Trips

Waterways of the Czars

Itinerary

June 2-3 - Fly to St. Petersburg

We left home in the rain at 6:30 AM and boarded our first airplane (United) at 10:15 AM.  We sat in the plane for 25 extra minutes waiting for people with connections from other delayed flights.  Three hours plus in the air to Washington-Dulles.  We changed planes to Silver Alliance operated by SAS for the 8 hours to Copenhagen.  We had a chicken dinner with complimentary wine, lights out for nap time (ho, ho) and then a continental breakfast.  We flew up the east coast, east of the Canadian Maritimes, south of Greenland and Iceland, north of the Faroe Islands and into Copenhagen.  We changed planes again and flew to St. Petersburg (sitting in the second to last row of seats behind the kitchen and next to the jet engine) in pouring rain for another 2 hours in the air.  We arrived in St Petersburg at about 2 PM their time, which was 4 AM our time.  We were met and bussed to our ship, the Viking Pakhomov, got a snack in the Panorama Bar, unpacked in our little stateroom (even smaller than a camper), found our way around the ship, attended an orientation meeting, and had dinner, which consisted of a nice salad bar, a cup of cream of broccoli soup, beef stroganoff with spaetzels or veggie lasagna and chocolate mousse for dessert.  It was very good, well presented, and efficiently staffed

            We briefly met Peggy and Patsy’s friend, Charlie, from New Orleans, but who visits Estes Park at least once a year.  He and two friends are cruising on this same ship. 

            And now we are going on 30 hours with no sleep so it is time to crash - and we did.

June 4 - St. Petersburg

It was a very short night but we got up, showered, had breakfast and were on our tour bus by 8:30.   We ate with a couple from Philadelphia.  Would you believe, Gale taught their daughter at Girls’ High and her brother, who is also on this cruise with his wife, once lived at Washington Lane and Greene St.!

Our first stop was a "photo op" outside the former Smolney Cathedral - now a museum - and then on to the Winter Palace and the Hermitage museum. We were led through by our Viking River Cruise guide, Natasha.  We wandered through nearly the same route as two years ago and were still in awe of the opulent construction of the rooms and the size of the masterpieces on the walls and ceilings. 

           On the way to the Hermitage:

A Russian license plate	Smolney Cathedral - now a museum
Illustration of the Hermitage from the cover of a brochure
Winter Palace of the Czars - The Hermitage museum from across the Neva River	Floor plan - it is a BIG place and this only represents the first of three floors
Describing the Hermitage is nearly impossible. Everywhere you look is filled with incredible works of art and opulence. The walls, ceilings, floors, everywhere is covered with beautiful things. These are but a very few of the scenes from the building. Some were taken on our 2007 cruise which included two days (and two trips) in the Hermitage. The art collection (which cannot be photographed) includes all the French Impressionists (Manet, Monet, Gauguin, Matisse, etc.), da Vincis, El Grecos, Picassos, Van Goghs, and hundreds of others. The amazing thing is the lack of climate control in the building. If it is hot, they open the windows!	Grand entrance hall and staircase
Chandelier in the Field Marshals' Hall	Pavilion Hall
Raphael Loggias - copied from the Papal Palace in the Vatican	Raphael Loggias
Ceiling in the Tent-Shaed Hall - You could spend weeks just looking at the ceilings!	More ceilings
You could spend more weeks looking at the floors	Floor in the Leonardo da Vinci Room
The Peter Hall (Small Throne Room)	Detail of door hardware
The museum is closed on Mondays (except to Holland America tours [2007]) and on that day Russian art students come in and practice their skills by copying the masterpieces.

            We got back on our buses by 1 PM and ate our box lunches (sandwich, chips, juice, fruit, snacks) and toured St. Petersburg by motor coach.  It was raining very steadily so we all had to stay on the bus as we passed the Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood, St. Isaacs Cathedral, etc.  We are glad we saw these things before and that Marge got pictures two years ago.

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