St. Petersburg, Russia – Two Sunny Days of Amazing Sites!
We landed in St. Petersburg early in the morning and had booked our tour with Okla Tours through Viator. After all the members of the group made it through customs we boarded the bus to begin our tour. We had the best tour guide as her English was perfect. Izabella lived in the UK and spent time in the US as well as part of her own travels.
Our tour started off near a river where we saw bridges and status of an Egyptian nature. We noticed that the buildings across the river were all large in width, their heights were similar and they seemed connected to each other, we gather this is to help maintain heat during their long and cold winters. On this late May trip, we seemed to hit the jackpot as it wasn’t too cold and on the second day we even hit 25 degrees Celsius! We were told that they only get 60 days of sun a year and that in May, it isn’t too uncommon that it would still snow!
After the river we headed to the Peterhof Palace, often referred to as the Russian Versailles. Peter the Great started construction of this palace in 1714 and was completed in 1725. If you have the chance to visit St. Petersburg, this is one of the top destinations to go to. The grounds were immaculate and the statues were gold (not solid but they were certainly shiny!).
Next stop was the Hermitage Museum which is laden with beautiful architecture, paintings, arts, statues and everything else you can imagine from a famed museum. Words can’t do this museum justice so have a look at the pictures.
We then bused it to the Church of the Savior on Blood. The entire inside is built of tiny mosaic tiles that make up all the images from the bottom all the way to the top of the dome. Simply an amazing site to behold. You don’t even realize that they are individual tiles until you start to look closer and then realize it! The outside is also just as amazing, the colours on the domes are so pretty and the structure itself is unlike any other church in the world.
The last stop for the first day was the Peter and Paul Fortress. Also founded by Peter the Great in 1703, it is now the central and most important part of the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg.
We started the second day going on a boat ride through the canals of St. Petersburg. We saw great architecture in the buildings, perfectly landscaped areas, went under famous bridges and saw some sights from day one from a different vantage point.
A bus ride then took us over to Catherine Palace and the famous Amber Room! Also known as the Summer Palace, this immaculate structure was built in 1717. Each room was meticulously cared for and the colours simply stunning. Gold was predominate here and just made the place look so vibrant!
One thing you won’t generally get to do but we did on our tour was to go on the subway. It wasn’t a long subway ride but it was incredible to see and understand how deep the subway is. The deepest station is 86 meters deep (around 250 ft) underground, making it one of the deepest subway stations in the entire world! The escalators are continuous so luckily they didn’t break down or else we would have a lot of steps to climb!
We made our way then to Saint Isaac’s Cathedral where we learned how they stabilized the ground for the massive pillars. Over 25,000 piles were driven into the ground to stabilize the weight of the structure and it took over 40 years to build. Completed in 1858 and rising 101.5 meters (333 ft) tall, the dome is plated in pure gold!
As mentioned, our tour guide was the best because she made a very quick stop to show another place but really she stopped because we mentioned we collect Starbucks mugs so she told us where to go while she showed other people the extra site! We lined up and bought a few mugs and tumbler, our day was made super special!
We then went to Rasputin Museum at Yusopov Palace where we had lunch and then a tour of the palace. An interesting wax setting of Rasputin and how he was murdered. The palace is not to be forgotten either, it had beautiful architecture and tons of character in each of the rooms.
Tip: Getting into Russia is not easy, but if you go on a cruise and they stop there you will be able to get into St. Petersburg if you are joining a tour. Book ahead and if you don’t do it through the cruiseline, then Viator is another good option in which we got Okla Tours. As a smaller group, we got to go to many extra places and we were zipping along to make the most of the two days we had there. Thanks Izabella!
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