The traveling manatees by Nancy French: St. Petersburg, Russia. part 1

View of the Hermitage from across the river.

Prior to the start of our trip, extensive research had been done on adding Russia to our itinerary. The difficulty and the expense of obtaining a Russian tourist visa was the prime reason we booked a cruise. Cruise passengers obtain a temporary visa which allows entry into the country for 72 hours if they book tours with companies licensed by the Russian government. Booking a cruise through Vacation To Go, we were able to secure the trip for a substantial discount. So, even though we hadn’t originally intended on taking a Baltic cruise, the Russian visa system caused this change in our itinerary. Our privately arranged St. Petersburg excursion was half the price of the outings offered through the cruise line.

Arriving at the port, we exited the ship 2 hours before our tour. Having heard horror stories of the hour-

Inside the Hermitage

plus long lines and surly immigration officials, we didn’t want to take a chance on missing the rendezvous with our guide. Our exit took about 5 minutes. Luckily, a port terminal coffee shop provided a warm hangout area.

Over two long days, our guide, Viktor, provided an almost non-stop narrative on the buildings we visited, Russian history, and current and former living conditions and politics. While the ugly concrete residences built during the Soviet era are still prevalent, past rulers spent millions of rubles on lavish castles. Extravagant churches still abound, but now are primarily museums. According to Viktor, only about 5% of the population attends church. Many of the old structures are now used for concerts, etc.

Madonna Litta by Da Vinci

Facing the Neva River, the Hermitage has a long history which started in 1708 with the building of Peter the Great’s Winter Palace. Through the years the palace was rebuilt in stone, and then
renovated and expanded by his daughter, Elizabeth. His granddaughter, Catherine the Great, added the Small Hermitage in 1762, and later added the Old and New Hermitage. Overall, these structures are now referred to as The Hermitage, and it is known as one of the finest museum complexes in the world. The collections, added to through the decades, includes three million works of art. We did a quickly paced two-hour tour, viewing glimpses of many of the highlights. Two Da Vinci’s and twenty-three Rembrandt’s were among the works we had an opportunity to see, along with paintings by other masters of that era. In addition to the priceless art amassed by the Czars and Czarinas, they decorated the palaces with extraordinary touches. Gold-leaf finishes, marble carvings, doors of polished turtle shell, finely crafted mosaic tables and vases made from the rare and pricey lapis lazuli stone are found. There is opulence in every detail.

Fortified by a lunch of chicken stroganoff and strawberry sorbet, we moved on to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. This was perhaps the most extraordinary church we visited. Literally built on

Church of the Savoir on Spilled Blood

the ground where Czar Alexander II was assassinated by terrorists in 1881, one portion of the floor shows the actual cobblestone street where he was killed, the blood-stained rocks still present. Completed in 1907, much of the church’s wealth was looted in 1917 during the Russian revolution, and further plundered during World War II. Some of the distinctive onion-shaped domes of the church were under renovation during our visit. But the interior, with its gold-leaf backed ceramic tiles providing the artwork, is gorgeous.

Peter and Paul Fortress founded by Peter the Great in 1703 is located on an island in the Neva River and is the birthplace of St. Petersburg. Walls at the fortress are 30 feet thick. Located on the grounds, the St. Peter and Saint Paul Cathedral holds the tombs of Peter the Great and his family, and also the tombs for the Romanov family, executed by Bolsheviks in 1918.

On Vasilyevsky Island, at an area called Strelka, there are beautiful views of the city across the Neva. The Hermitage sits along the opposite waterfront, with cruise boats passing by. Two giant red columns, looking somewhat like lighthouses decorate the point.

St. Isaac's Cathedral

We took a brief photo stop at Saint Isaac’s Cathedral. This gold-domed structure was started in 1818 and is one of the largest churches in the world. It has operated strictly as a museum since the Soviet era.

On our return to the ship, we traveled on a short length of a newly completed superhighway. But, according to Viktor, public transit, for this city of around 6 million, is woefully inadequate. We had a chance to see the Gazprom gas company’s Lakhta Center, which is one of the tallest building in Europe at 87 stories. Nearby, Krestovsky Stadium, completed in 2017, is a spaceship-like looking structure with a retractable roof that holds over 70,000 fans. It was finished with funds from the city government after private funding failed to complete the project.