St. Petersburg, Russia

In our many years, we have never had a desire to go to Russia.  The Soviet ‘Republic’ was the ‘enemy’ for many of our years growing up. Having said that, St. Petersburg turned out to a very interesting place to visit with many beautiful places to see like St. Isaacs Cathedral.

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Our original reason for the choice of this optional tour was the promise of a canal view of the city.  Like Stockholm, this city claims to be the Venice of the North.  In our limited exposure of the north, this city has lots of canals, far more than Stockholm.  

It is wonderful being on the canals even though the boats are not gondolas.  St. Petersburg was the capital of Russia up until the Communist Party took over and moved it to Moscow.  For a few centuries, the Czars financed or promoted several beautiful features to make this city an absolute gem.  St. Isaacs is a Russian Orthodox church and the interior equals many large Catholic cathedrals.  This is one view of the inside of the church.

As pretty as St. Isaacs was, it paled in comparison to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood.  Now that is not exactly a common name for a church.  Czar Alexander II  was assassinated near the site of the church just prior to the construction of this Russian Orthodox church and thus it got it’s special name.  This was our view from outside the church:

What is just as amazing is the inside of the church.  According to Shari, it’s the most beautiful church she has ever seen on the inside.  Here is our first view of the inside:

The second view was probably even better:

One of my favorite parts was the shrine to Alexander II.

Unfortunately, the St. Petersburg traffic was awful, and getting there was so slow we were rushed in and out of the church.  I guess it’s a sign of what 7 billion inhabitants of planet earth will be like.  We are thankful we saw it, but would have loved much more time to have enjoyed it.

BTW, at St. Isaacs, we got a glimpse of what is beyond the Doors to Paradise.  I don’t know if I was allowed to photograph it, but we have just left Russia so I should be safe from the authorities.

I was asked to comment on our cruise.  We have loved the Viking River cruises, but this is an ocean crew with about 930 passengers.  What we like about the ocean cruise so far is the new territory that you can’t see on a river cruise, the size of our room (deluxe compared to the river cruise), alternative restaurants - two of which are deluxe, and meeting some very interesting people.  We met one of the ships history professors and his wife, and both are from Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Very nice and interesting people.  The downside has been more bus tours instead of walking tours.  It is hard to get good pictures from inside a bus.  St. Petersburg had many more picturesque places to photograph.  I tried several times, but filming through windows causes several problems.

Tonight, we ate for a second night in a row at one of the deluxe restaurants.  They provide a superior dining experience.  We had the Asian Panorama five course meal.  Here is Shari with Peking duck, mandarin pancakes, and hoisin sauce.

Inside the pancake is shredded duck and on top are slivers of duck and duck skin.  Shari complained about the wind blowing her hair on the way to the restaurant.  I think it enhanced the photo!