Month: September 2018

One of the cities I was most looking forward to visiting on this cruise was St. Petersburg.   After all, when were we ever going to get to Russia again?

Petersburg was founded in 1703.  Emperor Peter the Great (1682-1721) wanted a city equal to Paris and Rome.  He hated Moscow and wanted to have a city with access to the Baltic Sea.   His Peterhof Palace was built to resemble Versailles.  During his reign he also established Russia’s  permanent navy.

Our first tour was the Winter Palace and the Gold Room of the Hermitage.  Catherine the Great (1762-1796) loved art work and kept adding to her collection.  When she needed more room, she simply added another room on to  the palace.  Today the Hermitage is a very big museum with four main buildings: the Winter Palace, the Small Hermitage, the Old Hermitage and the New Hermitage.   To me it got very confusing because our tour guide Olga, kept taking us from one building to the next to avoid the crowds.

The Gold Room was also included in our tour. It was filled with gold jewelry and ornaments there were recovered from burial grounds of czars and the rich dating back to the 7th to 4th centuries BC. (No pictures were allowed.)There were even decorative gold head pieces for the czar’s  horses who were also buried there. Can you imagine being a kid playing in the dirt and uncovering a huge gold necklace and bracelet?  Magnifying  glasses were positioned over some of the pieces to show their fine details.   It was amazing to see so many gold pieces in one room.

We went from one room to the next.  Frank and were both getting very tired from standing in front of the displays to hear about the room or its painting. After a while, all we looked for was a bench to sit. We got the idea: the  czars and their royal courtians lived in very impressive buildings and collected exquisite pieces of art.   On our bus ride home, we both welcomed the opportunity to  fall asleep.

Short on time, we quickly ate a packed lunch before going through customs a second time for our afternoon tour.  On this tour we were to see two churches and then take a canal boat ride on the Neva, Fontaka, and Moyka Rivers. .

St. Isaacs is a Russian Orthodox Church built between 1818 and 1858.  There were three previous churches built on this site. The present church, made of marble and  built with  a huge dome, looked more like the US Capitol building than a church.  It was closed during the Soviet Union years and reopened in 1990.  The paintings on the walls and ceiling were restored.    Except for a small prayer area, it is now a museum to show its elaborately decorated interior.   There are no pews; the parishioners stood for services.

The second church we toured was The Church on Spilled Blood.  It is built on the sight where Czar Alexander II was assassinated by a suicide bomber in 1881.  The church was started soon after Alexander was killed but was not finished until 1907.  It was built will lavish fairy tale like images of Russia’s national history and traditions.

The church was looted heavily during the 1917 Russian Revolution. Then during the communist era it was used to store potatoes.  The church was damaged in WWII.  It was restore in the 1990’s and now today serves mostly as a museum.

The walls are covered with magnificent mosaics that shows how the Russian Orthodoxs  continued the artistic traditions of other Christian churches.  On the outside of colorful onion shaped domes stand out as unique  and  distinctly Russian.

 

A canal boat ride on the Neva, Fontana and Mayakovsky Rivers was our next adventure.   Even though it was about 50 it was very windy.   We bundled up in layers, but I was still cold.  Luckily the boat had indoor seating.  Seeing the buildings from the water level provided a different perspective.   The architectural style was all about the same,  rather plain and uniform.  However, from the outside the Hermitage and Winter Palace were similarly styled, yet on the inside they were indeed magnificent.

The next day, we toured the Yusupov Palace. It was constructed in 1770 was was positioned on the the banks of the Moyka River.  From 1830-1917 the house belong to a wealthy family called  Yusupov. In December 1916, Felix Yusupov was worried that the mystic Rasputin, a country peasant with psychic powers, had too much influence over Czar Nicholas II. Felix invited Rasputin to his house and shot him.  This was the kind of treachery that went on in the courtians who were always struggling to have power and influence over the Czar.   Rasputin’s death  helped to bring on the Russian revolution.

This house was over the top with elaborate decorations.  While it was very plain on the outside, it was quite the opposite on the inside.   It amazed me that the house was often used by the czar for parties and various official functions.    Felix’s family had a lot of money and used it to decorate lavishly.   They even had their own theater made to look like a replica of the famous opera theater of St. Petersburg.

We learned a lot on our two day stay in St. Petersburg.   In fact, we wound up getting an extra day.  On Wednesday night when we were to leave the port, there were high winds and rough waves.  The port was closed and we weren’t allowed to leave until Thursday night.  Unfortunately we had to stay aboard the ship.  As a result, will be missing our scheduled stop in Gdańsk, Poland on Saturday.  Friday we will be in Tallin, Estonia.  That’s it for St. Petersburg.

 

Today we signed up for a tour of Porvoo  a  medieval village located on the mouth of the Provoo River on the Baltic Sea.   The town has a population of  about 700. On our way to Porvoo we drove through Helsinki.  With it’s 640,000 inhabitants, the city comprises  20% of  Finland’s population.  The country itself is bilingual with both Swedish and Finish taught in the school.  70%  of the population is Lutheran.  About 99% of the students attend public schools which are free; for many years Finland’s school were considered to be first  in the world.  The  country has a national army; all boys  must serve 6-8 months in the military or in civil service. Taxes in Finland range from 0-48% on a graduated scale based on income.  For that the people get free education including free tuition to college and graduate schools, a graduated scale for child care up to the age of 6, free health care, and infrastructure.

I loved the little town of Porvoo.  Situated along the Porvoo River, the wooden houses and the boats along the river looked so peaceful.   I tried to take pictures and keep up with our tour guide, which was no easy feat.  I think the pictures will explain what I mean.

