be right next to the building and there were only two guards at the door – a much different culture than in the USA. The buildings had been the home of Peter the Great in 1724.

Back on the ship about 5 pm, we changed into swimsuits and went to Deck 14 to sit in the hot tub and watch as our ship left port. The water could have been warmer, but it was a fun way to say goodbye to Tallinn. We shared our dinner table with two couples from Germany and one from New York. Another enjoyable evening! It is 10 pm and the sun is shining brightly – seems more like 5 or 6 pm! We have to move our clocks ahead an hour before arriving in St. Petersburg, Russia in the morning, so we will be off to bed soon. More again when we have internet!