A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - Page 67 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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There are other changes as well.
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Saturday 11 June – part eight: you couldn’t make a mistake
We still had so much to see, including some beautiful statues…
I had to get a photo of this!
… and these ones that are outside the building, looking as if they’re holding it up.
This is the largest of its kind in the world, and apparently they got it in here when there were no walls, and then they worked on it. As Mark said, you couldn’t make a mistake.
This was the Egyptian section of the museum…
Then it was time to head out. Thank goodness we hadn’t had to use the cloakroom… look at the lines for them…
… and here’s why – this is how many each cloakroom can take!
Thankful we didn’t have to bother with that, we headed out and there were still long lines outside…
… and made our way over to our next stop, the Church on Spilled Blood…
Unfortunately, the sun was just in the wrong position here, so getting photos was a bit of a nightmare.
It was here that I probably felt the least safe. We’d been told earlier to keep our passports on the minibus, as Daniel would stay with it, and you didn’t want to risk pickpocketing. We had someone attempt to open the door on our minibus as we came to a stop here, which freaked us out a bit, and lots of people offering to sell us things. I don’t think so! It did annoy me that I’d seen a presentation on the TV about St. Petersburg from earlier on in the cruise, when it was described as a “very safe” city – not with this amount of pickpocketing.
The ceilings are so tall, you could use binoculars to see the details of those paintings up there! You did another great job at getting photos there without people in them. Or they were all waiting around at the cloak rooms.
It's a shame that pickpocketing is still a thing. I guess not all thieves have turned digital. But really, it could happen anywhere so always best to be aware.
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The ceilings are so tall, you could use binoculars to see the details of those paintings up there! You did another great job at getting photos there without people in them. Or they were all waiting around at the cloak rooms.
I think they may have been!
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It's a shame that pickpocketing is still a thing. I guess not all thieves have turned digital. But really, it could happen anywhere so always best to be aware.
That's a good point about them turning digital - I bet that certainly brings more rewards, as I don't know about you, but I don't carry much cash. Sure you could sell on a cell phone or make money from a passport, but I'm not sure how much you could do with a credit card without the PIN. That's why I worry about the contactless transactions coming in. I don't know if you have them over there, but over here, they started out with a £20 limit and now they're upping it to £50. I find that scary, as there's no signature, PIN, nothing. Anyone takes your card and they can use it as they want to...
We don't even use the PIN here, regardless of amount. That's the really annoying part. And likely why our Disney visa has been stolen 3 times already this year. Or 4. I've forgotten already.
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Oh, Goodness! That church is amazing! So sad about the pickpockets though. I would feel very uncomfortable in an area like that for sure.
That's how it made us feel and sadly that feeling stays with you long after a vacation. We felt that way when we visited Rome, Pisa and Marseille (someone did have their bag stolen on our tour) and it's amazing how that's one of the overwhelming memories I have of all of those places now.
We don't even use the PIN here, regardless of amount. That's the really annoying part. And likely why our Disney visa has been stolen 3 times already this year. Or 4. I've forgotten already.
Exactly - you just hit the nail on the head. If there are no additional security measures, you just steal a card and off you go. What are we thinking given people that sort of starting point?
More great photos in the museum and especially those of the ceiling! The church is quite beautiful as well but too bad it's not a safe area!
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Really, the Hermitage is one marvel after another. Beautiful! Church on Spilled Blood is also quite incredibly ornate. Bummer that the light was just not cooperating for more photos. I've really enjoyed all your breathtaking photos of this place. I don't like that feeling of having to ultra alert to pickpockets and such.
Really, the Hermitage is one marvel after another. Beautiful! Church on Spilled Blood is also quite incredibly ornate. Bummer that the light was just not cooperating for more photos.
Yep, that was a pain, but it was just how the day panned out...
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I've really enjoyed all your breathtaking photos of this place.
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I feel like I keep repeating myself, but the Hermitage is simply amazing! Love the pictures of the Church of Spilled Blood. That certainly is an interesting name. Sorry that you felt unsafe in the area though.
Saturday 11 June – part nine: some things never change
Finally, Elena returned from getting our tickets, and we headed inside the Church on Spilled Blood. This church was originally known as the Resurrection Church of Our Saviour, but given it was built on the spot where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881, it quickly acquired a new name. Even back then, he was killed by a suicide bomber. Things never change it seems. If I remember right, something happened and he went to the aid of a young boy, and that’s when the bomb went off.
His successor Alexander III launched a competition for a permanent memorial to be built on this spot, and the foundation stone was laid in 1883.
As you can see from the photos, it was a beautifully decorated place. The detail on the main dome was very impressive, but perhaps even more so was the fact a bomb was dropped on it in the Second World War and failed to go off. Wow, how lucky was that? The colour comes from the different types of minerals used (more than 20) including jasper, rhodonite, porphyry and Italian marble.
It was very hard to take in everything you were seeing, as there was just so much detail here. I think you could’ve stood here for another hour, and kept spotting new things all the time.
On the way out, Elena showed us photos of the restoration work, which lasted 20 years until 1998. She told us she genuinely never thought it would be finished in her lifetime.
When we stepped back outside, the sun had come out and the sky was a glorious blue, so we made the best of getting photos here, especially as we didn’t have to contend with the sun being right behind the church, as it had been at the front. I know you couldn’t tell from the photos we took there, but it was so bright, we didn’t think anything was coming out.
We headed back to the minibus, and ended up going down Nevskiy Prospekt, the main shopping street in the city, and I was surprised to see a couple of brands we know from at home in the UK.
As we were a bit early for our lunch stop, we made an impromptu photo stopat the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan, which was a nice surprise. It includes 96 Corinthian columns, arranged in four rows to form an arc facing the Nevskiy Prospekt. The design was inspired by St. Peter’s in Rome.
This is the Singer building, as in the company that built the sewing machines. It was built for them at the turn of the 20th century.
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The church is quite beautiful as well but too bad it's not a safe area! 
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