In the town square, we had some time to browse the shops.  I had fun in the chocolate shop which had free samples of their many different selections.   They were all yummy! Next we went to a cafe for coffee and runeberg cake.   The dessert is named after Finland’s famous poet, Johan Ludwig Runeberg.   Legend has it that this was his favorite cake made by his wife.   The cake and coffee were a great combination and Frank gladly finished my leftovers.

Going back to Helsinki for a tour of the city,  we stopped at the square with the immense Helsinki Cathedral.   While we were admiring the church, I noticed a lady taking her male companion’s picture in front of the church.    I offered to take their picture.  In doing so, she thanked me then took our picture.   She spoke limited English, but shared that she and  her brother  were from Russia.  When I explained that  we were from the USA,  she smiled brightly and gave me a big hug.  “We friends.  Governments no, but we want peace.”  They left.  A little while later, the two returned and we took pictures that included us together.  We hugged again.   It was a brief,  but warm exchange between  travelers from countries of very opposing ideologies. We also passed by the colorful  market and the Presidential Palace before retuning to our ship.   We were leaving port by 2:00 pm.

That evening we headed for the ship’s gormet specialty restaurant, the Chef’s Table.   We didn’t know what to expect, but I was pretty sure that Frank was going to hate it.   I was right!   I didn’t care for the food  either.   I did like the  palate cleanser which was like an  iced sorbet and the dessert which  reminded me of tarimusu.

All in all, we had a great time exploring in Finland today.  More adventutures await us tomorrow as our ship sails on to St. Petersburg, Russia.

First on the agenda today was a panoramic tour of Stockholm.  Our first stop was the Stockholm City Hall.   It was an impressive brick building that was built in 1923, yet was made to look a lot older.  It was hard to get a good picture because the building was so huge.    In this building every year on December 10th the Nobel Prize banquet and a celebration ball is held for the honorees.

After our tour we stayed in Stockholm and walked to the VASA Museum.  The Vasa is a Swedish warship that was built between 1626 and 1628.  It sunk on its maiden voyage on August 10, 1628 after only going about 1,400 yards.   After her bronze canons were salvaged, she laid submerged under mud and forgotten until was located again in the 1950’s.   The ship was brought out of the water in 1961 largely intact.  After restoration the vessel was moved to the Vasa museum and is now one of Sweden’s most popular tourist attractions.

There were three stories to the museum.   I found it interesting to see from models what the colors were like on the ship.  The carving and the art work was very detailed.  It amazed me that they put so much energy into the design of the ship.  Maybe they should have worked harder on making sure she was seaworthy instead.

After the museum we wanted to hail a taxi back to our ship, The Viking Sun, which was leaving port at 2:30.   I had read about taxis that rip you off in the Rick Steve’s tour book.   I wrote down his suggestions on which taxi companies were legit.  Our tour guide also gave us a card for the black Stockholm company, with specific instructions not to pay more than 375 krone.  He  also said the disreputable drivers wait for tourist outside the Vasa museum.

So I was ready.   We walked up to the first cab.  The prices are listed on the back window.  Sure enough, the price was 495 kr for 10 kilometers.   Not good, so I said never mind to the driver.    We walked back to Gamla Stan, the old town.   By this time it is getting to be around 1:15.  I knew my traveling comrade was getting concerned.   We didn’t see any more taxis for quite awhile.  When we finally did, we flagged it down.   Of course, it had 495 kr on its sign.   Resigned to the fact that getting back to the ship was more important than finding a fair driver,  I gave up and we jumped in.   We got back to the ship in 20 minutes.   Frank was very relieved.   I double checked with one of our Viking travel guides, who confirmed that we had been taken.   It brought back similar memories from our time in Amsterdam.  We must be easy prey for taxi drivers!  Using Uber is much more user friendly!

After a tasty meal in the World Cafe, we took in the captain’s welcome party and saw a introduction show with the Viking Sun’s entertainers.   The four young singers are extremely talented and sang several popular selections.  So  we ended the day with a very pleasant and enjoyable evening.

 

 

Well, we are packed and ready to go.  We are have a flight tonight from Philadelphia to London, then a second flight to Stockholm, Sweden.   There we will embark on the Viking Sun for their 14 day Viking Homeland Cruise, doing many of the Baltic capitals and going to eight different countries with a three night extension to Iceland   This will be a first for us.   We will be away for 19 days.   Not sure how our marriage will hold up, but I will certainly keep you posted.

The good news is we just found out that we got a free upgrade and will be in a Penthouse Deluxe Veranda Room.   I read over the perks from what I read we will  have a king size bed,  alcohol replenished daily in our room refrigerator, and a free bottle of champagne when we board.  ( Too bad we both hate champagne).

Our flight left Philadelphia at 8:45 pm.  We flew to London arriving at 4 am.  EST.  Then onto Stockholm arriving at our time at 9am, their time 3 pm.  Next we a 45 minute bus ride to our ship, the Viking Sun.  On the way we passed farms.   We saw bales of hay in the fields that were plastic wrapped.   We also passed many business buildings.  The architecture is very straight lines with most of the buildings in a rectangular shape.   It reminded  me of the simplistic style of IKEA.

Although we were in port tonight, we were both pretty tired from traveling.  We had a very leisure dinner with two other couples, both from Michigan, in the restaurant and called it a day.   Tomorrow we are scheduled for panoramic  tour of the city  and I am we will be able to take in the VASA  Ship  and the History Museum on our own before  we take sail at 2:30 pm for Helsinki.   But more about that tomorrow. Goodnight!