I had set up a 2 day tour for the 12 of us (same group as
Berlin) with Alla Tours. https://alla-tour.com/tours I would highly recommend Alla's tours. There was no way to string together enough ship tours to see what we were able to do with our small group.
Elena was our guide. The ship was a half an hour late
arriving at this port. So, Elena rearranged some of our sites and despite our
asking several different times she wouldn’t work in seeing the subways. (she said it wasn't safe with all the pickpockets) We did
get to see everything else that was planned. We did the 2 day strenuous tour
with the canal boat ride and the Feel Yourself Russian Folkloric show. The Folk
show was a hit with all of us. We also added early admittance to the Hermatage
(highly recommend doing this), hydrofoil ride, and the Gold Rooms. We really
enjoyed the Gold Rooms. What an amazing 2 days. We lucked out on the boat ride.
It was supposed to be one of the crowded packed boats with narration only in
Russian, but with our timing all off Elena called Alla and she got us on an
earlier one before the Folk show instead of after and we had the boat to
ourselves plus 2 teenaged girls and Elena came with us and narrated. (not that Greg wasn't disappointed in seeing how much Russian he could understand on the boat ride)
immigration
stop to see the 3,500 year old sphinx guarding Neva River
Stock Exchange & the Rostral columns
Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan
Bronze Horseman (statue to Peter the Great)
St Isaac's Cathedral
entering Peter & Paul Cathedral
burial places of all emperors and empresses from Peter the Great to Alexander lll
they came out and sang for us
leaving Peter & Paul
The Mint
back in the van
boarding site for hydrofoil to Peterhof Palace
Mike & Naomi
views from the hydrofoil
walking to Peterhof
Monplaisir (Summer Palace)
booties to wear in Museum
inside Catherine Block
Roman Fountain in Parterre Garden
the Great Orangery & the Orangery Garden
The Great Cascade
the Menager (economical fountain) view from Marley Cascade
Samson Rendering open the Jaws of the Lion
Eastern Cascade Stairway
drive to lunch
we had lunch at St. Podvorye Restaurant where we had Russian Borsch and Green Sorrel Borsch, Chicken Kiev, Potato Cakes and desserts of a Napoleon and a Lingenberry Crepe
Sorrel (green Borsch soup)
Borsch soup
chicken Kiev
potato cakes
Tsar's Village to Catherine Palace
Catherine's Palace
oh boy, more booties....
The Green Dining Room (1780s)
The First Antechamber (1730s)
The Bedchamber (1780s)
Lucille snuck a shot of the Amber Room (ours blurred)
The Amber Room (no pictures allowed) 1755 - Alla's photo from her CD
river boat ride
back in the van
Nikolayevsky Palace where Folkloric show was
welcoming us to the theater playing Oh Canada for Canada Day
entry stairs
Feel Yourself Russian Folkloric Show
It was a surreal experience to get back to the ship in the evening and catching the sunset around 11:30. It stayed light all night with a glow and of course sunrise was very early.
sunset about 11:30
We have an early start tomorrow for our second day in St. Petersburg.
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