St. Petersburg, Russia is often considered to be the "jewel" on any Baltic cruise itinerary. It was definitely dazzling!
When touring around the city two words came to mind, over and over again... GRAND and OPULENT. This place has quite a lot of bling. You won't find anything "plain" about this city! To visit St. Petersburg you need to arrange a Russian visa which is a bit of a hassle, but you can get around it by joining a group tour when your cruise is in port. We decided to forego the ship's tours since for St. Petersburg since they didn't have great reviews, and chose a highly recommended tour provider from Tripadvisor called Alla Tours. Alla Tours arranged everything for us, and although we paid quite a bit of money for a 2-day "Grand" tour of the city, it was worth the experience.
The first stop on our tour was a park near the Neva River. From there we had a great view of the Hermitage Museum which was the second stop on our tour. The Hermitage is HUGE. It is one of the oldest and largest museums in the world, and it has over 3 million items inside! The whole thing is so big that it takes up 6 buildings. Most of the art that we saw on our tour was from Italian masters, with some famous paintings by Leonardo, Raphael, and a sculpture by Michelangelo. Every room was quite opulent and a sight to see! There were also a ton of people in the museum which made everything quite overwhelming. We only scratched the surface of the Hermitage. You could spend days in there and still not see everything!
We ended up getting to the Hermitage by subway. The St. Petersburg metro is even fancy. It has large mosaic tile displays on the walls and the longest elevators I have been on in my life. The metro in St. Petersburg is the deepest in the world, and we even visited the deepest metro stop which was 86 metres below the ground. Crazy!
From the Hermitage we made our way to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. I would rate this place as possibly the most intricately designed and magnificent church I have ever seen. The outside is amazing, with its colourful domes and intricately-designed facade. The inside contains over 7500 square metres of mosaics which is the most of any church in the world. All the mosaics look like paintings since the tiles are so tiny. Even the ceilings are done in mosaic. It is truly a beautiful place which cannot be missed on a visit to this city. The church got its name because it is built on the site where the Emperor Alexander II was fatally wounded.
After several straight hours of touring, we were taken for lunch with our tour group. We had soup, chicken Kiev - famous in Russia, and apple strudel for dessert. It was nice to take a break on our fast-paced tour, but with only two days in a city like St. Petersburg, you have to move fast to cover as much ground as possible. There are so many places to see!
After lunch we got back in our tour van with our guide and headed to St. Isaac's Cathedral, which is the fourth-largest in the world. The dome is huge and is plated with pure gold. The Russians really like to bling out their buildings. I don't think we came across anything plain-looking at all in St. Petersburg. St. Isaac's Cathedral has massive bronze doors to go with its massive dome.
The third church we visited on our first day in St. Petersburg was called the Peter and Paul Cathedral. On the outside it looked very plain compared to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood and St. Isaac's Cathedral, but inside it contained many ornate decorations and paintings as well. This church is the oldest landmark in the city, dating back to 1712 when construction began. This church is also significant because it holds the tombs of almost all the Russian emperors.
Our final stop on day #1 of the Grand Tour of St. Petersburg was a shopping trip. We didn't buy anything at the store since it seemed overpriced, but they had every matryoshka doll you could imagine at this place. Michael Jackson? Madonna? Elvis? Jarome Iginla? You name it, you got it. We ended up buying a matryoshka doll set at the shop near the cruise port which had better prices. After our first day in the city, I was pretty tired but looking forward to day 2...
When touring around the city two words came to mind, over and over again... GRAND and OPULENT. This place has quite a lot of bling. You won't find anything "plain" about this city! To visit St. Petersburg you need to arrange a Russian visa which is a bit of a hassle, but you can get around it by joining a group tour when your cruise is in port. We decided to forego the ship's tours since for St. Petersburg since they didn't have great reviews, and chose a highly recommended tour provider from Tripadvisor called Alla Tours. Alla Tours arranged everything for us, and although we paid quite a bit of money for a 2-day "Grand" tour of the city, it was worth the experience.
The first stop on our tour was a park near the Neva River. From there we had a great view of the Hermitage Museum which was the second stop on our tour. The Hermitage is HUGE. It is one of the oldest and largest museums in the world, and it has over 3 million items inside! The whole thing is so big that it takes up 6 buildings. Most of the art that we saw on our tour was from Italian masters, with some famous paintings by Leonardo, Raphael, and a sculpture by Michelangelo. Every room was quite opulent and a sight to see! There were also a ton of people in the museum which made everything quite overwhelming. We only scratched the surface of the Hermitage. You could spend days in there and still not see everything!
We ended up getting to the Hermitage by subway. The St. Petersburg metro is even fancy. It has large mosaic tile displays on the walls and the longest elevators I have been on in my life. The metro in St. Petersburg is the deepest in the world, and we even visited the deepest metro stop which was 86 metres below the ground. Crazy!
From the Hermitage we made our way to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. I would rate this place as possibly the most intricately designed and magnificent church I have ever seen. The outside is amazing, with its colourful domes and intricately-designed facade. The inside contains over 7500 square metres of mosaics which is the most of any church in the world. All the mosaics look like paintings since the tiles are so tiny. Even the ceilings are done in mosaic. It is truly a beautiful place which cannot be missed on a visit to this city. The church got its name because it is built on the site where the Emperor Alexander II was fatally wounded.
After several straight hours of touring, we were taken for lunch with our tour group. We had soup, chicken Kiev - famous in Russia, and apple strudel for dessert. It was nice to take a break on our fast-paced tour, but with only two days in a city like St. Petersburg, you have to move fast to cover as much ground as possible. There are so many places to see!
After lunch we got back in our tour van with our guide and headed to St. Isaac's Cathedral, which is the fourth-largest in the world. The dome is huge and is plated with pure gold. The Russians really like to bling out their buildings. I don't think we came across anything plain-looking at all in St. Petersburg. St. Isaac's Cathedral has massive bronze doors to go with its massive dome.
The third church we visited on our first day in St. Petersburg was called the Peter and Paul Cathedral. On the outside it looked very plain compared to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood and St. Isaac's Cathedral, but inside it contained many ornate decorations and paintings as well. This church is the oldest landmark in the city, dating back to 1712 when construction began. This church is also significant because it holds the tombs of almost all the Russian emperors.
Our final stop on day #1 of the Grand Tour of St. Petersburg was a shopping trip. We didn't buy anything at the store since it seemed overpriced, but they had every matryoshka doll you could imagine at this place. Michael Jackson? Madonna? Elvis? Jarome Iginla? You name it, you got it. We ended up buying a matryoshka doll set at the shop near the cruise port which had better prices. After our first day in the city, I was pretty tired but looking forward to day 2...
All we can say is.....OMG!!!!! I am certain that, although the photos were beautiful, the real thing must have been MAGNIFICENT!!!!
ReplyDeleteahaaa you would take anyone and everyone to visit this place with this post...
ReplyDeleteAmazing pics, wonderful details!
ReplyDelete