St Petersburg need Ideas been several times

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Need ideas for St Petersburg been there several times and Berlin .????

[dogs4fun]

6 hours ago, Gail & Marty sailing away said:

Need ideas for St Petersburg been there several times and Berlin .????

Your choices are practically limitless in St. Petersburg as there is SO much to see. Will you have your own visa? How long is your stay?

Some ideas:

Below are some venues that are rarely packed with tourists and, therefore, more likely to provide freedom to see what you wish, when you wish.

Full disclosure – I am not an “art” person – I am much more of a history buff (particularly ancient Greece and Rome of which Saint Petersburg has none). I love music and literature and Russia is an absolute delight in both of these areas. I am also very interested in the history of Peter the Great (and the Russian Imperialists all the way down through the Russian Revolution & find the history of the siege of Leningrad fascinating. So bear this in mind when I recommend a venue.

Art:

State Russian Museum – the main collection is housed in Mikhailovsky Palace and contains a vast collection of Russian visual art from 10^th century Byzantine icon-painting to avant-garde of the early 20^th century. IMHO, excellent.

Erarta, contemporary art museum – large collection of contemporary art (not my bag –did a quick run-through and will, most likely, never return)

Academy of Fine Arts Museum – personally, I did not find the academy worthwhile – contains mostly works done by students and professors from the Academy (usually there also is a temporary exhibition in the summer for an additional price).

Museum of Modern Art – Russian art from the 50’s onward (again, not my interest, it was not a visit I found particularly enjoyable.

Porcelain Museum - Part of the Imperial Porcelain Factory which can include a tour of the factory workshops. Gorgeous, small collection containing some of their finest creations of the past 250 years – fantastic!

 

Music/Theater:

Museum of Theatrical and Musical Art - former Imperial Theater contains costumes, set designs, playbills and other artifacts connected to some of the greatest names of Russian ballet and drama. Interesting for music/drama fans.

Rimsky-Korsakov Apartment Museum – huge fan of this Russian classical composer & enjoyed my visit. The apartment rooms also contain his grand piano played upon by such notables as Stravinsky, Rachmaninov & Scriabin.

Museum of Music at Sheremetev Palace – the state rooms in this fascinating palace are, alone, worth the visit and the palace has a rich and interesting history. Now contains a vast collection of historical musical instruments. Highly recommend for music lovers.

 

Literature:

Dostoevsky Museum – huge fan of Dostoevsky and enjoyed my visits immensely (have taken friends here as well).  It is a reconstruction of the Dostoevsky apartment (he returned here and lived until his death) including many of his belongings. Also contains items devoted to Dostoevsky's literary life.

Pushkin museum – poet’s apartment.

 

History:

Cabin of Peter the Great – small wooden cabin where Peter lived from 1703-08 while supervising the construction of his Imperial City. It is filled with Peter's original belongings. Very interesting!

Siege of Leningrad Museum – chronicles the 900 day siege.

Dostoevsky Museum – huge fan of Dostoevsky and enjoyed my visits immensely (have taken friends here as well).  It is a reconstruction of the Dostoevsky (he returned here and lived until his death) home  Contains items devoted to Dostoevsky's literary life.

Ivan P. Pavlov Apartment Museum – anyone who had studied general psych knows this name. Interesting for a quick visit.

Other:

Eliseyev Emporium – Beautiful Art Nouveau building on Nevsky containing an elaborate food hall.

Suburban estates: Pavlovsk & Cottage palace in Alexandria are not nearly as crowded as Peterhof Grand/Catherine palaces.

 

Regarding Berlin - the museums on Museum Island are among the best in the world.

Edited April 29, 2019 by dogs4fun

[fabnfortysomething]

dogs4fun has done a great job suggesting ideas for St Petersburg

we have done St Petersburg on 2 cruises and used private tour operators both times

suggest you contact several with list of what you have  seen already and what are their suggestions for repeat visit

 

Berlin-will this be your first visit?

our first Baltic cruise we did a private day tour from Warnemunde and covered highlights

 

second cruise we flew to Berlin and spent several days to explore then took train to Warnemunde to embark cruise and was able to enjoy city much more

[Sauer-kraut]

Have you visited the towns around Warnemunde?  Not sure if you meant yov've been to Berlin a lot too.

Kiel, Luebeck, Schwerin, the Molli Train, Wismar, Ludwigslust are all trips you can do from warnemunde on the train or S-bahn.

Anni's website has all kinds of information on Mecklenburg  https://travelanni.webs.com/

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

8 hours ago, Sauer-kraut said:

Have you visited the towns around Warnemunde?  Not sure if you meant yov've been to Berlin a lot too.

Kiel, Luebeck, Schwerin, the Molli Train, Wismar, Ludwigslust are all trips you can do from warnemunde on the train or S-bahn.

Anni's website has all kinds of information on Mecklenburg  https://travelanni.webs.com/

No we have not visited the town's. How do you get a Visa we will be over night on a Cruise ship??

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

6 minutes ago, DennStann said:

If you give us some idea if 1.what site you have already visited, 2.what your special interests are, it will make it easier to come up with ideas for new experiences.

Regarding St.Petersburg, I agree with Dogs4Fun - your options are limitless there. If you are into sciences, consider the Zoology Museum reputed to have one of the biggest and best in the world collections of its kind. One of the highlights is the display showing a 44,000-year-old woolly mammoth discovered in the permafrost of Yakutia.

Dmitry Mendeleev Museum is apartment\office\lab where the father of the periodic table of elements resided and worked out his inventions.

For Germany, Schwerin is an enchanting old town in less than 1-hour drive from Warnemunde. Situated amid several lakes, it's known as Florence of the North. Highly recommended.

We have seen all the touristy stuff. 

Looking for something to do out of town. Not a museum. Or Palace. 

Thanks 

Marty 

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

32 minutes ago, DennStann said:

Go to Kronstadt. It's a former naval base. Lots to see there. Best Guides operate this tour. Check Off-The-Beaten-Path tours on their website.

Thanks for the suggestion, any other ideas?

[Sirius 10]

Try the Telephone Museum, a collection of Telephones from the early days to the sixties. Recommend you get your guide to phone ahead and have the guided tour.Quite small but an interesting one hour in a fairly central location.

 

[Kate P.C]

On 5/1/2019 at 10:20 AM, Gail & Marty sailing away said:

We have seen all the touristy stuff. 

Looking for something to do out of town. Not a museum. Or Palace. 

Thanks 

Marty 

When we wanted to tailor our tours, our agency Anastasia Travel gave us several ideas. They said they could organize a dacha tour (country house visit), tank driving activity, St.Petersburg roofs tour, cooking master class... matryoshka painting,  helicopter flights, kayak tour around the main rivers of the city, shipboard tours etc. That is definitely different then visiting museums and palaces.

Edited May 5, 2019 by Kate P.C
added info