This city on our Jewels of the Baltic cruise was anticipated to be a highlight by most passengers. It did not disappoint! Perhaps part of the mystery is that it’s not easy to get here and has a past and present that wants to be viewed by the Western cultures. St Petersburg was founded by Tsar Peter the Great in 1703 and has a very Western or European feel mostly due to the architecture and layout of the city. This was the only port with passport control each time you left and returned to the ship. Although a Russian visa is required to enter the country, if you are on a pre-arranged tour, the visa is included but you cannot return on your own. A new cruise ship terminal brings hope for more visitors and open policies.
The first day was a city tour including a ride on the metro. Think clean and modern stations with beautiful mosaics on the walls. We visited two churches, Savior on the Spilled Blood built on the site where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881 and Saint Isaac’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral also built in the 19th century. The afternoon was the highlight with our tour of the Hermitage. The Hermitage has six buildings and they say if you spent one minute with each exhibit, it would take 8 years to see everything in the museum. The Winter Palace is the main building of the Hermitage and it was Catherine II, known as Catherine the Great that purchased a collection of over 250 paintings in Berlin in 1762 to display at her personal ‘retreat’. In the evening was an exclusive visit to the Hermitage for Holland America guests with no crowds and we were able to see many of the impressionist paintings that were not part of the day tour.
The second day was clear with an amazing blue sky. It was a Saturday, locals and tourists alike were taking in the sights and basking in the sunlight. We saw at least 4 weddings as this is a favorite time of year to wed. Three cruise ships were in port which made for crowded tourist sites but it was well organized as each had their time and moved along at a scheduled pace.
The second day included visits to Catherine Palace in Pushkin built for Peter the Great’s wife Catherine I and Peterhof Gardens on the estate built for Peter the Great as his summer palace. We ended the tour there with a hydrofoil ride back to St Petersburg on the Neva river. Yusupov palace, the residence of this wealthy Russian family was our final tour and this is where Rasputin (he was a favorite with the Tsar’s family but was not well respected publicly) was killed. As we rode back to the ship, we passed new buildings with flats having views of the Baltic. Our guide said they were $500,000 to $1,000,000 US and that almost 80% of Russians here own their residence.
Although the first day began with a grey skies and light rain in the morning by late afternoon it had cleared to blue skies and in the evening what the Russians here call white nights. Although the sun sets, the sky is never dark, rather a twilight until the sun rises again about 4 hours later. This is mostly June through July and they soak up every minute with festivals and outdoor events. We left Saint Petersburg around 5:00pm and enjoyed the sail away in lovely sunny skies which stayed with us for the next 7 days in the Baltic.
