August 2 – Boat tour, Peter and Paul Fortress, Shopping and St. Isaacs

We began our day with a 30 minute walk to the boat for our tour. After almost a week, things are beginning to look familiar. It a bright sunny day with the temperature in the mid 60’s which is great walking weather. Our group was the only group on the boat so we had plenty of room.

Masha guided our attention to the various sights we were seeing. It was fun to see the river/canal side of the different buildings, cathedrals and sights we had either visited or walked past. Peter had intended for St. Petersburg to mimic many of the wonderful things he had seen throughout Europe, and the canals of Venice were one of his favorites.  There are many canals and rivers in Saint Petersburg, but the appear to be much wider here than the pictures we have seen in Venice.

We made a circuit through several canals and rivers in about an hour and were back to our starting point, which was near the Church on Spilled Blood, one of our favorite sites in St. Petersburg.

Masha left us and the Welchs and Schaeffers decided to visit Peter and Paul Fortress. The other family went on an adventure of their own after making plans to meet for dinner in the evening. The other family will be heading home on Friday morning so they will not be traveling to Moscow with us.

We walked through Mars Field and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with beautiful flowers, monuments and an eternal flame. We walked across the bridge over the Neva River which is very wide at this point.

Peter and Paul Fortress contains several buildings and was built as a means to protect the city.  It is on an island across from the main palaces.  It is really quite a massive complex.  Of course, the cathedral is the central and main building.


 We decided to tour cathedral and the prison. The cathedral is the burial place for many of the Romanov family.

Parts of it are currently being renovated, which is an ongoing process here. Many of the building and monuments were damaged during World War II and restoration is ongoing.  There were the usual icons covering every wall, and extreme amounts of gilded cornices, frames, and other pieces of the structure.



There was also a museum for the sculptor, Rodin.  Alan and Sandi really appreciated a portion of the massive sculpture, The Burghers of Calais, that was on display.

The prison held many of the political prisoners from the revolution. We saw several of the cells as well as the punishment room. Many prisoners spent time in the prison and then were hanged. Many were identified, but with our limited knowledge of Russian history, even the information we could read had little meaning to us.

After a short rest and some food, Paul and Jon took off for the Artillery Museum. Sandi, Sydney, Alan and Joyce decided to take the Metro to a shopping area in search of a mini USB cable to the cameras. Alan has had to use one camera to upload pictures to the computer, swapping out the cards. As we walked toward the Metro, we passed a Burger King. We decided a shake sounded good. We have visited MacDonald and Burger King in St. Petersburg. The staff usually speaks enough English to understand what you want. Both places are very popular in Saint Petersburg and usually very crowded. We enjoyed are shakes sitting outside in mid 70’s weather with a clear blue sky.

We make it to the shopping area. After searching several stores we were not able to find a cable. We did some souvenir shopping. We were walking through the stores on our way out and walked through a fur store. We came across some fur vests. Sydney has some fun modeling vests of silver fox and red fox. A store clerk entered the fun and found her the appropriate size.

After walking back to the hotel and a short rest in the hotel lobby where Wi-Fi is available, Sandi, Alan and Joyce decided to visit St. Isaac’s Cathedral which was a block from our hotel.

In this cathedral the walls and ceiling are covered with gold, icons in gold frames and paintings and mosaics depicting the life of Christ and Russian saints. The columns supporting the ceiling and domes are massive. The cathedral was also used as a museum to atheism during Soviet times. It is beyond comprehension how one could stand in this cathedral and support atheism. It makes more sense to me for them to destroy it, but I’m very glad they didn’t.  

In the evening we went to dinner with Alex, Jennifer and Jay. They had eaten at a restaurant with a medieval theme one night that Alex really liked so we all went there.  The tables and chairs were large and rough hewn with stuffed animal heads on the walls. We were greeted with the smokey aroma of grilled meat. Some of our party tried elk and lamb. Joyce decided to try Chicken Kiev, which was very tasty. All the food we have eaten in Russia has been tasty, hot and very fresh. You learn to take your time at a meal because nothing happens very fast. Servers don’t hover, you have to signal them when you are ready to order or need something.

On the short walk back to the hotel, Alex, Jay, Jennifer and Sydney decided to go for chocolate pancakes. All three younger members of our group have gotten along very well. Sydney and Alex have created a special bond.

Alan and Joyce decided to visit an exhibit of bears in the park about a block away. The bears are about 6 -7 feet tall. The idea is like the frogs, pigs and dogs in Lafayette. Countries around the world were invited to paint a bear. There were approximately 100 of them lining the walkways of the park. It was fun to see what different countries chose to paint representing their country. Alan and Joyce continued their walk to the Neva River. It doesn’t get dark in Saint Petersburg until after 11:30 p.m. which leaves plenty of time to enjoy the flower beds in the park and the setting sun shining on the golden domes of St. Isaac’s Cathedral.