We met our tour at 8:15 this morning after having breakfast again in our room. We drove about 30 minutes to the old part of St. Petersburg. We had three photos stops before arriving at our cruise.
Our guide today said St. Petersburg is a collection of 22 islands. Yesterday, the guide said there were 42 islands. Google says 33 islands. Anyway, there are a bunch. Czar Nicholas I envisioned St. Petersburg to be the Venice of the North with canals instead of streets. Unfortunately, the wet climate made that impossible, although the concept only died officially with Nicholas. Most of the canals which had been made were filled in to make boulevards. Still, today, St. Petersburg is a damp place with humidity normally in the 80's or 90's. Fortunately, the temperatures are relatively mild. They claim there are, on average, only 60 sunny days per year. Yesterday was one of those days.
August 1 is the annual salute to the Navy, so there are positioning naval ships in the river for a parade.
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| St. Petersburg's first museum, the Museum of Natural History |
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| The Winter Palace from the other side of the river |
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| Light Houses |
The Church of the Resurrection of Christ (a.k.a., Church of Spilled Blood). Built on the spot where Nicholas I was assassinated in 1883.
Prior to the beginning of the cruise, we stopped at a Souvenir Boutique shop in the center of the old city where I bought a certified black lacquered box and Laura bought a nesting doll (ten layers) and a magnet. The box is not large, but must be good as it cost over $400. The doll's smallest nested doll is the size of a grain of rice.
The box is from the Vozrozhdenie LLC (https://palech.ru/).
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| The City's Muslim Mosque. Second in size only to the one in Budapest in size |
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| The original St. Petersburg fortress established in 1733 |
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| St. Petersburg circus |
After the cruise, we headed back to the ship, another 30 minute drive. Once we made it through customs, we stopped at the "Duty Free" shop on the pier. The same size box I bought was selling for one-third the price, but it did not have the certificate of authenticity.
One the way back to the boat, I caught some more shots of Soviet era apartments.
We had lunch and relaxed for a few hours before the ballet tonight. Laura and Megan made use of the hot tub on the bow of the ship.
I am in Row 9, seat 18 for the performance of Giselle at the Mariinsky Theatre. It was a good performance
We have an early excursion tomorrow morning, our last in St. Petersburg.
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