St Petersburg- the not so great.
I asked Len to write the blog post tonight but he is so traumatised by our experiences today that I have left him lying down with a cold compress on his brow! It has been quite a day and we are relieved to be back on board ship in one piece. We arrived in SPB about 6:30 and again got to watch the captain pull us onto the dock with precision. We were very amused by the man who rode up and down the pier on his bike giving instructions to the crew while another officious man waited with his briefcase to board and give us the all clear.
We had to get up at the unearthly hour of 5:30 so we could have some breakfast and get ready for our excursion. We were herded into the theatre at 7:15 clutching our passports and tickets and waited to be called to go through immigration. I knew it was going to be a long drawn out affair but even I was not prepared for having to stand in the immigration hall for over an hour while they’d scrutinised our papers and took forever to prepare a little visa to let us in. God only knows why it took so long but I suspect they had to quickly check the internet to see if we had a) Voted for Trump or not, b) support the Brexit campaign or c) expect Brazil to win the World Cup! Our tour was meant to leave at 8 am but it was 20 to nine before we got to our coach and even then we ended up leaving 4 passengers behind as they couldn’t wait any longer. The drive into the city was interesting. Only apartment buildings, no detached properties so we are ruling out a move to SPB! Some were attractive and others looked like prisons. Here is the entrance to one building.
Like every other country in the world we saw signs for KFC and McDonalds!
There was evidence that this was a seafaring city with a couple of submarines on display and an ice breaker boat as well.
Once we got into the city proper there were plenty of wonderful buildings with long facades. Here are my favourites.
Our first stop was to St Isaac’s Cathedral. Very nice.
We then went on to the Church of the Spilled Blood where Alexandra was assassinated. Unfortunately it was being renovated so not in full bloom but special none the less.
After spilling the blood we went past the Winter Palace again and stopped at St Peter and Paul’s Fortress. Lovely yellow buildings where the Tsars are all buried but kind of spoiled by some sort of preparation for an event with stages being erected all over the place. We did see some young cadets who had just graduated. And a man who had stripped down to his underpants and had been diving in the water as part of the crew setting up the stage. Don’t ask, dont know what he was up to and he started dressing before I couldn’t take a picture!
We found some quirky things in the city as well, statues, columns, footballs, the obligatory Irish pub and hidden away and unmentioned by our guide, a lavishly decorated mosque.
Sorry I seem to have repeated some of the photos. I will leave you with some random shots of some of the places we passed by. Bear in mind that for the most part these photos were taken from the coach as we drove around the city so I am really pleased with them! Looking at them again I think SPB has a lot to offer in terms of architecture and I’m glad we took a tour. Tomorrow we stay on board and chill while most guests will be off exploring for a second day. We will catch you again in Helsinki.
We had to get up at the unearthly hour of 5:30 so we could have some breakfast and get ready for our excursion. We were herded into the theatre at 7:15 clutching our passports and tickets and waited to be called to go through immigration. I knew it was going to be a long drawn out affair but even I was not prepared for having to stand in the immigration hall for over an hour while they’d scrutinised our papers and took forever to prepare a little visa to let us in. God only knows why it took so long but I suspect they had to quickly check the internet to see if we had a) Voted for Trump or not, b) support the Brexit campaign or c) expect Brazil to win the World Cup! Our tour was meant to leave at 8 am but it was 20 to nine before we got to our coach and even then we ended up leaving 4 passengers behind as they couldn’t wait any longer. The drive into the city was interesting. Only apartment buildings, no detached properties so we are ruling out a move to SPB! Some were attractive and others looked like prisons. Here is the entrance to one building.
There was evidence that this was a seafaring city with a couple of submarines on display and an ice breaker boat as well.
Once we got into the city proper there were plenty of wonderful buildings with long facades. Here are my favourites.
Our first stop was to St Isaac’s Cathedral. Very nice.
After spilling the blood we went past the Winter Palace again and stopped at St Peter and Paul’s Fortress. Lovely yellow buildings where the Tsars are all buried but kind of spoiled by some sort of preparation for an event with stages being erected all over the place. We did see some young cadets who had just graduated. And a man who had stripped down to his underpants and had been diving in the water as part of the crew setting up the stage. Don’t ask, dont know what he was up to and he started dressing before I couldn’t take a picture!
Thanks for the info. I'll make sure that my offspring are prepared that they will have to stand a long time for immigration then!
ReplyDeleteIf you are on the 2 day trip you will probably be one of the first off the boat and the wait may not be so long. We had one couple who was pushed to the front of our line however as they were meant to leave at 7am and it was taking so long the coach didn’t want to wait any longer. In hindsight I wish we had booked an afternoon tour as getting up at 5:30 was really hard.
DeleteIt looks cold there!?
ReplyDelete