May 18, 2012 St. Petersburg

We were up early for our tour.  One of the first  off the ship, but we got in the slow line and the lady at immigration was only taking one person at time and taking 3-5 minutes per person to clear.  This caused us to get a late start.  The guide is very good and the day went pretty well except for the traffic we got caught in.  The driver tried everything he knew, including U-turns to get us from place to place.

We started off with a ride on the St. Petersburg subway.  The subways are located very deep in the ground, around 300 ft.  They go under rivers and of course buildings.  The interior of the stations are beautiful, with pictures, statue, marble and mosaics.  The stations are very clean and it gets you in a good mood for the ride.  The escalators up and down move very fast and yet you had to stand to the right side of them as some, as our guide called them “crazies”, ran down them.

From the subway we headed out to Peterhof’s Palace.  The ride took awhile and it started raining just as we got there.  The inside of the Palace is almost beyond description.  The rooms are breath taking in their beauty.  The gold and crystal in the rooms are amazing.  The Czars knew how to live.  After touring the Palace we went down into the gardens.  There are a lot of fountains and beautiful flowers, trees and statues.  The fountains are fed by a unique system.  There are no pumps involved.  Springs above the Palace feed lakes in the area and from them the water flows though ever decreasing sized pipes until it reaches the fountains.  Slews gates control the flow, but it is all done naturally.

After leaving Peterhof’s we went to a very nice restaurant.  Here we had a salad of tomatoes and cucumbers, borsch (Beet soup), stroganoff and a light flan type desert.  To start the meal we had Champaign.  The restaurant was very fancy and we felt we were living “high on the hog.”

Leaving the restaurant we had a long ride back into the city to visit the Cathedral; the Church on the Spilled Blood, true name The Church of the Resurrection.  This Russian Orthodox Church was built on the site of where Alexander ll was murdered.  The site of the murder is marked by a special chapel. The blood stain is still visible in the chapel.  A note about Russian Orthodox services; they can be up to two hours long and there are no pews, except along some walls, which are reserved for the old and invalid.  No more complaining about long services at home.

From the Church we were stuck in traffic for long periods of time.  We finally arrived at The Yusupov Family Palace.  This was the home of a very rich family who were close to the Czars.  It was in this house that Rasputin was murdered.  He was poisoned, shot five times and thrown in the river.  It was later discovered that he had drowned.  A hard man to kill.

We departed Ysupov’s Palace and again fought the traffic to St. Isaacs’ Cathedral.  This is a massive Cathedral, it covers 13,000 square feet.  It has a golden dome and when you look up at the dome, from inside, you can see a dove which is lit by small windows in the cupola that you cannot see.

Leaving here we again fought the traffic and returned to the ship.  Tired, but happy with a very enjoyable day.  The Russians make you stand in line to get into the country and get out.  Very cumbersome procedure.  They checked out van to make sure we were not smuggling someone onto the ship.

The first day in St. Petersburg was awesome.  We are back in our cabin tired, but anxious to see what is in store for us tomorrow.

Tomorrow we start a little later and have a shorter day as we leave for Finland around 5:00 PM.

HISTORY LESSON:  PETER THE GREAT

The history of St. Petersburg is also the history of Peter II, or Peter the Great an Emperor of the Romanov dynasty.  The Russians call their Emperors, Czars and the ladies are called Czarinas. He became the Czar, sole ruler of Russia, in 1694.  After his reign Russia was never the same country.

Peter traveled around Europe visiting, Austria, German, Holland and England.  The trip took two years and had a dual purpose: to find allies for a war against the Ottoman Empire, as well as to see and learn about Western tendencies and inventions.  He studied shipbuilding in Holland and worked four months as a carpenter in order to learn each step of planning and construction.

In those days Russia was a very closed, backward and isolated country.  The Russian capital was in Moscow, a long distance from the sea.  Russia needed a good port.

Peter found a location along the shores of the Gulf of Finland, and on the 27^th of May, 1703, he laid the foundation stone for the Peter and Paul Fortress.  The town was dedicated and named after Saint Peter, the Savior Saint of the city.

After this, things developed fast.  To get a good start on the city the best European architects were invited to move to Russia and challenged to design unique public and governmental building, residential palaces, churches and cathedrals, university, museums, wide streets and boulevards, city squares and parks, canals and bridges, a new naval base, Kronstadt, located on an island outside the city was also started.  Naturally Peter constructed a seaport.  This all took place in the 1700’s.

In 1712 the capital was moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg.  The Czar and the entire Russian nobility moved with it.

It is correct to say that Peter the Great modernized Russia.  He introduced the 1700 fashion from Europe, he introduced a law requiring men and clergy to cut their long flowing beards, he stopped arranged marriages, and introduced a Julian calendar.  He started many new industries, renewed education, and since he now had a port, he also established a Russian military navy.

In his personal life he married twice, divorcing his first wife Eudoxia on false adultery charges and forced her to become a nun.  Then he married Martha Skavronskaya, not a Russian but a Lithuanian woman with a questionable background.  This women he truly loved.  Martha later converted to Russian Orthodoxy and changed her name to Catherine.  She inherited the Russian throne after Peter’s death, and became the Czarina.  She built Catherine’s Palace as her summer residence.

Peter was a brilliant man and had interests in many different disciplines.  He was a thinker and planner, and hired men to carry out these ideas if he did not have the skills.

Pictures of the First Day