Saint Petersburg: Maps , pictures and information.

[scubacruiserx2]

Где Ленин ?( Where is Lenin ?). In a city that was named Leningrad (1924-1991) , you may see a number of statues of Lenin. If you go to Catherine's Palace you will see this one in front of the House of the Soviets.

 

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On April 1,2009 a statue of Lenin near a train station was bombed and a hole blown in its bottom.

 

 

 

We requested a visit to see the statue with our guide Gennadiy and he told us that we could see another one. Much to our surprise we got a VIP visit to Smolney Convent where the Bolsheviks under Lenin took control of Russia and formed the Soviet Union.

 

 

 

 

 

We were led past armed guards to meet another guide who spoke only Russian. We were given a comprehensive tour and history lesson and a visit to Lenin's office.

 

 

 

 

There were were many personal belongings , documents and photographs and paintings. Beginning in 1991 the building has been the residence of the Government of St. Petersburg.

 

 

Here is the statue that was attacked in front of the Finland Train Station

 

 

 

 

 

One day I took a walk with my camera near the cruise port and spotted

this one

 

 

 

 

 

So where is Lenin ? His body is embalmed and on display in a mausoleum in Red Square.

[scubacruiserx2]

Most visitors travel outside the central area and go to Peterhof. A good web site for history and a map of Peterhof is here.

http://www.peterhof-express.com/about_peterhof/get/

 

 

Most visitors go to the Grand Cascade near the palace first. Inspired by Versailles , Peter employed J. B. Le Blond as architect for the palace and fountains.

 

 

a video clip shows a quick pan shot

 

 

 

 

In the pool Sampson ( Symbolic of Russia) defeats the Lion (Symbolic of Sweden).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another victory

 

 

 

[dolfans0704]

Thank you, scubacruiser, for the information on Lenin and Peterhof. It was interesting to learn a little history in regards to Lenin and his final resting place. What a wonderful opportunity to have been able to visit his office, WOW! Is Red Square in the neighborhood of the sites visited on the standard tours? I also very much enjoyed the Peterhof website. Thanks for including the link. You are correct, lots of great information on the history of this magnificent site. I think this is what I am most looking forward to seeing during my visit! :)

 

 

Dolfans from Miami

[scubacruiserx2]

Thank you, scubacruiser, for the information on Lenin and Peterhof. It was interesting to learn a little history in regards to Lenin and his final resting place. What a wonderful opportunity to have been able to visit his office, WOW! Is Red Square in the neighborhood of the sites visited on the standard tours? I also very much enjoyed the Peterhof website. Thanks for including the link. You are correct, lots of great information on the history of this magnificent site. I think this is what I am most looking forward to seeing during my visit! :)

 

 

Dolfans from Miami

 

 

Thanks again for your kind comments. Lenin's masoleum where he is on display is located near the Kremlin in Moscow.

 

 

https://ssl.panoramio.com/photo_explorer#view=photo&position=340&with_photo_id=64572664&order=date_desc&user=5500593

[dolfans0704]

Thanks again for your kind comments. Lenin's masoleum where he is on display is located near the Kremlin in Moscow.

 

 

https://ssl.panoramio.com/photo_explorer#view=photo&position=340&with_photo_id=64572664&order=date_desc&user=5500593

 

Well, so much for passing by on my upcoming SPB visit! LOL! Thank you for the information, scubacruiser. You may have saved me an embarrassing moment with my tour guide/group in asking for a quick jaunt by the Red Square to visit Lenin's resting place!

 

 

Dolfans from Miami

[nikkiml]

Hi, I'll be there in July and I'm wondering what currency I should bring? Euro, US or my credit card will be accepted everywhere, even by street merchant? :confused:

 

Thank you for the pictures, looking forward to the adventure. :)

[scubacruiserx2]

Hi, I'll be there in July and I'm wondering what currency I should bring? Euro, US or my credit card will be accepted everywhere, even by street merchant? :confused:

 

Thank you for the pictures, looking forward to the adventure. :)

 

We have used them all . But usually credit card for guide service(not all restaurants will accept them), and we notify our company before we go of our travel dates. U S dollars (new) as a backup and to bargain with. And we don't pay an exchange fee. One trip they gave us the exchange rate as Euros - if the price is marked Y.E. Euros are fine and work in many places besides Russia. On our last trip I took this picture at the base of the Rostral Columns.

 

 

 

I later noticed it on the 50 Ruble note ( $1.70) .

