St Petersburg - Thursday 12th May, 2016

Today was a huge day, we met for our Excursion  City Tour and Hermitage at 8.00am.The bus took us through streets of St Petersbugh on the way to the waterfront, which is the Neva River. There were quite a few high-rise apartment buildings from the Soviet era, and it has the appearance of a modern city, with lots of traffic as it was peak hour. There are quite a few parks throughout the city.

St Petersburg is built on the islands of estuary of the Neva River. At the place we stopped there were 2 Rostral Columns and from here we got our first glimpse of some of the Old town of St Petersburg.

We continued on to the Peter and Paul Fortress, and the main gate St Peter's Gate. Inside the fortress we visited the Sts Peter and Paul Cathedral.  The spire of the Cathedral is an integral part of the city skyline. The inside of the church is very ornate and is typical Baroque style.  It contains the tomb of St Peter the Great, Alexander II and his wife Empress Maria Alexandrovna and also St Catherine Chapel, which contains the remain of the last Russian Emperor, Nicholas II and the various members of his family and household members, who were shot to death.

 

We were then taken to a good vantage point on a canal for photos of the Church of Spilled Blood.

We then went to a souvenir shop, the biggest and best organised that we have seen.  It had everything from trinkets to lacquered boxes that cost hundreds of euros - they were amazing, unfortunately they are still there !!!.  A short walk later was out lunch stop.

After about 1 hours break for lunch we were taken to the Hermitage, which was the summer palace, built by Catherine the Great.  As a palace it is beautiful, but completely over the top.

The Art collection would have more paintings of the Virgin and Child, than most other museums in the world.

They also have more paintings by Rembrandt that the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam

 

There were also some amazing pieces pieces of sculpture, including an unfinished Michelangelo

We only got to spend 3 hours in the Hermitage, not nearly enough time !!!
So after a 9 hour day, touring St Petersburg, with 10mins of being back on the ship, I was in the spa and John was at a meeting (in other words asleep).