St Petersburg, Russia - Part 1

Visiting St Petersburg had been on our 'must do' list for many years. The glamour of the Russian aristocracy shown in films like Anna Karenina or documentaries about the jewellery house of Faberge; inspired this trip. Interestingly, the famous Faberge eggs are exhibited in Moscow (Kremlin) and not in the Hermitage, St Petersburg (although there are plans for a private museum in the future) so although we were disappointed that we didn't see any more eggs from the collection; we had seen a couple exhibited at Buckingham Palace in 2011.


Overview of our visit
We visited St Petersburg over the course of 72 hours and took so many photos that we have divided this blog into two parts:
Part 1 - Arrival in St Petersburg, Hermitage, St Catherine Palace and Nevskiy Prospect.
Part 2 - Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, Metro stations, Peterhof Palace and the journey back to Helsinki.

Palace Square

Onboard the Ferry
We left Helsinki via the ferry, Princess Maria and would arrive in St Petersburg the next morning. Onboard the ferry, after watching the sunset over the Baltic Sea, we went to seek out our dinner options. The ferry had three restaurants serving different cuisines - Japanese, an international buffet and one leaning towards traditional Russian dishes. We tried the latter and whilst impressed by a tasty creamy fish soup; the Chicken Kiev was served akin to an AFL football of fried poultry decorated with fruit and some interesting sprinkles. It was all too much for a traditional dish where the frozen versions from Tesco in fact tasted better.

Cream of fish soup

 A modern interpretation of Chicken Kiev

Arrival in St Petersburg
We woke up fairly early the next morning but not early enough to see sunrise. As the ferry sailed into the port of St Petersburg, Olie was hopeful of a picturesque harbour like Venice or St Malo - full of old walls and grand monuments. Unfortunately he was disappointed, as lining the passageway to St Petersburg were kilometres of cranes, cargo vessels and shipping containers - icons of globalisation.

Port of St Petersburg

Customs and the City Tour
On arrival at the shipping terminal, we had a short queue at customs before being ushered to the relevant shuttle bus signposted as the 'City Tour'. The shuttle-buses organised by St Peters Line, were firstly to provide convenient transportation to ferry passengers into the heart of the city (as there is little to do around the terminal); and secondly to overcome the rule that 'visa-free' passengers must be escorted whilst in the city.

Ferry Terminal

Sokos Hotel Vasilievsky
We were fortunate that the hotel we had booked - Sokos Hotel Vasilievsky was on one of the drop off points on the 'City Tour'. Our driver did a sharp U-turn across a multi-lane road into oncoming traffic - a heart stopping moment in order to drop us off. On arrival, as our room was not ready, we dropped off the luggage, picked up a map and headed for the State Hermitage (Winter Palace) to do our own sight-seeing.

Palace Square
From our hotel, we had about a 20 minute walk to cross the Neva River and reach all the historic sites around Palace Square. Along the way, we visited a number of parks and saw some very solemn faced policemen watching the car and foot traffic. The streets of St Petersburg looked very clean, free from any homeless people and the beggars that you see in other European cities. We soon realised that the city had been 'cleansed' by the authorities in advance of the G20 summit.

Menshikov Palace 

St Isaacs's Cathedral

The monument and arch

State Hermitage
We had pre-purchased tickets for the State Hermitage using the online shop in expectation of a long queue as it was Summer and the peak season for tourism. However, when we arrived there was no queue and we were able to peruse the exhibits without feeling crowded and also allowed to take photos of the exhibits.

The Winter Palace (State Hermitage)

Entrance (and lack of a queue)

Highlights of the Collection
The State Hermitage was founded by Catherine the Great and consists of multiple buildings accessible from the one ticket. After a few hours of walking around, we soon became a bit overwhelmed by all the artwork and had to take a breather for lunch at the cafe before round two. Highlights of the collection included:

- Silver tomb of Alexander Nevsky, a Russian Prince

- Statue of Zeus

- Golden Peacock clock

- Knights Hall - armour and weapons room

- Woman in Blue

Other photos from the museum below display the ornate ceilings, vases and beautiful objects.

Grand entrance

Spit of Vasilyevskiy Island
From the Palace Square, we walked to the Spit of Vasilyevskiy Island to take photos of the lighthouses and observe all the wedding parties that were converging for champagne by the river before the tradition of smashing the glasses along the promenade.

Peter and Paul Cathedral

Rostral Column (Lighthouse)

The Exchange

Hotel Restaurant for dinner
After the day's sightseeing, we had developed quite an appetite and we returned to the hotel to eat dinner, forgoing reservations for a restaurant in town as we weren't keen on the walk. The food at the hotel restaurant was impressive: a fish soup and duck entree, partnered with beef goulash and house hamburger.

Duck Entree

Another fish soup

House burger

Beef Goulash

Dancing Bear Tours - Private Guide
The next day after breakfast at the hotel, we met our private tour guides - Julia and Vladimir; whom we had engaged to show us around Catherine Palace and scenic points around the city. Julia was an amazing guide, as she was very keen to share her love of art and history. She told us many stories of the horrific siege of Leningrad (where a 1 million people died) and pointed out the best places to take photos and how to evade queues for toilets.

Fedorovskiy Imperial Cathedral
Our first stop was a small Russian Orthodox church that was used by the family of the last Tsar of Russia before their execution. The church grounds had an eerie feeling, as it contains the trees planted when each of the Tsar's children were born, as well as a memorial to the family.

Memorial to Tsar's family amongst the trees planted when each child was born

The last Imperial family of Russia

Catherine Palace (Tsarkoe Selo - Pushkin)
Catherine Palace was a summer residence of the Imperial family built in 1717 in Rococo style. The palace has been beautifully restored after being intentionally destroyed by the retreating German forces in Word War II.

Palace Gates

The gold cupola of the Palace church

Catherine the Great

Amber Room
Photos were allowed inside the Palace, except for the most famous room - Amber Room; a chamber of amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors. Photos of the room can be found on the internet. The room was looted by the Nazis and then eventually rebuilt using funds from a German company.

Nevskiy Prospect
In the mid afternoon, we returned to the centre of town to visit the Nevskiy Prospect - the restaurant / entertainment area of St Petersburg. We used Cafe Singer (the former Singer sewing machine factory) as a vantage point for photos of the Kazan Cathedral - dedicated to the Russian victory over Napoleon.

Cafe Singer

Kazan Cathedral

Canals
St Petersburg has a number of canals and is nicknamed the 'Venice of the North'. However, Peter the Great built it after being inspired by the waterways of Amsterdam. The architecture of St Petersburg follows that of other cities in Western Europe; and as our guide pointed out is not typically Russian - recommending that we visit Moscow and the other eastern cities for a more traditional feel. One of the canals that we walked along led towards the beautifully decorated - Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood.

The canals of St Petersburg

See Part 2 of the St Petersburg blog for photos of this Church and the rest of our trip.

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