St. Petersburg - Day 1

St. Petersburg, Russia!  Two full days in St. Petersburg, Russia!  I was so excited I could hardly contain myself.  I have always wanted to see this city and here we were!  Truly, this was the reason that B and I booked this particular cruise.  And one of the reasons we took a cruise at all.  Getting into Russia is no easy feat.  It can be done, but it is complicated, expensive and time consuming to get a Visa, and we needed Visas.  Well, 3 of us did, the other could just wave hello and walk through.  Guess which one.

Almost immediately after I had clicked Book Now, I started looking into the paperwork and procedure for obtaining our Visas.  Quickly, I realized that it was going to be much more of a hassle than it was worth.  Doing it ourselves would take a couple of months, and a few hundred dollars per person and hiring someone to do it for us didn't cut the time down by much and cost more. Thankfully, there is a way around the Visa - paid excursions.  If you are going to be in Russia less than 72 hours, and are with a certified tour group, you simply need a piece of paper from them stating that you will be going on a tour and voila, you are in.  Easy peasy and just slightly more expensive than obtaining our own paperwork.  My search was now for the right tour and guide.

I did a bunch of research and ended up going with a company we had used, and loved, in the past -  Viator.  They offered a two day tour that hit all of the sights that we had on our list, and even a few we didn't know should be (the subway?).  One click and my job was done. Now I just had to sit back and wait until we docked.

We pulled into St. Petersburg early on Wednesday morning and cleared customs in record time.  I wish the same could be said of how quickly we cleared immigration.  But by 9 am we were in our tour bus with our group and heading to the hydrofoil boat that would speed us out to Peterhof Palace.  I could go on and on about what we saw here, but it is a LOT of detail and if I ever want to finish getting this written, I am going to stick to the basics (more information can be found by clicking here).

Peterhof is a palace complex built by Peter the Great starting in 1714.  He wanted a place he could use as his summer home away from the city.  The palace was overtaken by the Germans in 1941 and largely demolished.  Today, the complex is restored and known as the Little Versailles.

They boat that brought us over.

She has her listening ears.  There are so many people around there would be no way to hear you guide without a device.

There are a set of trick fountains on the grounds.  The first is a patchwork of stones laid in the ground.  One of the stones trips the switch to shoot water up and out.  And the kids all run around trying to find which stone it is, while not getting wet themselves.  My girls were not so lucky...

The next is a giant umbrella looking statue.  As more and more people gather under it, the harder the water falls.  As people leave, the water slows.  The trick is to time getting into and out of it just right.

And the last one we played in was a set of benches around the outside of a large fountain.  You would think that people would be sitting there, enjoying the park.  But that would be unwise...and you can see why, below.  The water is triggered randomly.

Looking at the grounds from the upper Palace.

You could spend all day there but we didn't have the time.  We had a traditional lunch to eat and a drive to Catherine's Palace, the summer resident of the tsars, built by decree of Catherine I in 1733. 

Again, I am not going to go into a lot of detail but if you want to read more, click here.  Let's just say it was opulent and lush and over the top.  And gold.

And that took us to the end of our day.  Back on the boat, we ate a quick dinner and headed off to bed.  After all we had another full day of sight seeing ahead of us tomorrow.