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

Triton opens the mouth of a sea monster

 

 

 

 

 

The Sun fountain

 

 

 

 

In this video clip a young man looks for a secret rock that turns on the trick fountain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a rest room break near the Chess hill and Roman fountains , we saw this group of children playing. As I composed the picture a young lady saw the camera and begain posing.

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

The Chessboard Hill (Dragon fountain)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the water is the Peterhof hermitage

 

 

 

 

Most visitors will never see the Upper Garden so will share a few pictures

 

 

Here is the Spring fountain

 

 

 

The detail of a Grand Palace cupola

 

 

 

 

The focal point of the garden is the Neptune Fountain. It was made in Nuremburg in 1650 but it required too much water to operate and was put in storage. It was sold to Tsar Paul for 30,000 Rubles in 1782. It was later stolen during WWII and tracked down in Germany. It was reinstalled in 1956.

 

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing! You're just making my anticipation build even more. :D

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Your photos of the upper garden at Peterhof had me checking our itinerary to see if we're visiting there. I was thrilled to see the upper garden on our list of sites! :D

[vickytraveller]

Thank you so much for sharing! I can't wait to get on our cruise - July seems so far away! We are booked with I Tavel Spb and it looks like we have all those sites in our list.

Edited March 30, 2013 by vickytraveller

[Harley57]

Thanks for the memories. We visited in June, 2012 and it was truly a trip of a lifetime :)

Edited April 1, 2013 by Harley57

[Harley57]

Sure! If you want a quick grab and go Stolle has meat , fish and fruit pies. For Armenian sit down we like Kilikia. The most upscale we tried a Georgian restaurant- Tarragon very nice. Not too expensive.

 

 

 

The one that we ate at the most was Bogart's grand buffet . Fairly quick , reasonable , good english and Russian food. Just off Nevsky one street parallel to the pedestian walk toward Spilled Blood.

 

 

We ate at Stolle during our visit- quick, tasty and inexpensive !

[scubacruiserx2]

Quilting Cruiser we are envious of your June date because we have to wait until mid September ! LOL. But we enjoy the planning and anticipation. You and Vicktraveller get to see white nights - something that we have missed.We're so glad that you both get to see the upper gardens. Enjoy every moment cause it will go fast . With so much to see and do you will miss something (we missed Peter & Paul Fortress/Cathedral, Yusupov's ) like we did on our cruise in 2006. So take lots of pictures and make lots of memories !

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Quilting Cruiser we are envious of your June date because we have to wait until mid September ! LOL. But we enjoy the planning and anticipation. You and Vicktraveller get to see white nights - something that we have missed.We're so glad that you both get to see the upper gardens. Enjoy every moment cause it will go fast . With so much to see and do you will miss something (we missed Peter & Paul Fortress/Cathedral, Yusupov's ) like we did on our cruise in 2006. So take lots of pictures and make lots of memories !

 

 

Well, that just means I'll be jealous once I'm home and you're counting down your last few days!

 

Absolutely, we'll take tons of photos. I generally take about 3,000 on a 7-day cruise. Can't imagine how many I'll be wading through after a five-week vacation! LOL. This trip is for DD's HS graduation and we plan to make lots of memories. She wanted to spend the entire five weeks doing a land vacation until I told her we'll be in St P for two days on the cruise!

 

I recetly met a woman from Ukraine and when I told her the dates we'l be there, she was enthusiastic about our being there during the White Nights. :D

 

Thanks again for showing us a taste of what's to come!

[scubacruiserx2]

Thanks for the memories. We visited in June, 2012 and it was truly a trip of a lifetime :)

 

Channeling Bob Hope ? LOL. We are glad if we can bring good memories or help new visitors plan / prioritize their trip. Another Russian fast food place for salad , soup and blini is Teremok (little cottage in Russian).

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

With so much to see and do in the city the average visitor will run into a wall - you can only do and see so much in 2 days and a night. When we visited with NCL in 2006 we booked a private , custom tour with some specific requests that were not the norm at that time. Gold Room , Metro ,an inside visit to Spilled Blood and Catherine's Palace . We missed Smolny , Yusupov's , Peter and Paul Fortress , Russian Museum and The Church of the Assumption of The Virgin Mary. If we were making recommendations to friends or family who could only visit St. Pete 1 time in their lifetime - we would incourage them to visit those sights in the city and avoid the 4 hour visit to Catherine's Palace. You could see five or six things and avoid 2 hours of wasted driving time. Catherine's Palace was designed by the architect Rastrelli. He also designed The Peterhof Palace , Winter Palace and Smolny Cathedral so, by touring these you get a feel for his design. I know many people may disagree with our suggestion but we would like the reader to consider all the options and make an informed choice for themselves.

