Day 11
Another early start, mainly because the sun was shining, yet again. We have a 2 day private tour organised and have a meeting time of 7.45 so we ordered room service for 7.00, with a big "please". Happily it arrived at 6.45 and was good, apart from the coffee, which was cold, but this has been common as although silver tea/coffee pots look great, the plastic vacuum ones on Princess are more effective.
Our tour has been arranged through Cruise Critic contacts, Cecil & Elizabeth and Catherine & Don (Vivian's bridge partner) from West Australia and Karen & Neil from UK, along with another couple from US, to make up our party of just 10! Great to have a small group. It is interesting that cruise companies generally stress that the only way to visit ashore is with a ship's tour or have to obtain a Russian visa. In reality, provided one is using a registered travel company, they issue a tourist visa as part of the tour ticket. Our company, TJ Travel is a private tour operator and came highly recommended by both Trip Advisor and Cruise Critic.
Anyway we assembled by the gangway at the allotted time and proceeded to Russian immigration - where we were expecting delays, but in reality the processing was very smooth & efficient. We were through in less than a minute - something Homeland Security in the US could learn from. The cruise ship terminal is just over 3 years old and is separated into the 6 berthing areas for greater efficiency. The was just one Celebrity ship across from us and I believe it was on it's second day.
Right on time we met with our guide, Konstantin and driver Ivan (who was nicknamed all sorts of names during our tour) and our 10 seater Mercedes van. We took off to the centre of SP for initial photo opportunity, many off which we would subsequently visit later. Following this we made the first of numerous "Shakespeare stops" (to pee or not to pee....), which usually came with a souvenir shop. Our tour did not follow the planned tour as advised, due to the weekend and traffic volumes - but we certainly covered everything.
Our next stop was the along the Neva River to board the hydrofoil to Peterhof, some 40 km away. We arrived at the bottom of the Peterhof Gardens, which are a mini Versailles, although the fountain park was absolutely stunning. The fountains are all fed from ponds, which in turn are replenished from natural springs. There are no pumps at all, and all the water eventually flows down to the sea.
Following the walk up through the gardens we exited and were met by Ivan the speedy, who then took us, mainly by extensive motorway towards Pushkin city, where we had a traditional set lunch of Greek Salad, beetroot soup, beef stroganoff and ice cream. It was then off to Catherine's Palace, which is a magnificent building, more so when it was explained how much of the Palace had been destroyed during occupation in the war. Certainly the Russian government has done a great job in restoration to date.
In viewing the numerous rooms, it was necessary to wear overshoes to protect the parquet flooring. We also viewed the Amber Room, which had similarly been restored completely with tiny to larger pieces of Amber - unfortunately photography in that room is not permitted.
I am not really able to do justice to any description of the elegance and opulence of the Palace. While going through the upper floors, we looked outside and saw queues of 100s lining up in what had now become light showers!
After touring through the garden, we made our way back to the road where Ivan the wonderful was parked close by. From here we made our way back to SP, a bit slower as all the Sunday traffic had grown quite a bit. Our last official stop for the day was the Church of the Spilled Blood, which unfortunately was located inside the designated fan zone set up for the Federation Cup (football - where NZ went down to Russia in the opening game yesterday). So we had to contend with additional screening etc. before getting anywhere near the Church.
The church itself is absolutely stunning both inside & out and we were once again lost for words to describe it, other than to note that all of the walls are decorated in mosaics- once again, many are simply minute. This church is built on the site of the assassination of Alexander II and has been extensively restored, more importantly as, along with other churches, it was abandoned during the communist era and has had many other uses during it's life, including a mortuary. As an aside, we were surprised to learn that 63% of the population consider themselves Russian Orthodox.
By now it was roughly 4.30 and yet another Shakespeare stop (& souvenir shop) was in order and we found these at the "Red October", where Konstantin also gave a lecture on vodka etiquette (some of us had to do a refresher!). All good fun. While the rest of our group then returned to the ship, we changed our clothes and waited for our escort who was taking us to the Folk Show.
Our guide, Cyrill arrived just before 6.00 and took us across the road - well actually it was under the road (they have an extensive underground walkways with shops), where we elected to have a quick bite of traditional pancakes (we had a salmon one and a cheese & ham), along with probably the best green tea we've had for a long time. Cyril told us that he was 19 (looked more like 16) and that he is a 2nd year medical student. He spoke very good English and we got a good understanding of Russian life. The remarkable thing was that he was almost the spitting image of our grandson, Benjamin.
Back across the road to the Nikolayevsky Palace, where we were attending "Feel yourself Russian". We arrived just in time as the show started at 7.00, not 7.30! We proceeded up 2 flights of the red carpet, being greeted with a glass of sparkling wine before entering the concert chamber, which by then was packed. There were performances by an excellent male quartet and both male & female dancers, accompanied by a small orchestra. Not all the performances were serious and as the evening progressed there were many amusing acts. Of course there were also a number of acrobatic performances & Cossack dances.
Halfway through, we adjourned to the adjoining ballroom for refreshments, which included yet more sparkling wine, vodka, caviear and numerous other nibbles. Certainly plenty of everything and many of the cast mingled with the crowd. Of course, the tenors had Certain for sale. The second half was just as good.
The show finished just before 9.00, but unfortunately the rain had started and this time it was more torrential. We knew that our driver was to be waiting by the gate, but I had hoped for a break in the rain before running the gauntlet. When we reached the gate, sure enough he was waiting, but not in a van, but a large black Mercedes-Benz. So we ended up with our private chauffeur back to the ship.
Thankfully the rain had eased off by the time we got there and it was funny that we were the only ones in the terminal. We actually woke the old security guy who screened our bags with no interest at all. However when we went back to immigration, there was only one person on duty, for both going out and coming back. It seemed that one of the crew was having a problem, so we were held up for about 5 minutes. Our actual processing was less than 30 seconds. Our luck failed as we started of from the terminal to the ship - the rain appeared out of nowhere and we got wet. Fortunately a Cunard staffer bought us umbrellas.
We rushed up to the stateroom, put on a jacket (cause it was after 6.00) and rent back downstairs for a coffee before retiring. It has been a most enjoyable day and thankfully we have a later start tomorrow.
Peterhof (3)
Catherine's Palace (4)
Church of the spilled blood (3)
Folk Show (2)
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