A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 About This Page:

[chezp]

Originally Posted by clio

Catherine's palace is so beautiful. There's so much of Russian history that we don't know. I did read about the siege of St. Petersburg some where. My grandfather was Russian. He was is the White Army. he died before I was born and my aunt didn't remember much of what he'd told here over the years.
Liz

Oh that's a shame, as I bet he would have had some amazing stories to tell.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

Wow. What an amazing place! Somewhat surprising that even with that many paid admissions they still need more money for keeping up the place.

I found that very sad, especially as I feel they could charge more admission for the palaces. Ok, so I don't know how much they charge, as everything was included in our tour price, but I'm sure if they added a little extra, given the numbers they get, it would make a huge difference overall....

[cubfancolleen]

Love the costumed woman texting on her phone!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by cubfancolleen

Love the costumed woman texting on her phone!

I know, talk about an anachronism!

[KMB733]

More great photos of Catherine's Palace. I remember there was a story on The Today show about the Amber Room and how it was a recreation. I can't remember why now they had the story, I feel like it was around the 2014 Olympics.

More great pictures has your drive through the city.

[chezp]

Sorry for the delay in posting this - the boards were playing up this morning and I struggled to post anything...

Monday 13 June – part nine: it’s what? A torpedo net?

Our final stop in St. Petersburg was in this old Communist building…



… which is now home to a souvenir store…



I wanted to use up our remaining Russian rubles, which totalled 1,600 (about $20-$25), but I was struggling to find anything that cheap. This is where I found out how expensive amber was – we’re talking $200+! I also looked at some of the replica Faberge eggs, and even the miniscule ones were about $50. The biggest ones were about $500.

Finally, I spotted some alcohol, and we got a bottle of berries liquor for 500 Russian rubles. I spotted some Russian wine, although I was told that was a cheat, because it’s actually from the Ukraine. Given the political sensitivities in that area of the world, I did think that was a bit rich, trying to pass it off as your own. I asked if they had any medium or semi-sweet white wine, and the girl found one for 1,100 rubles. Ok, this was meant to be, as this would use up all our remaining notes.

Happy with our purchases, we headed back to the minivan, and made our way back to the port. I was genuinely sad to say goodbye to both Daniel and Elena. They had both been great, and we gave them good tips for their work.

We headed inside the terminal, and dreading how long the queues were going to be for passport control, given all ashore was in about an hour’s time, we were pleasantly surprised to see only three people in front of us. We were quickly through, and the woman working on it actually smiled at us! We joked later that was only because they knew we were leaving, and not coming back.

We headed on to the ship, and Jay and Stephanie said they were going for a drink, and asked if we wanted to join them. We headed back to the room, and I grabbed a quick shower, before we headed down to meet them. The meeting place they’d chosen was packed, as they were showing a Euro 2016 match, and there was nowhere to sit, so we took the elevator up to deck 14, and walked along there. It was actually the first time I’d seen the terminal from this angle, which was quite neat.



We made our way into the Sky Lounge, and found somewhere to sit, and chatted away, enjoying some drinks and some nibbles.



Eventually, we started to move out of the port, and I got some shots as we left…



As you can see, the view ahead was pretty spectacular…



Elena had commented as we got back to the ship that it looked as if we’d have bright weather ahead of us, and she seemed to be right. Of course, ironically, St. Petersburg is due to have warm weather in the low 80s in the next few days. Just figures…

We were soon passing through all sorts of scenery…



Then everyone got very excited about all the Russian military might that could be seen from here…



This church was stunning…



Can you see the water in this shot?



We figured it was something military. I think Mark said it was a torpedo net. While it was fascinating to see all of this, it was also a little creepy too. The whole time we’d been in Russia, you got the feeling that it was very much now an independent country, coming out from underneath the blanket of Communism that had smothered it a decade ago. However, there was also a feeling that at any time the country could slip back into some form of dictatorship as well. Of course, the politics here have always been volatile, and particularly at the moment, with all of Putin’s posturing. It will be interesting to see what happens here…

Soon we were passing out of the entrance to the harbour, which isn’t that wide…



Jay noticed that there must be a tunnel here as well, as there were cars heading towards one side, and then emerging the other side.



Next: now that’s a sight I truly thought I’d never witness.

[Cam22]

The boards were acting up for me last night so I got a day behind on your updates. Catherine's Palace is truly stunning, but I did like the more livable areas better. Beautiful views as the ship traveled out of St. Petersburg.

[DMA]

Glad you were able to make a few purchases in the souvenir shop to use up your Russian rubles. And it's nice you didn't have to wait in a long line for passport control. Beautiful scenery from the ship!

[cubfancolleen]

You definitely get a different feeling in Russia than in other 'democracies' - even fledgling ones. I completely agree with your comments on feeling like they could fall back into communism pretty easily (if they aren't already in some kind of tyrannical dictatorship).

[disney_duke]

Bottles of wine/liquor are always a good choice. You get to enjoy them twice - once when you drink it and second when you display the bottle.

Of course the weather was wonderful when you left. That happened to us in Quebec City too. Oh well.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by cubfancolleen

You definitely get a different feeling in Russia than in other 'democracies' - even fledgling ones. I completely agree with your comments on feeling like they could fall back into communism pretty easily (if they aren't already in some kind of tyrannical dictatorship).

