A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - Page 70 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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The restaurant was definitely not prepared for you. Such a shame since you notified them so far in advance. Thank goodness for mashed potatoes. But at least the finale/dessert looked quite delicious.
Nice photos of St. Petersburg and can't believe the state of the lion statues, which are in dire need of a paint job! Sorry, about the disappointing lunch and certainly not like Disney, when you make them aware of food allergies etc.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Saturday 11 June – part eleven: are we ever going to see Elena again?
When we headed outside, it had started to rain, although at this stage, it was still fairly light thank goodness. Considering at one point, they had been forecasting rain all day, the weather hadn't been too bad so far...
We made our way over to the Yusupovs’ Palace, and this was where things did go wrong. We were going inside, when the really miserable guy on the door stopped us. Elena was so not impressed with this, and we could all tell from the exchange that she made her feelings known, even though we didn't speak Russian. We gathered she was told to go and buy tickets, and we had to wait for us. However, Mr. Misery had a nasty surprise in store for us. Instead of allowing us to wait inside in the warm porch, we had to stand outside in the cold, damp. We were not impressed.
We stood there, and we stood there. It was only the five of us, as Phylis had opted to stay on the minibus, and we all started to think she had made the right choice. At first, it was entertaining, with us all smiling at Mr. Misery, who really did not seem to appreciate our efforts to be so happy. He was exactly what your stereotypical idea of a Russian was, sadly.
After a while, I did start to wonder if we'd ever see Elena again, she'd been gone that long. It must've been about 15 or 20 minutes we waited there, before she emerged, only to be told by Mr. Misery that something wasn't right again, and off she went, thankfully to return a couple of minutes later, and finally we were in. Yay! We flashed our biggest smiles at him, and he jsut stared at us. We all wanted to get a photo of him on the way out, but sadly there was another guy there when we emerged, so we didn't get a chance.
Elena was patently not happy with her treatment, describing this place, I think if I remember right, as a "disaster". She had had to wait in line, where there was one cashier only, and all the tour guides had to buy tickets for their groups. The one in front of her had 2,000 guests, which is why she'd been gone so long.
This palace was once the home to a rich family, and she told us about all the scandal that came with it, with the one guy unable to decide if he preferred men or women, shall we say, and he ended up marrying his sister! However, this place is best known because of its links to a certain Rasputin...
It was one of those places where you have to tour the rooms in order, and basically only one tour group is allowed in at any one time. A couple of times we were either hurried up or caught up with the French group in front of us, which was a bit frustrating.
Elena related the story of how Rasputin came to be involved with the Russian Royal family, before taking us into a small room, where there were photos of the various members of the Royal family.
So what is the story of Rasputin? Here I will say that both of us spent our time remembering the corny 1970s record, by Boney M, called Ra Ra Rasputin, which was just pure class, it was that cheesy! In which other decade could you have got the lyrics “Ra Ra Rasputin, Russia’s greatest love machine”?
Rasputin was a Russian peasant, who exercised what can only be called an extraordinary level of influence over the Russian royal family in the early 20th century. A lot of it had to do with the fact that the family suffered from haemophilia, where the female members can be carriers, but show no signs of the disease. Rather it’s the male members who are affected and, in those days, the slightest cut could be devastating. When Tsar Nicholas II’s wife gave birth to a son, after having four daughters, they were hopeful that he would not be affected, but it was not to be. I don’t think anyone’s sure, but it looks as if Rasputin said he had ways to cure their son, and that’s how his influence grew over them.
The next room gave us all a shock, as none of us were expecting to be confronted with this.
This was laid out with the conspirators who wanted Rasputin dead, and they put a fair bit of planning into this. However, as we were to discover, Rasputin was going to prove very difficult to kill... They first tried to poison him with cyanide, and he collapsed on the floor in here, but when they came back a few minutes later to dispose of his body, it had gone. He'd somehow managed to crawl up the stairs we'd walked down, so when they found him, they shot him.
He escaped again, and he was shot another three times, and brutally beaten. However, the story doesn't end there. They threw his body into one of the frozen canals, expecting it never to be seen again. However, a group of ice fisherman got more than ice the next day, when they bagged Rasputin's body. The original autopsy reports have been lost, but it's said that they showed he died of drowning, so even shooting him didn't kill him. He certainly had some serious resilience!
We then explored part of the rest of the house, which was exceptionally grand looking.
Sadly, the main ballroom is undergoing a major restoration, so we couldn't see that.
We made our way through various other rooms...
... before eventually emerging into the centerpiece, the private theatre they have here that seats just 180 people. Wow! It was very sumptuous, and you could imagine lavish productions being put on before a small, and no doubt select, audience.
We made our way out...
Elena mentioned the Moorish Room that I'd read about in my guidebook, but there was a long line for it, and she rightly decided we shouldn't wait to see it. I would've loved to have done, but honestly, from start to finish, I'd found the place to be a bit of a "disaster" as Elena had said earlier on. Not only had we had all the problems getting in in the first place, but we also found the staff to be pretty rude. Elena got a lecture a couple of times, because she was trying to speed things up. Fair enough, we probably were cutting in line again, but equally if you're a small group, as we were, what's the problem? A large group, yes of course I get and I don't think anyone's suggesting you'd ever do that, but here they were intent on sticking rigidly to the rules just for the sake of it, it seemed to me.
Another beautiful place, but an odd way to explore it. Oh well.
Yeah, they should have allowed you to pass larger groups - just like when you play golf! If you are playing faster and you catch up to the group in front, they allow you to play through and pass them.
Interesting about Rasputin though! Not sure we should feel sorry for him or not.
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Wow, what a beautiful place! We didn't see that, and I'm not sure if I'm sorry, given your experience. And did you say a guide was buying for a group of 2,000?!?! That's a lot of tour buses!!!
And I need to look up the song about Rasputin, as I haven't heard of it before.
Another beautiful place, but an odd way to explore it. Oh well.
Yeah, they should have allowed you to pass larger groups - just like when you play golf! If you are playing faster and you catch up to the group in front, they allow you to play through and pass them.
That's a good analogy. I hadn't thought of that, but definitely!
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Interesting about Rasputin though! Not sure we should feel sorry for him or not.
I'm not sure either. The problem with anything that's been written about him is that it was written by people who had an angle on the whole thing. People seemed to either love him or hate him. He certainly divided opinions.
I don't know if this ever made it to the US. It was a 'Euro-disco' song, by a German. For any who want a taste, here's the music video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VmkySNDX4dU
There are lots of historical photos that were kind of cool to see (even if the song claims he was shot to death, and we now know he drowned).
I don't know if this ever made it to the US. It was a 'Euro-disco' song, by a German. For any who want a taste, here's the music video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VmkySNDX4dU
There are lots of historical photos that were kind of cool to see (even if the song claims he was shot to death, and we now know he drowned).
Oh that's the song, but you did not get to see the beauty of the performance from Boney M... cheesy as anything.
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Thank goodness for mashed potatoes. But at least the finale/dessert looked quite delicious. 
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Sorry, about the disappointing lunch and certainly not like Disney, when you make them aware of food allergies etc. 
PassPorter Guide Author
We were not impressed. 
However, this place is best known because of its links to a certain Rasputin... 
It was very sumptuous, and you could imagine lavish productions being put on before a small, and no doubt select, audience. 
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