Oh wait...

Did I not mention that we actually had a decent amount of time to shop in St. Petersburg too??

Well, we did.  And I rekindled a girlhood love for Matryoshka dolls.  I really do remember playing with a doll my grandpa gave me, and I guess that love still exists because I just could not get enough of them.

And they also served complimentary vodka and coffee in all the souvenir shops.... so maybe that had something to do with it?

Colin was over the Matryoshka doll obsession really fast.  But he cheered up when he used all our remaining rubles on Russian chocolate!!

St. Petersburg Day 2

Standing next to the Neva River across from The Winter Palace and the State Hermitage Museum

On our second day in St. Petersburg, we were all over the place.  We went to Peter the Great's temporary home while the Peter and Paul Fortress was being built, and then on to Peter and Paul Fortress, Yusopov Palace, the State Hermitage Museum, and finally the amazing Church of Spilled Blood.

Colin posing by Peter the Great's temporary home while the Peter and Paul Fortress was being built.  He is mimicking the coat of arms we saw all over St. Petersburg, which has two eagle heads pointing in opposite directions to illustrate the meeting of the East and the West.

Entering the Peter and Paul Fortress.  The Peter and Paul Fortress was the birthplace of St. Petersburg, built to protect the lands on the banks of the Neva River and the Gulf of Finland from Sweden.  The Fortress developed into a city under the rule of the Romanovs, the ruling dynasty in Russia from Peter's grandfather Mikhail  until the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II.   

One of the funniest parts of our two day tour was watching our group earnestly trying to learn the succession of various Russian tsars.  Our poor tour guide!  Our questions must have sounded like a broken record after a while: "wait - which Peter did that?" "was that Catherine the First or Catherine the Second?"  "Whose son was he? "Why did they all have to use the same names?"  After a while, she handed us brochures with an enormous flow chart of the Russian monarchs and we understood that to mean she had probably had enough of these sorts of questions...

Almost all the emperors starting with Peter himself are buried in St. Peter and Paul's Cathedral, which is in the Peter and Paul Fortress.  These are the tombs of Peter the Great, Catherine the Great and Elizabeth.

The St. Catherine Chapel is where the Romanovs were buried about 90 years after the Bolshevick Revolution on July 17, 1918.  Initially, it appeared that the remains of one of the Romanov dutchesses were missing, but ultimately all of the remains were found.

After seeing where the Romanovs were buried, we got to go see where Mr. Rasputin himself was supposed to be murdered - the Yusopov Palace.  Rasputin had a tremendous and controversial influence on the Romanov family, and was eventually killed in a dramatic murder plot by St. Petersburg's other richest family, the Yusopov's.  Our tour guide took us into the gorgeous palace where we admired its theater, ballrooms, paintings, etc, and then got to retrace step-by-step the murder of Rasputin in the basement of the Palace.  It was pretty eery, I have to say, but so interesting at the same time. 

Ornate private theater at the Yusopov Palace

There was no end to the dazzling chandeliers...  at least until you get to the scary basement.

Felix Yusopov poisoned Rasputin in the basement of his home, which we visited.  When Rasputin did not die, Felix hit him with a barbell.  Rasputin still managed to get away through a secret exit out of the basement, and ran toward the Neva River, where he was shot.  His body was then thrown in the river.  Autopsy reports showed that his lungs had water in them, indicating that the cause of death was not the poison, beating or shooting, but actually drowning in the Neva River. So dramatic!

The photo is of Rasputin's body when it was found in the Neva.

After all the Rasputin drama, we lightened up the mood a bit with a delicious lunch of these Russian pie-type creations.  Colin was so pleased I think he had seconds and thirds.  It was a good break, considering after that we were going to walk and tour the many rooms of the Hermitage Museum next!

This guy is always happy when its lunch time...

Hermitage Museum - view from Palace Square

We ascended this beautiful staircase as we walked into the Hermitage.  It is truly one of the most beautiful museums I've ever seen - each room is different and outstanding, no to mention the amazing art collection!

Proof of the Russian Pose!  Thats for real.  She is posing in front of a Da Vinci painting... Margaret was sly enough to pretend to be taking a picture of the painting at the same time as catching a pic of this lady!

View of the Palace Square from the Hermitage.  The famous shopping street Nevsky Prospect is through the arch.

Standing by one of the many canals in the city

And our favorite and final stop: the Church of Spilled Blood. 

The Church of Spilled Blood was built from 1883 to 1907 in response to the killing of Tsar Alexander II in 1881.  Alexander II was murdered by a terrorist who believed that his reforms were not progressive enough or accomplished fast enough. Alexander II in fact was one of the most liberal tsars who ordered many advanced reforms and abolished serfdom.

The Church of Spilled Blood is covered with astonishing mosaics.  It was designed in the pseudo Russian style and resembles St. Basil Cathedral in the Red Square in Moscow. 

And we ended our tour with a raucous sampling of Russian Beers with our tour guide Maria!  So fun.

Third Stop and FAVORITE: St. Petersburg, Russia

Sometimes I like a place so much that I am just daunted at writing a blog posting on it because I am afraid I can't do it justice.  St. Petersburg, Russia is one of those places.

