Friday, August 8, 2008

Day 5 - St. Petersburg

More 'stock' pictures to enjoy, although the one from the dock is pretty much as it is today......leave me comments!!!!!!

Hello from St. Petersburg, Russia, NOT Florida! Disembarking wasn’t too bad yesterday morning...slight mix up in the colored stickers for the buses, but that got fixed. Ours being the 4 hr. bus tour, we were the last to leave...and we heard the dumbest question asked of the shore ex manager–‘why are we last?’ Surely the manager wanted to inform the guest that it was because he looked around the audience, picked this particular idiot out, and decided...let’s make HIM board last! Heelllllooo...what part of common sense don’t you realize? Get the buses with the longest route out FIRST, and the ones with the shortest route out LAST. What a concept!!! With great patience the manager said just that...the buses taking an 8-9 hour tour go out FIRST, and the four-hour tour goes out last. Heeeere’s your sign, boys and girls! Unfortunately, this guy was not a foreigner and couldn’t use a language barrier as an excuse for stupidity. Oh well...
We saw many beautiful buildings on our drive this morning, and many that were not as pleasing to the eye, but that is OK. We learned a bit of history from our guide, Ms Nevertakeabreathski. She was easy to understand, but gave us far too many specific dates and facts that no one is interested in learning, much less remembering. A bit more generalization would be a better way to go. Just sayin’. We did stop and tour the Peter and Paul Fortress, which is a not a fortress as we would label it–it is more of a compound of buildings, grouped together–not walled off as I would consider a true fortress. The main feature is the cathedral where St. Alexander is interred in a beautiful crypt next to his wife, equally beautifully interred. The Russian Mint is located across the plaza. Of course we had one couple to be 15 minutes late boarding...they apparently couldn’t move fast and lost sight of the group:-)
We did stop at a (as opposed to "the") Hermitage souvenir shop...again we were bad tourists, but I did get some neat shots of boats going under the bridge. St. Pete is comprised of many islands connected by dozens of bridges, so it is an interesting city from that standpoint alone.
Tomorrow we take a river tour...go from a cruise ship to a boat and go on a river? Yes, that is what Dick chose, so we are doing just that. Stay tuned....



And a big happy birthday to nephew Jason today!

9 comments:

Empress Bee (of the high sea) said...

tell us about the ship too please. the cabin? the shows? the food? the decor? inquiring minds stuff... you know.

podunk is quiet, school is back in session. i got my hair done yesterday. oh, and i had chinese for dinner! ha ha

that's it from me, back to you girl!

smiles, bee
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Sarge Charlie said...

Sounds like an amazing trip.

Anonymous said...

A river cruise on a cruise? heck, sounds fun!

Sandee said...

I love it. Just enjoy yourselves. Sounds splendid from here honey. Big hug. :)

Janelee said...

The picture you posted of the "band" looked very much like the one we were greeted with at Peterhof except it was a bit larger. We did the Hermitage, but didn't get to the Peter & Paul fortress -- good reason to go back. Hope you are enjoying St. Petersburg as much as we did.

Anonymous said...

What a great trip! What do you like best about the ship? Thank you for taking the time to post.

Brian said...

Here's your comment. I comment that there are just a bunch of AOB's everywhere you go in Europe!

Becky said...

Wow, awesome pictures and great stories! Yes, lots of AOBs! but some beautiful ones it looks like... Enjoy!!

Haley D. said...

Enjoy all the AOBs! We sure don't have them here.