[scubacruiserx2]

Most tours will include a visit to Pushkin and Catherine's Palace. Your guide will fill you in on the history so I will just provide some eye candy.

 

 

My lens can't capture the whole palace but we beat the crowds and the band there.

 

 

Edited April 3, 2013 by scubacruiserx2
Not finished with my post

[scubacruiserx2]

Tour continues with a smaller dining area

 

 

 

 

And a larger dining area. The blue Delft pottery in the corner is a heater/fireplace seen throughout the palace.

 

 

 

 

 

Touring the palace gave us a case of "goldeneye" so we prefer the quite of the gardens in the back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the sound of the flute to the brass band playing New York , New York.

 

[scubacruiserx2]

On our last trip to Pushkin we chose to visit Pavlovsk instead of Catherine's Palace and for us it was a good choice.

 

http://www.pavlovskart.spb.ru/english/

 

We really enjoyed our visit to somewhere different and much fewer visitors. It was of course named for Paul I Catherine the Great's Son and heir to the throne.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We climbed the stairs of the Egyptian Vestibule

 

 

 

 

 

And entered the Italian hall

 

 

 

 

 

 

We loved this tapestry and think its a Gobelins

 

 

 

 

 

And this ceiling

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

Continuing the tour of Pavlovsk with the Throne room

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the State bedroom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A picture gallery. As you can see , we are the only ones here except the babushka patrol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My wife found this ornate fireplace

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I liked this urn in the Greek hall

 

 

 

 

We finished with a statuary

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

After exiting the palace we spent some time in the gardens

 

 

 

And the pavillon of the Three Graces

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not far from Pavlovsk is Fyodor's Cathedral

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the home church of the last Czar Nicholas II and his family. Click on the link for 1912 photo.

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tcarskoe_Selo_Feodorovski_sobor_1912_004.jpg

 

 

 

It was destroyed during the war by the invaders and was being restored when we visited

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

After a 2006 Baltic cruise, we wanted to return to St. Petersburg to see some things that we had missed and spend more time at some of the places we liked. We booked a TA/Baltic B2B in April/May 2009. Because we thought 2 days in St. Petersburg may not be enough, we requested the cruise line's authorization to stay in St. Petersburg and rejoin the cruise ship later. Because we would need a visa, place to stay and a flight, we considered a 10 day stay. As things fell into place, we cancelled the Baltic to stay in St. Petersburg for 10 days after our TA.

We hope our experiences will help people to consider a post-cruise stay.

We are planning to return this fall after a cruise to Norway and hope we put our new camera to good use.

[scubacruiserx2]

The biggest impediment to visiting Russia is Fear. It has been used many times in many ways. When we first went to SP on a Baltic cruise in 2006 , it was common for some cruise lines to scare people into using their tours by creating doubt. You will miss the ship , lose your money , be robbed , or be confused because you don't know the language and nobody speaks English , and you will need a Visa to leave the ship. They were so sucessful that only a total of 6 people on our cruise considered private tours. Many of the people on our roll call echoed and amplified the fear factor. 3 couples agreed to defy the popular logic and try a tour with Denrus. One couple wanted the standard 2 day tour and we and another couple booked a custom tour to see and do more. We paid more and had a blast. The other couple had guide to themselves because no one else booked their tour and they also enjoyed their experence.

 

 

Peterhof 2006 with our guide Oxanna

 

 

 

 

Our guide Oxanna , disarmed our fears with her wit , charm , knowledge and perfect English -with a British accent. One of the reasons we chose Denrus was a direct phone line to Russia . Because Denrus uses our area code in Palm Beach County , we only to dial a local seven digit phone number to have real time communication - with no long distance charges. We spoke to Stan ( An American) so we felt very comfortable using Denrus for our cruise. So here in 2012 fear tactics are still used to dissuade people from obtaining a Tourist Visa to Russia. But its not that difficult (we have done it twice) or expensive but, it is essential to stay.

The good news is obtaining it is the most difficult part of visiting. It takes about the same time and cost as the flight from London. It can be used on a cruise and a post cruise stay. The next Visa we are applying for costs $40 more and is good for 3 years.