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| Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood - a wet day in St Petersburg |
Day 7 & 8 - St Petersburg
This was the highlight of our trip and was one of the main reasons for choosing the Baltic Cruise, but having said that we have thoroughly enjoyed our time in all the other ports. I think St Petersburg is perhaps the top of the list because it isn't as easy to visit unless on an organised tour as it would be more difficult to obtain a visa, where we could visit the other Baltic countries without as much difficulty, and for that reason we woud love to go back and have more time in them, but Russia will be a "once only" visit. We organised our tour through Alla Tours, which is a Russian tour company and we were very impressed with Elenna our tour guide who spoke perfect English and was a delight, giving us so much more information than we expected, and was able to get us into all the palaces without having to line up which was amazing.
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| First we did a boat tour of the Neva River |
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| Beautiful bridges were plentiful |
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| A decorated lighthouse |
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| Rostral column - Lighthouse St Petersburg |
Our first visit was to Yusopov Palace.
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| The room is underground set up to show the plot to kill Rasputin |
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| The main staircase with amazing chandelier |
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| The main staircase |
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| A beautiful ornate clock - one of many throughout the tour |
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| Gold, gold, and more gold! |
St Isaac's Cathedral, the largest Orthodox Cathedral in the world was our next tour.
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| St Isaac's Cathedral |
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| Interior of St Isaac's with Lapis Lazuli columns |
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| Interior of St Isaac's |
Our next stop was Catherine Palace, and it was stunning, words and pictures just don't do it justice, but we certainly took a lot of photos to try and capture the grandeur.
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| The exterior of Catherine Palace |
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| Another view of the paace |
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| The gates were very impressive and so beautiful |
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| Another view of the exterior |
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| And more gold inside |
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| Another gold room - the Grand Hall |
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| Majolica vase |
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| Original art |
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| The main staircase, Catherine Palace |
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| Beautiful sculptures - sleeping baby in marble |
Our next stop was Peterhof Palace where we walked through the magnificent gardens. Even the fountains here were golden, so much gold everywhere!
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| The magnificnet Peterhof Palace and gardens |
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| Beautiful fountains, Peterhof Gardens |
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| More fountains |
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| The Chapel, Peterhof Palace |
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| The main fountain |
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| The Grand Cascade |
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| Catherine Palace -another fountain |
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| The Grand Cascade from lower level |
We ended day 1 on a hydrofoil trip with great views from the Neva River.
Day 2 started with a trip on the Metro subway system.
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| The Metro is an art gallery |
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| The Metro |
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| One of the deepest underground systems in the world |
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| More beautiful mosaics |
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| Another bridge on the Neva |
Our next destination was the Hermitage Museum, the largest and oldest museum in the world founded in 1754 by Catherine the Great. The Winter Palace in St Petersburg houses the Hermitage Museum
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| Throne Room |
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| HermitageThrone Room |
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| Throne Roon, Hermitage Museum |
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| Group of singers at The Hermitage |
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| The Jordan Staircase, Hermitage |
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| Hermitage |
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| Peacock Clock, The Hermitage |
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| Malachite Urn |
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| Crouching boy by Michelangelo, Hermitage |
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| The Raphael Loggias - copy of the gallery in the Vatican |
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The Hermitage - the Jordan staircase named for the celebration of Christ's baptism in the River Jordan
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| The Peter & Paul Fortress spire from the Neva River |
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| The Three Graces sculpture - Antonio Canova |
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| The Hermitage interior |
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| The Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood |
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| Interior of Church of te Saviour on Spilled Blood |
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| The ornate altar |
Our next stop was the Golden Line Restaurant in St Petersburg where we were served a traditional meal of soup, chicken kiev and dessert of sweet pastries - very enjoyable as it was about 2 pm when we arrived and we were very hungry.
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| The Golden Line Restaurant |
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| A beautifully decorated cake in shop window |
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| Our table at the restaurant |
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| The foyer of the Restaurant |
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| The foyer of the Restaurant |
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| The arcade leading to the restaurant |
After a very long and tiring day we were taken back to our ship with plenty of time before we sailed later that night.
St Petersburg was everything and more than we had expected and although the tour was exhausting and overwhelming it was worth every ache and pain I experienced.
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