Russian Rubles, and Visas

Prequel

My first (and only) trip to St Petersburg was by cruise ship. That is one of the most convenient ways to get to St. Petersburg. One advantage to this is that you don't have to get a visa provided that you use either the ship tours or a licensed guide tour as the tour ticket counts as your visa. My mother and father went to Russia together in the late 60's for a meeting. They visited Moscow and then took the train to St. Petersburg. When I looked at the 35 mm slides that my dad took, I was able to match some of my photos up with my dads.

End Prequel

I was quite worried about this port because I had arranged for a tour for the two of us with the Alla tour agency for a private car, driver and guide, and they warned us that the ship staff and cruise director would make it difficult for us to meet the guide in a timely manner.

Waterfront from where the ship docked

And they did. They had the HAL (Holland American Line) tours (i.e. ship tours) very regimented, and indicated that no one could get off the boat at any time other than on a tour or with a visa. And they repeated the warning about how hard Russian immigration was and if there was the slightest mistake that we would hold everyone up and our names would be a hissing and a byword. (The First Book of Nephi...Ch 19 v. 14 And because they turn their hearts aside, saith the prophet, and despised the Holy One of Israel, they shall wander in the flesh, and perish, and become a hiss and a byword, and be hated among all nations. )

We scheduled to arrive at 0800 and it was going to be 64 deg F with a chance of rain. I thought that perhaps we could have breakfast first and get off at 0900, but the Alla instructions were to get off as soon as the ship was cleared. And well before 0800, the cruise director started calling the first tour which was scheduled for 0815.

Then she said that everyone with a visa (which we didn't have of course) must get off with the first group at 0800 or else they could not get off until all the ship tours had left. So we picked up and left without breakfast although we had some fruit in the room and B ate some (although she would not eat any of the bananas with dark spots on the skin).

In actual fact, no one where we were scanned out at the gangway on A Deck seemed to notice whether we had a tour sticker or not because our photos were still on the wrong cards. (Patricia - the lady that checked us into the cruise in Copenhagen had screwed them up) and that provided a distraction. Also I have a habit of putting the old tour stickers on my camera and on my cane, so I had various colors and numbered stickers - they just weren't for the current tour. Also there was no crowd yet as people were still getting organized.

We went to the Russian immigration area, and they did not seem to care whether we had a tour ticket or not - it did not seem that they looked at it. However at the end of the second day, the Captain made some comment about how people were misled by non-HAL people into thinking that they could get off without an excursion ticket.

The immigration people took one half of the document that we weren't supposed to separate, stamped our passports, gave us a Russian Landing Card which said it was the visa for the day. We were not to lose the RLC day visa (under monetary penalty or maybe death or imprisonment) or the other half of the pass. On the way back after the ballet, B found an extra RLC on the floor, and it didn't belong to any of our group, so someone must have gotten into trouble and had to pay some money.

We had been given three choices of ways to pay for the Alla tours - bank wire (which would have had to be done two weeks in advance and would have cost some additional money), credit card which would have cost 3% additional on the Russian side for being a foreign card, or cash, and the cash had to be new bills with no marks or stamps on them, because otherwise the bank would charge 10% extra. There was a discount for paying with cash. The cash could be dollars, or Euros.

It seemed to me that the cheapest option was cash, so I went to the bank and got a packet of brand new, still in the wrapper, fifty dollar bills. I got enough for the tour and the tip for the tour and some extra, and on the way to the ship I wore the money in a pouch under my bra.

Cruise ship terminal from the Alla driver's Mercedes

We met the Alla people, and I had gotten the money to pay for the first half of the tour out of the safe, not realizing that I would need to pay for both days at once. I had brought money for possible use in buying stuff too, and managed with that to pay for 3/4ths of it. Alla the owner of the agency was upset that I had misunderstood and said that would be sufficient, that I wouldn't need to pay any more, and I couldn't figure out any way to pay the rest, as she was only there the first day.

Also, there was a mistake on the information on the website for our tour. It was listed as a three day tour, when of course we were only there for two days. Fortunately I had printed everything out (what we were doing and when, and what it was to cost as the three day tour would have been more expensive), so the guide went back to Alla and they appeared to be able to fix it easily.

