Almost every pass Baltic cruise two days in St. Petersburg, because there is so much to see. If anything for the DVD "St. Petersburg and its surroundings," you will see how many architectural treasures are located there. It would be impossible to see them all and appreciate Their magnificent detail one week left.
We arrived in St. Petersburg on a Monday. We had three tours for our stay: book a guided tour half past eight for the first day of a three-hour tour for the nightNight, and an eight and a half hour tour on the second day before the ship sailed.
We had the opportunity to obtain visas for our stay, we can, then it is our journey, but we thought we had no free time left on the roundabout. The visa also required to give us our passports in one mail service and pay $ 145 for every person that we thought it was a waste of money.
Since the Hermitage museum is closed on Monday, our journey in that first day, PeterhofCastle Church and the Church of blood. Peterhof is located in Petrodvorets, the city of palaces, about fifteen miles from St. Petersburg.
On our way to Peterhof our guide filled us with some basic information. There are five million people in St. Petersburg. We ran into a traffic jam, because now there are so many private cars. He said the Russian winter nine months of waiting, the summer and includes three months of disappointment.
During the Second World War the cityIt was called Leningrad, and is now a siege of 900 days by the Germans, who never entered the city center. The guide showed us the point of attack in which the Nazis were never able to break through the line.
Of course, the basic tenor of his speech was about the bad old days of the Soviet Union. He said long lines of palaces gray gray-Stalin era. The people we saw was very prosperous and seemed to dress like Americans. Bins of watermelons was tobe sold on the roadside.
The leader said during the Soviet era, when the goods were not available, people could buy anything. Now, the goods were available, but prices are so high, people can not buy. In Russia has often seemed as if the bad old days had good points, and today were not as good as they should be.
Putin is from St. Petersburg, and we had an estate sumptuous palace built for him. Our guide joked. When Putin gave the presidency and wasThe prime minister, was the speech he goes again for president if he was eligible. T-shirts with his picture appeared with the words "See you in 2012.
We reached the Peterhof grounds. The suffix means the Court of Hof Peter the Great, Czar from 1682-1725, his summer residence on the model of Versailles, with its many fountains and well-planned walkways and gardens. As with most Russian palaces, the long facade of Peterhof is breathtaking.
Insidebefore we started our tour, we had our shoes don boots, so we did not by sea or scratches on the parquet or marble floors. The guide is a joke for our employees as to polish the floors. The floors were very slippery, so it was better to shuffle around. The building is beautiful and unforgettable. We were amazed by the beauty, the enormous amount of gold leaf decoration, the opulence and extravagance of the palace.
We were warned of the evil women who were stationedin every room of a museum or palace and shouted to tourists bad. Proved an indifferent crowd, so busy moving around their chairs, the coolest place that is not worthy of us were to find trouble.
We left the palace on the side facing the Gulf of Finland in the distance. A long balcony overlooking a large fountain between the stairs that lead to two lanes separated by a garden channel. From the balcony there is a splendid view of the fountains and the Grand CascadeSamson the statue. We went to an alley to the pier, where we should probably go with the hydrofoil back to town.
As we waited for the boat, began to pour, to pour really. The groups are aligned on board the boats, driving rival and slipped his team ahead of us, so we missed the beginning. Even though we had umbrellas, we wet. It was then that we realized that it would be a day, so we wanted to take our evening tour (already paid in claims). Expected to wear formalDress (business suit and tie), a palace for an opera performance. Sometimes when you are planning trips in advance, forget that turning a three-hour trip at night to eight hours of grueling travel.
The hydrofoil back along the Gulf of Finland in St. Petersburg led, but because the windows were so steamed up, we could not see anything.
We had lunch at a floating restaurant, water color, on the Neva, with mediocre food, a sad chicken. Like VeniceNorth of St. Petersburg is a series of islands produced by several bridges. On a bridge over the famous rostral columns, including headlights, open flame for special celebrations.
Along the banks of the river was the Flying Dutchman, a sailing ship, a gym is for wealthy patrons. We passed other floating restaurants and the Navy cruiser "Aurora" and saw the old KGB building, where he said he could see even from the cellar we, Siberia. It has been said, jokingly, KGB PutinBackground.
St. Petersburg is an important naval base and capital of shipment. Under Peter the Great was a hub of shipbuilding.
Napoleon, like Hitler, rather stupidly invaded Russia. For his stupidity, the Russians in Paris and left his mark on the city. We did not know that was the word of French bistro actually from a Russian word (quickly) and became the French word for a place of fast food.
We were told about the Count Stroganoff, who lost an arm in combat. The flesh was cut intosmall pieces, his head chef, the pot still known as Beef Stroganoff.
We drove along the Nevsky Prospect includes shopping street, the officer said, was, like Rodeo Drive, but there seemed to be closer to Oxford Street in London.
In the afternoon we visited the Church of the Resurrection or Church on Spilled Blood, built over a canal, commemorating the place where he was wounded Tsar Alexander II in 1881 fatal. And 'artistically decorated, well known for its mosaics, and itsdomes dome like St. Basil in Moscow. For a time there was a movement to demolish it, but now restored, has become a major tourist attraction in the city. The church was no longer a place of worship or an active church completed in 1907.
Behind the church on the canal is a busy pedestrian street, full of tourists. We saw a couple dressed in clothes of the eighteenth century, wigs and all, Schilling walking through the images.
At various stops, I examined one of the maintourist purchases in Russia: nesting dolls called matryoshka dolls. Ideally, they should be handmade, hand painted, and tell a story. Each doll, like a chapter in a history, promotes the action along. The best are made of wood, signed and numbered, and out of linden wood. Aboard the ship, I seriously considered buying a set of fifteen dolls grained downward, but the price tag of a thousand dollars off me.
In late afternoon we returned to the ship andI'm glad they opted for the night tour. Every night at 06:30 clock we had martinis in Crow's Nest Bar in the bow of the ship. We were also known by the bartender and waiter. Often it would take another couple of regular bar flies, but not too many people were on board this ship, Holland American Bar people.
No comments:
Post a Comment