Yep, that thought crossed my mind, and I wonder how much they are already in that type of system. The interesting thing is, I got the impression that if they are, most people aren't aware of it, if that makes sense? I felt to me as if there was freedom there with all the Western shops etc., and I wonder if that means people think less about where the country is politically? Just my thoughts from what we saw....

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

Bottles of wine/liquor are always a good choice. You get to enjoy them twice - once when you drink it and second when you display the bottle.

Ah well, we'd need to have drunk the bottle first, and I'm ashamed to say we've failed on that so far. I keep looking at it, thinking we must have some more, but I need to be in the mood for hard liquor...

Of course the weather was wonderful when you left. That happened to us in Quebec City too. Oh well.

Oh that's such a shame... and my photos of Quebec City won't help when we get to that on the other trip report...

[Tara O'Hara]

Great purchases for your remaining rubles!! I love the sail away shots!!

[chezp]

Monday 13 June – part ten: now that’s a sight I truly thought I’d never witness.

We saw a bit more scenery as we moved along, but nothing as spectacular as within the harbour…



We decided we’d head back to the room just before 8:00pm, as we’d agreed we’d have a last dinner with Jay, Stephanie and Ethan, and we were going to get changed, as we’d be in the main dining room. I had started to feel a little under dressed in the Sky Lounge, shall we say?

We headed downstairs, and found them on deck four, as this is where those without reservations on a particular dining rotation go. I didn’t know this was how it worked, as I thought it was the same on both floors. We were told it would take quite a while to get in, but to head down to deck three, as apparently they had more space down there.



When we got there, Jay and Stephanie were insistent that we could sit at the table next to them, as it was a table for six, but they’d never seen more than two people there any night, and in fact, it was laid out for just a couple. However, the serving staff had other ideas, which was a shame, as I know they wanted their server and assistant server, which I can understand. They took us to the other end of the dining room, and the service here wasn’t great. They were Ok, but nothing special at all. I had to ask a couple of times for water refills, even though by the time the guy had finished filling up the whole table’s water, mine was nearly empty.

The food, on the whole, was pretty good, although nothing special. I think that’s the point with this cruise. Every time we come here, we’re like “it’s Ok”, but it’s not that much better than up at the Oceanview Café, and I’d expect a bit more than that.

For appetiser, I went for the baked French onion soup with herb croutons and melted gruyere cheese, and the cheese really did act like an insulator on the soup:



I couldn’t believe how hot the soup was, and trying to cool it down was really tough, as you had to get through enough soup to be able to push the cheese down. I had to eat it very gingerly for a while, until I got rid of enough to finally be able to crack the cheese topping open.

Mark didn’t have the same problem, but then again we’d have been worried if he had, given he went for the chilled shrimp cocktail with classic cocktail sauce. However, the sauce may be classic for the American market – it certainly wasn’t for us.



For entrée, I went for the broiled barramundi, a fish I’d never heard of before, along with sautéed potatoes, fennel (even though I’m not a great fan of that), sun dried tomatoes and red pepper sauce, and it was very good, with the flavours combining well together.



Mark had the Moroccan spiced lamb kebab with bulgar salad, dried fruit, almonds, olives and cucumber raita, and while he enjoyed it, I thought it was a little small when it appeared.



For dessert, I opted for two separate dishes, one of rum and raisin ice cream, and the other of pineapple sorbet, and the sorbet was some of the best I’ve had. I like my sorbet sweet, and this definitely was.



Mark surprised me by going for the bananas foster, sautéed in brown sugar, flambéed with rum, served with vanilla ice cream.



By the time we finished eating, it was about 10:45pm, and we were all ready to crash, given the hectic last three days we’d had in St. Petersburg. It didn’t feel that late, as every time we looked out of the windows, it was still light outside, which was a very surreal feeling.

We said our goodbyes to Jay, Stephanie and Ethan. We’d had a really fun three days with them, and I’m so glad our tour worked out well and it was with people who were like minded and great to be with.

Moonlight Sonata

Appetiser 8 7½
Entrée 8 8½
Dessert 8 8½
Service 6 8
Atmosphere 7 8

Average score: 7.75

As we left the dining room, we heard the band first playing Human by the Killers, which I thought was a bit young, given the general demographics of the passengers. Then they went into Sex On Fire by the Kings of Leon. Now I don’t know whether you know this song, but it’s a pretty raunchy one, and I wasn’t sure it was the best fit for our fellow passengers. The funniest thing happened as we headed up in the lifts – the dance floor was filled with people who looked to be in their 70s dancing to Sex On Fire. Oh my goodness, now that’s a sight I truly thought I’d never witness.

When we got back to the room, I got some shots of the scene outside, and bear in mind this is coming up for 11:00pm. We headed for bed, relieved that there would be no wake-up call tomorrow.

The weather today was wet and windy in the morning, but drier and sunnier later with temperatures in the high 50s.
The best thing today was visiting St. Catherine’s Palace.
The worst thing today was the wind and rain as we came off the hydrofoil.
The funniest thing today was all the older passengers dancing to Sex On Fire.
Today we tried visiting Catherine’s Palace
And the result was it was spectacular, but I was disappointed that the amber room was a recreation and not an original.
The most magical moment today was seeing St. Petersburg from the water on our cruise through the canals.

Next: where’s the nearest land?

[Tara O'Hara]

Your meal sounded pretty good overall but I'm sorry you didn't get to sit with your friends.. I'd be exhausted too with the day you guys had!!