I could never remember the names of either the guide or the driver, but they were both very good. He was driving his own Mercedes (gas) car, and he seemed to be able to drive very very close to parked cars. I was in the front seat so I could notice this easily. He never made me nervous.

The rest of the two days apart from the initial problem was strenuous (even though this was supposed to be an easy tour) but it was good.

The First Day - June 15th

Summary

We did a partial city tour, and then went to Peterhof by hydrofoil. We saw Peterhof and had a nice lunch and then drove to Catherine's Palace. B went by herself with the guide to see the palace and the Amber Room. Then we went back to the ship because the ballet tour was to start at 1900 and we wanted to have dinner first. The ballet was at the Palace Theatre (Soyuzsporttheatre) and was Swan Lake

First Day Details

The dock in St. Pete is out in an industrial area, so we drove into the city through faceless grey Soviet style apartment blocks which B said looked like slums to her.

Communist Apartment Blocks

When we got into the city, there were a lot of gold spires and domes visible from along the river. The older buildings were painted in various colors (red, green, yellow) with white or off-white trim.

The streets appeared in reasonable shape. The lights all have countdown timers on them

Countdown timer

so you can tell when they will turn green or red, and there is a yellow light not only between the green and red, but also between the red and green.

Yellow between red and green at night

Near as I could tell, gas was about 18.40 rubles/liter for 92 octane.

I think there are about 6 rubles/$1.00. There were diamond signs (square ones) which sometimes had a yellow diamond on a white background.

Yellow diamond

Three black lines

Occasionally one would have two or three thin black lines diagonally across it. I asked about it and was told they were signs for the main road, and the three or four diagonal black lines were to indicate the end of something (like the end of the main road). Our first stop where we got out to take pictures was along the river at what the guide said were lighthouses (there were two).

Approaching (and sign with two black lines)

Neptune?

Postcards and souvenirs

These are apparently called the Rostrum. Apparently several times a year, they build a fire at the top of it in a kind of bazaar thing. (I find that it is a gas light.)

Bazaar at the top

Stuck onto the side are ship bows which the guide said were the prows of vanquished enemies and there were statues around the bottom of Neptune, angel figureheads etc.

Hermitage and a Ferry goes under the bridge

The Rest of the Story: In the 19th century lights on these two columns actually served as aids to navigation to guide vessels in the Neva River. The style of the columns comes from ancient Greece and Rome where rostral columns were erected to commemorate naval victories. The ships stuck on the side of the shafts are called "rostra" and they do represent prows of captured ships. The stone figures at the bottom of these columns represent or personify the four rivers - Volga, Neva, Volchov and Dnieper.

One of the four rivers

Old St Petersburg Stock Exchange across the street

Then we continued with the guide giving us the names and history of the buildings and of the city.

Star on a bridge

Both of us took a lot of photos of horse statues, including the three of the four on the Anichkov Bridge

Horse Tamer's Statues

Horse Tamer's Statue

Bronze Horseman. Senate and Synod buildings are in the background

The Bronze Horseman is an equestrian statue of Peter the Great in the Senate Square in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Commissioned by Catherine the Great, it was created by the French sculptor Étienne Maurice

Monument to Nicholas I in front of St. Isaac's Cathedral

Alexander column

Palace Square in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The monument was raised after the Russian victory in the war with Napoleon's France. The column is named for Emperor Alexander I of Russia, who reigned from 1801–25

God Hermes on the facade of the Comedy Theater

Sometimes I would ask a question and it would put her off her spiel a bit - especially as with questions about the road signs which she would have to ask the driver about. I asked about the Pectopah signs and was told that was the word for Restaurant - that the P was an R and a C was an S. So I figured out that CTON

CTON

was STOP and

Macdohandc was McDonalds especially as there was a Golden Arches sign to give me a clue.

When I got home, I found that a few the photos I had taken on the city tour were photos of Kazan Cathedral aka (The Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan). My photos were similar to the ones that my father took in 1970 when it was the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism - it had been closed as a church in 1929, and was used for propaganda purposes.

Kazan_Cathedral_From_Forty_Years_Ago

Wing of Our Lady of Kazan in 2009

Services at the church were resumed in 1992, so when we were there in 2009, the museum (now called the Museum of the History of Religion) and the church co-existed in the building

Kazan_Cathedral 2009

Then (top) and Now (bottom)

Our next stop was outside the Church on the Spilled Blood.

