St. Petersburg - Day One

We spent 2 days in St. Petersburg. You were not allowed off the ship unless you were going on a group excursion, or had your own personal visa - which we didn't. And after that customs' experience, we probably wouldn't have wanted to venture out on our own anyway. On Day 1 of our St. Petersburg trip, we had a panoramic bus tour of St. Petersburg, where we drove by some interesting sights, and stopped to get off the bus at a few places along the way. Our local tour guide's name was Daria, although she pronounced it Doddia.

St. Petersburg was founded in 1703 by Peter the first, now known as Peter the Great. Peter was from the Romanov Dynasty, which ruled Russia from 1613 until the revolution in 1917. Two of the most famous members of the dynasty are Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. The city of St. Petersburg was founded during the war between Sweden and Russia on enemy territory. It was a highly desirable location for both countries, as it offered a base of operations for the nearby Baltic Sea.

The population of St. Petersburg is over 5 million. It is the largest city located this far north, and the second largest city in Russia after Moscow. St. Petersburg was also the capital of Russia from 1713-1728 and 1732-1918. It is still known today as the cultural capital of Russia. In 1917, the house of Romanov had 65 members; 18 of them were killed in the Bolshevik Revolution. The rest went into exile.

In 1914, the name of St. Petersburg was changed to Petrograd. Apparently they wanted to make it sound more Russian. Then in 1924, shortly after Lenin's death, the name was changed to Leningrad. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the mayor of the city asked the people to vote on the name of the city. They were given 3 options: Petrograd, Leningrad, or St. Petersburg. The popular opinion was St. Petersburg and the city then reverted back to it's original name.

St. Petersburg is located on 42 islands. The city is patterned after Amsterdam. Peter the Great designed the city of St. Petersburg. He loved Amsterdam, and so he originally had the city built with numerous canals, as in Amsterdam. The only problem was that the canals froze in winter and then transportation within the city came to a halt. They then had to fill in many of the canals and turn them into roads. Some of the canals were left, and the result is a very beautiful city with the canals, colorful buildings - many, many palaces, and gorgeous churches.

Previously on our cruise, Lutheranism dominated in all the areas we visited. But in Russia, the dominant church is the Russian Orthodox Church. Most of the major Cathedrals and churches are Russian Orthodox. On our tour, we visited 2 of them. We were not allowed inside, but were able to walk around outside. The first one that we visited was St. Isaacs Cathedral. St. Isaacs has the fourth largest gold dome in the world. The gold is of such good quality that it has never been re-gilded. There are massive granite columns on all four sides of the exterior of the Cathedral. During the war, the church was not destroyed, but it was damaged from nearby bombs. The columns were purposely left damaged as a reminder of the past.

The second church we visited was the Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, also a Russian Orthodox church. This church is known to locals as the Church on Spilled Blood. That's because it was built on the site where Emperor Alexander II was killed by revolutionaries. The local people like to refer to the location as representing both the "King of Heaven and King of Earth".

We were told by our local tour guide that during the Communist era, many churches in Russia were destroyed, closed, or re-purposed, and many priests were killed. There were over 200 churches in St. Petersburg before the revolution; only 14 were left open. The Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was turned into first, an atheist museum, then was used for storage, was also used as a concert hall, and once used as a morgue.

Outside of the Church, there were many street vendors selling souvenirs. We had been warned previously about pickpockets in the St. Petersburg area. Our local tour guide suggested we not buy anything from street vendors, because, as she said, "If you show your wallet, you will not see your wallet in a few minutes."

Back on the bus, we continued to drive by some of the beautiful sights of St. Petersburg. We drove by Palace Square, which, as it sounds, is a square bordered on all sides by palaces. Most of the palaces are faced with granite, but one was faced with real marble. This one was ingeniously called Marble Palace. Some of the other places we drove by were the Regal riding stables, some palaces, a castle, some more palaces, some government buildings, some more palaces, the city zoo, a warship, some museums, and some more palaces. If you haven't figured it out by now, there are many, many palaces in the city of St. Petersburg. It's partly what makes it such a beautiful city. There are many palaces, but only one castle: Michael's Castle. The difference between a palace and a castle is that palaces are beautiful and opulent homes for nobility. Castles, on the other hand, are built for defense and usually contain extremely thick walls, a moat, some guards, towers, etc.

The Neva River runs through the city of St. Petersburg. Our tour guide said that you can swim in the Neva River, but you do so at your own risk, as you may "glow" afterward.

We drove by a "Soviet-era" donut shop that is unique in that it offers only 1 type of donut, which is a very plain donut, and only regular coffee to drink, with no other drink options. They use only condensed milk in the coffee. Amazingly, it is a very popular place in St. Petersburg. Apparently they use a "traditional" recipe for the donut, and it is quite popular with the locals. Well, if you're going to sell only one donut, I suppose it better be a good one.

We also drove by the palace where Count Stroganoff lived - he of beef stroganoff fame. The Count had bad teeth, so the story goes, so his chef created a recipe with finely chopped beef.

We passed by a street where a movie was being filmed. And we saw a sign on a building that our local tour guide interpreted for us. It read "This side of the street contains higher danger of air bombs than the other side." The sign was left in place on numerous buildings as memorials. Two-thirds of the buildings of St. Petersburg were damaged or destroyed during the war, and sadly, 2/3 of the population was lost.