Trivia question – what European city has had 3 different names during 4 different time periods?? Answer – St. Petersburg, aka Petrograd aka Leningrad aka St. Petersburg.
We’re in Russia. The cargo ship dock in St. Petersburg to be exact. Not the prettiest sight to behold, but we’re here. We had an action-packed day today. After waiting in line for ~40 minutes, we finally cleared Russian customs and met our tour guide. We drove around the city seeing the beautiful architecture of imperial Russia. We then headed out of town to go to Peterhof, the czar’s summer residence (again, God bless the makers of Dramamine). We walked around the incredible grounds. Modeled after the gardens at Versailles, the grounds have beautiful trees, flowers, and gilded fountains. There was even one with 3 dragons and a chess board.
We then boarded a hydrofoil for the return trip to St. Petersburg and a trip to the Winter Palace, which houses the Hermitage. According to our guide, if you spent only 1 minute looking at each piece of art in the museum, you would spend seven years looking at art. And we had a little over 2 hours. We walked around a few of the state rooms completely agog at the baroque golden friezes and columns then headed straight for the Italian renaissance art. They had a sculpture by Michelangelo, and a few paintings by Rafael & DaVinci. Not as impressive as the Louvre, but nothing to sneeze at, either.
A quick souvenir stop later & stop for pictures, and we made it back to the ship in just enough time for a quick dinner (see the next note for details) and then Paul & I went to see Swan Lake. The theater was built in the mid-1800’s. And for those of you who are dying to know – no, champagne does NOT taste better when served at room temperature.
We lost ANOTHER hour of sleep last night (up to 9 hours ahead now), so we need to go to bed soon, as we have another full day in sunny (&hot) St. Petersburg tomorrow.
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