Exterior of the Church on the Spilled Blood

This was built to commemorate the assassination of Emperor Alexander II who was was fatally wounded by political nihilists in March 1881. It is a very ornate Russian Orthodox church. We couldn't go inside at this time because it doesn't open until 10, but we got out and took pictures of the outside.

Top minarets

Detail

Blue and Green

Souvenir stands

Canal

Diving Car?

Someone at the Meet and Greet told us that the one thing they wanted to see was the inside of this church because last time she was here it was closed for renovation. It still had scaffolding on the outside.

Enter through scaffolding

Probably the best way to visit Peterhof is to take a hydrofoil across the Gulf of Finland to the jetty at the end of the Marine Canal. Three companies run regular hydrofoil services through the summer months from the Hermitage jetty, Angliskaya Naberezhnaya next to the Senate Building, and Universitetskaya Naberezhnaya next to the Academy of Sciences. We took the one from the Hermitage.

Hermitage

Tall ship from the ferry

Me on the ferry

Rostrum from the hydrofoil

We both took a little nap.

Cruising in to St. Petersburg

St. Peter and Paul fortressFrom the other side of the river

At one point we could see the ships at the terminal in the distance, and also we could see a nuclear power plant.

Cruise ship dock from the Peterhof hydrofoil

They also have actual tours on river boats which I think would be fun to do.

Range marker

Hydrofoil at the Peterhof dock

We docked at Peterhof where Peter the Great had built palaces. The dock was at the end of a long pier.

Map of the grounds at the ferry dock - all Russian

As we walked along the dock, we could see an old lighthouse.

Peterhof Lighthouse from the hydrofoil dock

It is on the south side of Neva Bay on the palace waterfron. It is an approximately 33 ft round cylindrical white tower with lantern, gallery, and skeletal braces on the seaward side. The lantern and watch room are red, and there is red vertical range stripe

Peterhof Lighthouse

Close-up of the Peterhof Lighthouse

We walked along a canal and through some forested area with other tour groups ebbing and flowing around us.

Canals leading toward the Grand Palace

Canal water spout

My granddaughter by the canal

The first areas of land to be developed at Peterhof were the formal gardens around Monplaisir (part of the Lower Park). The Garden of Bacchus was also begun during Peter's reign, although additions were made to its statuary and fountains throughout the 18th century. The statue of Neptune on the corner was one of the first ones we saw after we got off the catamaran ferry and B went over to try and get a picture of it without other people there. Just as she got there a whole other group came, but she waited and was able to get a good picture of him by himself.

Neptune statue

Tree with silver paint on old branch wounds

Fountain

Fountain

Formal gardens and clipped hedges

Gold statue

Garden house

My granddaughter gave me her camera and went to activate one of the trick fountains - there was a bench there and if you walked up to sit on the bench, water would spray up your back.

caught

But I couldn't get the camera to work so I missed the picture.

Trick fountain without occupant

Later in the tour, she did get some of other people.

Running away from the fountains

Prepared with an umbrella

There are other trick fountains Two take the form of gangly trees rigged with jets that activate when someone approaches. Another, disguised as an umbrella with a circular bench set around the stem, drops a curtain of water from its rim when someone enters to take a seat, but I think I only saw the one with the bench with the cobblestone fountain area in front of it.

Singing in the shower

The smaller Upper Gardens are free, but entry to the Lower Gardens requires the purchase of tickets (not included in the boat fee for visitors arriving by hydrofoil). Our tickets were purchased for us by our guide so I don't know what they cost and the website doesn't really say what the price is.

We did not tour the Grand Palace which was (like many palaces in many countries from this period of time) modeled after Versailles. Inside, the Grand Palace is reported to be considerably more lavish than Monplaisir, although the interiors had to be almost entirely reconstructed after World War 2. The long, narrow palace has minimal decoration. with two white pavilions with gilded cupolas at the end of the wings. But it is still impressive from the outside.

Arriving Monplaisir

When we got to the Monplaisir itself, we put on the booties over our shoes.

