Cruise Chronicles – Day 8 – St. Petersburg – Day 2

The second day in St. Petersburg was not nearly as strenuous as the first. The pristine, blue-sky day began with a drive down the city’s main boulevard, the Nevsky Prospekt for a brief stop at the Kazan Cathedral. The mother church of St. Petersburg was also the official church of the Romanov family where weddings and other ceremonies were held.

Kazan Cathedral and Statue of Kutuzov, St. Petersburg (15 May 2019)

There was no time to enter the church. We received our briefing besides the statue of one of the most revered generals in Russian history. Field Marshall Mikhail Kutuzov defeated Napoleon in 1812 and died a year later. He is interred in the cathedral and has had towns, ships, monuments and heroic awards named for him ever since.

The Summer Garden of Peter the Great,

St. Petersburg (15 May 2019)

We then joined other tour groups on a boat to cruise along the canals and Neva River. It was good to get off the crowded streets and see St. Petersburg’s impressive landmarks from the water. Within ten years of the city’s founding, Peter the Great created his summer garden…again modeled after the formal gardens he saw in the West.

Peter and Paul Fortress from the Neva River,

St. Petersburg (15 May 2019)

The Peter and Paul Fortress dates to the founding of St. Petersburg in 1703 and was the original citadel of the city. It is dominated by the Cathedral with a spire over 400 feet tall.

The day’s itinerary included a visit to the great Hermitage Museum. That will be the subject of a separate post since it deserves singular attention.

The last stop of the day took us 15 miles south of St. Petersburg to the town of Pushkin. There we visited another extravagant monument to royal excess, the Catherine Palace. What began as a modest two-story summer home built by Peter the Great for his wife Catherine was greatly expanded by their daughter, Empress Elizabeth. It is now nearly a kilometer in circumference and beyond excessive.

Catherine Palace, Pushkin, Russia (15 May 2019)

The property encompasses 1400 acres of grounds. Apparently, Empress Elizabeth wanted her own Versailles to match her father’s effort at Peterhof. The palace exterior alone was decorated with nearly 220 pounds of gold.

The Great Hall of the Catherine Palace,

Pushkin, Russia (15 May 2019)

With an area of 1000 square meters, the Hall takes the full width of the palace. Large windows flood the room with light to illuminate the inlaid floor, the colossal fresco on the ceiling entitled ‘The Triumph of Russia’ and the gold that covers everything else.

Catherine Palace, Pushkin, Russia (15 May 2019)

Our guides more than earned their gratuities for two days of exceptional touring. I was grateful to be driven back to our ship. It was comforting to get off my feet and eat a light Italian supper as we sailed toward Estonia.