St. Petersburg, Russia
After getting off of the cruise ship in St. Petersburg, we went through immigration as soon as we got off of the ship.
The cruise ship helped us negotiate the cost of a taxi with a driver & we were off to the entrance of the seaport to meet our real driver for the day.
We rode to the entrance of the seaport where the car was stopped and we were ushered out of the car by armed guards and taken into a small, dingy hallway, which served as passport control (no kidding). Of course, as soon as we got out of the car, the car drove away with our luggage still in the trunk. We were a bit nervous at that point. Then, we ended up in line behind two gentlemen who were having a heated discussion with the immigration officers over letting them into Russia. When we finally got to the front of the line, everything was pretty uneventful.
As we stepped out of passport control, we met our official driver, Sergey. The taxi driver and he had met up while we were in line and arranged for our luggage to be moved to the other car.
Okay… at this point, I need to warn you about taxis and driving in St. Petersburg. It’s totally insane! Our driver mentioned that traffic laws are merely suggestions, and apparently the same applies to lane markings and stops. The ride was really like a roller coaster; fast starts, fast stops and weaving from side to side. The drivers start jockeying for lane position two blocks before they get to an intersection. We were just glad it was only a roller coaster instead of bumper cars.
After that, we went to the hotel, which was on the shore of the Baltic Sea. The room had 2 single beds, which is pretty typical in European hotel rooms.
We also noticed that there were water coolers in the hallway. We had already been warned to not drink the tap water, including brushing teeth or having drinks with ice in them.
A few hours later, we met our tour guide and went on a tour of the city. Before going out of the hotel, it was highly recommended that we not only bring our passports, but also copies of them and our visas. The police tend to stop people randomly on the street and ask to see their ID or fine them for minor infractions (real or otherwise). We were told to only give the police photocopies of our passports if we were ever stopped.
Peter the Great loved water and originally wanted all of the roads to be canals in St. Petersburg. This couldn’t happen due to too much flooding. However, the city is still filled with canals.
All of the buildings in the picture to the left are a part of this huge museum -- The Hermitage. In order to visit each artifact in the museum for 1 minute, it would take 5 years of 9-hour days. In the 1770’s this was built as Peter the Great’s winter palace.
Peter & Paul's Fortress is the place where Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, etc. are buried.
St. Issac’s Cathedral is huge! It's one of the world’s largest cathedrals
The Savior Church on Spilled Blood is a traditional Russian Orthodox cathedral. The inside was almost completely filled with glass mosaics.
Many of these buildings were either heavily damaged during WWII or were neglected during Soviet times and have recently been restored.
At the end of our tour, we ate at a Russian restaurant. We invited our driver, Sergey, to join us for dinner. Lori’s salad and main course both had faces.
When taking with Sergey over dinner, he told us that his wife taught English to elementary-aged children, which was why he was able to speak English so well. Apparently in Russian elementary school, students have different teachers for each subject, instead of one main teacher.
We visited the Tower of London
We are staying at the Dorchester Hotel in the Westminster area of London. The Dorchester is affiliated with the Beverly Hills Hotel. It is amazing! It’s a 5-star hotel that is a block and half away from Buckingham Palace. When we checked in, we were given a personal tour of the facilities. The room had fuzzy slippers laid out for us, fuzzy bathrobes and a bathroom that was larger than our cruise ship cabin. We asked for an Internet cable for the room and about 2 minutes later, we heard a doorbell. Our room has a doorbell!
Today we took the Metro from our hotel into Paris.
We both ended up getting a bit of sunburn; Joel more so than me. We spent the day touring around Paris by bus, foot & Metro.
The city was also in the process of getting ready for the Tour de France.
In all of our travels, today was the first day where the differences in the languages really hit home. For example: in Finnish, there is a word for a room that is hot and steamy that people spend time in. It’s called a sauna. The French also have a word like this. It’s called the Metro.
- Eiffel Tower
- Ear'fle Tower
As you can see, it was a very nice day.
We think this last one was dressed up for Bastille Day
Yep. Disneyland Paris.
We met with our guide again to go drive about an hour out to Peterhof. This was Peter the Great’s summer palace (because one couldn’t have just one palace back then).
This is a picture of the outside of Peterhof. Peter the Great traveled frequently. The buildings he built (palaces, etc.) were heavily influenced by his travels. Because of this, much of St. Petersburg looks similar to Paris & other European cities.
Peter actually liked smaller houses like the one in this picture, but his wife and daughter liked much larger ones. When a palace was to be built, Peter usually lost out to them on what the size of it would be.
Some of the gardens in Peterhof.
The two of us at Peterhof.
This is the building where the G8 Summit took place. It is actually about an hour outside of St. Petersburg. And this is why we had to scramble to change our itinerary for the cruise. And it was one whole hour outside of St. Petersburg.
The government building built & used during Soviet times. That’s a statue of Lenin out in front. I guess that this was the statue that Fremont rejected.
This is typical of Soviet-era housing. They used one floor plan for all of the housing they built. Today, most the people of St. Petersburg still prefer to live in this apartment-style housing instead of single-family homes for most of the year. Many have small summer houses outside of the city.
The weather changed frequently. Here’s what the city looked like once we had returned from Peterhof.
The city. We liked to play the "name the store" game by trying to decipher the Cyrillic names.
When subways were put into the city, Stalin wanted them to be “palaces for the people.” They are very ornate both inside and out.
Oh yeah... and they are not to be confused with...
And while we are at it, here is one more taste from home.
After getting off of the cruise ship in St. Petersburg, we went through immigration as soon as we got off of the ship.
As we stepped out of passport control, we met our official driver, Sergey. The taxi driver and he had met up while we were in line and arranged for our luggage to be moved to the other car.
After that, we went to the hotel, which was on the shore of the Baltic Sea. The room had 2 single beds, which is pretty typical in European hotel rooms.
We also noticed that there were water coolers in the hallway. We had already been warned to not drink the tap water, including brushing teeth or having drinks with ice in them.
Peter the Great loved water and originally wanted all of the roads to be canals in St. Petersburg. This couldn’t happen due to too much flooding. However, the city is still filled with canals.
All of the buildings in the picture to the left are a part of this huge museum -- The Hermitage. In order to visit each artifact in the museum for 1 minute, it would take 5 years of 9-hour days. In the 1770’s this was built as Peter the Great’s winter palace.
Peter & Paul's Fortress is the place where Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, etc. are buried.
St. Issac’s Cathedral is huge! It's one of the world’s largest cathedrals
The Savior Church on Spilled Blood is a traditional Russian Orthodox cathedral. The inside was almost completely filled with glass mosaics.
At the end of our tour, we ate at a Russian restaurant. We invited our driver, Sergey, to join us for dinner. Lori’s salad and main course both had faces.