Booties for inside the palace

The guide

Our guide

told us that Monplaisir was the favorite residence of Peter the Great. There were two wings with black and white tile floors and decorated ceilings and paintings on the walls. They had floor to ceiling windows on both sides of the fairly narrow corridor.

Ceiling

Peter the Great's Little Palace

My granddaughters photo of me in the hall

Russian immitation of Oriental lacquer

dining table

She said that the Peter and Catherine would come out here to relax by themselves with just some close friends - without a lot of servants. She even did the cooking. The tsar himself chose the location, perched right on the Gulf of Finland. Besides planning the inner layout and much of the interior decor, Peter also came up with the name for the palace — Monplaisir (meaning "my pleasure").

Dutch-tiled pantry where Catherine would cook

The palace was built between 1714 and 1723 by Andreas Schluter, Johann Friedrich Braunstein, Jean-Baptiste-Alexandre Le Blond and Nicola Michetti. The exhibits include, Chinese porcelain, Dutch faience, Russian glass and eighteenth-century cooking appliances. This is a small palace - other than the two wings, there was a sitting room, dining room, kitchen and butlers pantry, bedroom and study.

Tsar's bedroom

Chest and Table with artifacts

There was also a water closet.

water closet

The decorative moulding is a masterpiece of interior decoration.

Plasterwork

Lilacs (or something that looked like lilacs) were in bloom around the grounds and the guide told us that they were wild.

Lilacs?

Approaching the restaurant

Since we had not had breakfast, we decided to have lunch here. We walked a fairly long distance to where there was a tour group restaurant in cafeteria fashion. Originally when I was writing it up as a tip for VT it was difficult to figure out what the name of the restaurant was. I decided that it was the Standart.

Sign outside

This is what the website says: At the center of Nyzhniy park the "Standart" restaurant, surrounded by fountains, is located. Earlier at this site there was the Illumination Yard, served for storage of pyrotechnic equipment, and also "A launch slipway" - a storage, built by Peter I. At the restaurant's site there was a house of guard Nsarov, served at Ekaterina II. All buildings have been restored upon ancient drawings. The visiting of that restaurant will be a brilliant ending of meeting "the capital of fountains". Here you will have a nice rest after walking in the park and enjoy wonderfully cooked courses of Russian and European cuisine.

All the tables were reserved, except those outside. But because it looked like rain, we didn't want to eat outside. The guide was able to get one of the tables cleared so we could use it. I had a kind of cheese sandwich - it had cucumber and tomato along with a rolled up piece of cheese in a croissant.

Cheese Sandwich

We both had a bowl of meat and vegetable soup which had black things in it that I assumed were beans, but which turned out to be ripe olives. We put sour cream in it - sloppy service

Meat vegetable soup with olives and sour cream

but it was very good. I also had a kind of apricot pastry. Lunch cost me $40.00

Apricot pastry

It did rain while we were at lunch, but more or less stopped after lunch. Now we were to see the fountains and grounds, but I had done so much walking already that I told the guide to take B with her and she could take the pictures for both of us.

My granddaughter saw the Chess Cascade and many other fountains.

Dragons at the top of the Chess Cascade fountain

Gold turrets peek over the trees

The Upper Gardens south of the Grand Palace,consist of three alleys leading to the Palace, surrounded by formal flowerbeds and low, clipped hedges. But I didn't see all 64 different fountains, and over 200 bronze statues, bas-reliefs, and other decorations. At the center stands the statue of Samson wrestling the lion

Samson opening the lion's jaws

Upper palace from afar

Part of the Peterhof Fountains

statue of Samson wrestling the lion

Grand Cascade

More photos of the grounds taken by my granddaughter

We were there in June so the official opening of the fountains at Peterhof had already taken place. This usually takes place at the end of May, is an all-day festival, with classical music, fireworks and other performances, as each section of the park's fountains is turned on one by one

More photos of the grounds taken by my granddaughter

Closeup of the top

I made my way up to the upper palace and waited for them.

My photo Walking up to the upper palace

Upper Palace Detail

Menager Fountain in Peterhof

Walkway in front of the palace

I did see some of the Grand Cascade, the most famous ensemble of fountains, which runs from the northern facade of the Grand Palace to the Marine Canal.