First of all, Colin and I thought it would be so cool to see Russia.  Second, St. Petersburg has gorgeous European influences from Peter the Great who spent much time in Europe, especially in the Netherlands and France.   Third, because of the visa issues you need to either take a cruise excursion or hire your own tour company to take you around the city...  so what was truly awesome about St. Petersburg was that the 6 of us hired our own private guide and car, and got to see so much in the two days we were at port.

To say it was incredible is an understatement.  At this point, doing Rick Steves' walking tours starts getting a little old.  I mean, we'd be lost without him, but at the same time, it makes hiring a private tour guide a wonderful LUXURY.

Given that I am not a history buff at all, I was surprised to find myself absolutely engaged (read: obsessed) with Russian history.  Could the Romanov's really be any more interesting?  NO!  They are like a soap opera that went on for ages!  They could be so ruthless!  And then you throw crazy Rasputin in there and I'm totally floored.

Anyway, I hope our pics do the city justice.  We had so much fun, and the tour was a real highlight for Colin and me.

We started the day in the subway system... strange at first, but it is actually beautiful inside - this area was white with golden vaulted ceilings!

Next stop was Peterhof Palace, which was founded as early as 1714 by Peter the Great.  Peter saw Versailles when he traveled to France and was quite impressed.  But he conceived his own fountain complex on a much grander scale.  This pic looks down from the Palace at the fountains and sea below.

We took this as we first approached Peterhof.  We were so lucky to have such a gorgeous day!

One of the many fountains throughout the grounds.  Our guide explained to us that the fountains were propelled by gravity from the flow of a reservoir above the Palace which was released each day.  There is enough water in the reservoir to keep the fountains working for 10 hours a day - no electricity or pumps involved.

Apparently Peter the Great was quite a trickster.  This fountain looked like a normal tree, but would randomly start spraying water.  Peter liked to trick his guests into sitting at the nearby benches, which also randomly spouted water and doused his guests.

The Chapel in the Peterhof Palace

Next stop: Catherine the Great's Palace (the "Tsarina Village"). 

We toured the inside of Catherine's Palace, which was just gorgeous

.

Nothing like having an entire Delft corner of your dining room!  We enjoyed seeing Delft tiles and pottery in St. Petersburg.  After Peter the Great's visit to the Netherlands, he brought back many Delft products and they were quite popular with the Russian monarchy.

Dazzling Ballroom

Gorgeous vases were everywhere...

Group shot outside Catherine's Palace - shows a bit better how enormous is was!

After touring the major palaces, we came back to St. Petersburg and checked out a few other tourist sites, got dressed up, grabbed some dinner, and went to the theater to watch the Russian Ballet perform Swan Lake.  By the end of the day, we were pretty tired, but energized by what they call their "white nights" - it still looked like day time after 11:00pm!!

Colin in front of a statute of Peter the Great in the same square where the Decembrists caused an uprising against the Russian Monarchy.  In 1825, these high rank officers and liberal aristocrats were inspired by the ideas of the French Revolution and were against serfdom in Russia.  So, the Decembrists refused to swear allegiance to the throne and tried to establish a republic. 

In front of St. Isaac's Cathedral

St. Isaac's Cathedral

At dinner, doing our "Russian Pose".  We got such a kick out of how the Russians will NOT smile in photos.  They seriously strike a pose.   As a side note, we saw these pretty hand painted flowers throughout St. Petersburg - they were on Matryoshka dolls, as well as on the bracelets I had to buy for the International Bracelet Collection. 

Performance of Swan Lake at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory - the oldest academy of music in Russia which names Tchaikovsky himself as a graduate!

White night in St. Petersburg - heading back to the ship after 11 pm it was still light out!

Second Stop: Helsinki, Finland

This Lutheran Cathedral, finished in 1854, was very stately from the outside. The inside was interestingly the opposite - austere and unadorned, meant to emphasize the preaching and the music.

We enjoyed our next stop in Helsinki.  It was a pretty typical day of touring: walk the town market, grab some local snacks, do ol' Rick's walking tour, see some churches, grab a beer, and do a bit more shopping around (ok, that was just us girls).

We also took a ferry out to the very cool Suomenlinna Fortress and did some walking around there. It was a nice relaxing day until we almost missed the transportation back to the boat.  But those sorts of things are bound to happen, right?

Gorgeous flower stand at the Helsinki Market

The berries looked so delicious!

But why eat berries when you can try this local treat?  Mini fried anchovies.  You just pop them in your mouth and crunch on the mini bones.  David's also holding another local delight: reindeer balls.

Three Blacksmiths statute with three stooges... sometimes you have to create your own entertainment during Rick's walking tours....

View looking down from the Lutheran Cathedral, which sits above the town.

Upenski Cathedral - Built in 1868 when Finlandl belonged to Russia, this Orthodox Cathedral also stands above the town and across from the Lutheran Cathedral.  The onion dome represents the sacred heart of Jesus.

Beer Break at Kapelli Cafe on the Esplanade. 

 Built by the Swedes in the mid-1700s to counter Russia's rise to power, the Suomenlinna Fortress had 5 miles of walls and hundreds of cannons.  It is situated on an island guarding Helsinki's harbor and was a strategic fortress for Finland, Sweden and Russia. 

Always a ham....always a ham.