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

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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.

First Stop: Warnemunde, Germany

We walked out to the beach and dipped our toes in the Baltic Sea, which was FREEZING and full of jellyfish.  No swimming for me! 

Our first stop was at Warnemunde, Germany.  Many ambitious cruisers used this stop as a starting point for a train-ride to Berlin (about 3 hours away).  We were much less ambitious that day (and lucky enough to live in Germany and see Berlin whenever), so after we toured tiny charming Warnemunde, we took advantage of the quiet boat and spent all day soaking up the sun and celebrating our friends' David and Meghan's wedding anniversary.

Meet the Cruisers: Brandon, Margaret, David, Meghan, and you know us...

These guys were like the 3 stooges...

 Back on the boat, the guys whipped out their Euro Style swim trunks and we enjoyed some drinks!

And really, what is more interesting than Warnemunde is revealing the sort of things that happened to us that day and in our first few days at sea...  

Notification from the Cruise Ship: "Article III states that no liquor may be brought upon the ship."  What??  ;)

When you board the boat, the staff takes your luggage, screens it (apparently) and then places it by your door.  Well... David, Brandon and Colin's suitcases were all missing from our rooms on the first night... evidently thats how they get you to 'fess up to the booze in your trunk.  They left these letters on the outside of our doors indicating there had been a bit of a violation of their alcohol policies...

Next up, we decided to attend a Cruise Critic Meet And Greet to meet some other folks on the ship as well as the crew.  Oh, and maybe get some joking material for the rest of the cruise.  Prior to leaving when we were doing research on the ports, we got a kick out of reading the message boards and seeing all these people with their "cruise alias" names and their extensive cruisin' history.  Well, not to be outdone, we decided to make up our own cruise names and join the group to see what Cruise Culture was all about. 

When we realized that these aliases would have to go on our name tags, some of us had to alter them to be more appropriate.  "Cruisin for a Bruisin'", "Cruising for the Boozin'", "I'm on a Boat", some which will remain unnamed... all of us were in attendance!

Cruise Critic Meet and Greet Crashers

Something else that happened during those first days at sea was I got stuck in a bathroom stall.  Fun!  The door just wouldn't unlock and the stall walls were too big to climb over or crawl under!!  We think the cruise staff was a little nervous about it because it took about 20 minutes to get me out, and after all, we had attended the Cruise Critic meeting!! ;)

True Story...

Help Me!!  Good thing this was post anniversary party dinner and a sufficient amount of wine!  And Meghan was with me and got some help fast!

Cruisin' with the Homies - Departure Port: Copenhagen, Denmark

Happy cruisers on our first night at sea!

Ok, finally getting to my cruise postings....

When Colin and I found out that some of our friends here in Germany were signed up for a Baltic Cruise, we hopped on the bandwagon and signed ourselves up too!  We had never been on a cruise before, but because of the visa requirements in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the expensive accommodations throughout Scandinavia, we thought it would be the best way to see the Baltic Capitals.  We are SO glad we did this vacation!  It was so much fun and gave us many lasting memories.

 
Cophenhagen, Denmark was our departure port.



Established in the 1670s, the Nyhavn canal is full of glamorous old sailboats, and was the setting for Copenhagen's week-long jazz fest that we were able to enjoy.



We liked Copenhagen all right - mainly enjoyed the cute pedestrian Nyhavn Canal and did our buddy Rick's walking tour of the city.  We did take an interesting tour from a man dressed as Hans Christian Anderson, the pride of all of Copenhagen.  We were interested to hear about the extensive maternity and paternity leave offered to parents in Denmark, and that they get paid something like $3000 a year for each kid. And then it made sense when we started noticing that all around Copenhagen were these beautiful blond babies everywhere! 

We also did a canal ride, which took us out to view the Little Mermaid, which, as Rick Steves warned us, was totally lame.

On our canal ride through Copenhagen

The Little Mermaid Satute.  Can we say tourist trap?

Amalienborg Palace - home to Queen Margrethe II and her husband.  When the Queen is home, the flag is waving above the palace.

 I'd have to say the main source of entertainment in Copenhagen was the endless amount of jokes that came from a certain topless hotdog saleswoman we came across.  She was mighty popular with her male customers, which appeared to be Stag parties coming from near and far.  We do have the photos to prove it, but I just don't think posting them here seems right...

In any event, when we came across this statute the next morning and we all gave our interpretations of the conversation that was going on between the man and women, Colin suggested that the man was apologizing for having one too many hot dogs the night before!

A trip HOME!

The fam!

After having spent almost 3 weeks in California, I am (1) still sad Colin couldn't make it (he's deployed again), (2) WAY behind on my travel postings from our Baltic Capitals Cruise, (3) just now over the weird time warp of going back and forth to the States and (4) still so in love with the SIX new babies I got to meet during my trip (North, Carter, Caroline, Libby, Jonathan and Camille - all born in 2010 or 2011 after Colin and I left about a year ago)!

I'm not sure a "trip home" is the type of travel we made this blog for, but because it was so much fun and basically a tour of the entire state from the SF Bay Area to Tahoe to LA to San Diego, I'll post a few of the family pics.  Plus it buys me some time to go back through our cruise pics and create that posting!

Weekend in Tahoe at the condo

Kevin, Tisa and North on the sailboat cruise on Lake Tahoe

Sailboating on Tahoe...

Walking the pier in Pacific Beach with M&D

Most (but not all!) of the Hart girls in San Diego!

 Home sweet Home!  It was so nice to be back!