By now the driver had arrived (the ferry is faster than driving) and picked us up, and we drove to Pushkin where Catherine's Palace with the Amber Room was. It was a long walk from where we were dropped off to the palace.

Back way from the parking lot

Peeking through the fence

Facade

Our guide approaching the palace ahead of us

By the time I got there, I knew that I would not make it much farther, so I sent B with the guide to see the palace, and I just sat and waited in the lobby. She could take pictures everywhere except the Amber Room. These are her photos

Floor detail and booties

Costumed guard

Mirror reflection

Window and wall detail

Red curtains and black and white floors

Corner furnace

Green and gold room

Blue room

Dress model

Paintings on the walls

Room in the palace

Tiled corner furnace

Green table

Dining room

We went out the front side of the palace where throngs of people were waiting in line,

Lines waiting to get in

and walked down along a road with souvenir sellers to the car.

Souvenir vendors

We drove out the Egyptian gate about 1430.

Egyptian gate

Incidentally I asked to sit in the front seat so the guide was in the back with B. This really worked well - B was on the left side of the car and I was on the right. The drive back to the city took about a hour.

Railroad crossing?

Trolley

Wire Tracings Against the Sky

Moscow Triumphal Gate

This was erected in memory of Russian victories in wars with Persia and Turkey between 1826 and 1829. It was once the biggest cast iron construction in the world.

Passig Nicolas I again

Police car and a sports team having their photo taken in front of Nicolas I statue

We dressed for the ballet (Swan Lake with the "ballet stars of St. Petersburg" at the Soyuz Sport Theatre). and went up to the Lido

It is Monday - You can tell by the floor rugs in the elevators

because we had to leave at 1900 (7 pm) and I did not think service would be quick enough in the dining room. B had a

Grilled sirloin steak and fries

a roll and a fruit cup (official name Supreme of Fruits Galliano). I had

Shrimp cocktail

(Mediterranean Seafood Salad), a mixed green salad and some couscous.

Mixed green salad

When we went to the bus, a ship from the Aida cruise line was in front of our ship. I think it was AIDALuna

AIDA

The Astor was also docked near us. The excursion bus took us into town and we when we crossed the river we saw the Pullmantur ship Zenith crossways in the river where it looked like she was stuck.

Zenith turning around in the river

Zenith turning

But really she had apparently come into the river and was being turned around to face out. It started to rain and we were stuck in a big traffic jam. The driver had a hard time getting us around the corners into where the theatre was.

Bolshoi_Gostiny_Dvor_And_Grand_Palace

Palace Theatre

Ballet ticket (front and back)

Apparently the Soyuz Sport Theatre has two shows running and I suspect they are mostly for tourists. One show is at the Hermitage and the other one was the one we went to at the Palace. The Palace is called the Theatre of Musical Comedy and was originally constructed in 1799 – 1801. Soon after 1910 it was bought by a private entrepreneur to be fitted out as a theatre. The theatre had a hard life through the wars, and has recently been refurbished.

Auditorium interior

Ballet dancers

Statue at the top of the stairs

The theatre website description of the building is as follows: Architecture is retained in primordial appearance, except just one lobby that was specially rebuilt as a grotto, which was stylish tendency in the beginning of XX century. Walls of this hall were faced with raw masonry, in which cracks were hidden electric light bulbs; and in small ponds placed in the corners of grotto water flowed. Sometimes in theatre came people who were not interested in theatre at all, they were just curious – they wanted to see the luxurious stairs and to visit grotto.

When I asked B if she had seen a ballet, her answer was that she hadn't. She meant that she hadn't seen Russian ballet, but she had seen Swan Lake and Nutcracker. She wasn't impressed with this production and neither was I. We both felt that the guy playing the prince was bored with it, and she said the chorus was missing the downbeat. I though the white swan (although not in the first flush of youth) had wonderful swan wing arms, the orchestra was good, and the scenery was OK. We liked the jester, and the dance the four ballerinas did with the crossed arms, and also the Spanish dance. We got back to the ship about 2300.

My granddaughter after the ballet

Granddaughter on the bus after the ballet

I think I would have done better to do the Folkloric excursion. The other night excursion (the gala) was canceled. B didn't take her camera to the ballet and she ended up the day with 440 pictures. I had 290.