St. Petersburg, Russia Day 1

(Back to our Baltic trip in 2008--Carnival Splendor)

7/19/2008 -- St. Petersburg, Russia

This was the highlight of the trip and the most stressful stop for many passengers. We received many contradicting information about this port and it was very confusing to know exactly what to expect. At least we were prepared and joined a tour group with fellow passengers set up by Alla Tour so our visas were all taken care of. Later on we were told that about 80 passengers did not sign up for tours and therefore had no visas to get off the ship. Carnival had to arranged last minute tours for them.

Carnival kept telling us that nobody shall leave the ship until all the ship excursions are off first. That this was a rule set by the Russian government. All of us who are on private excursion should wait in our cabins for their announcements to get off. To try and meet our guide at the appointed time, we decided to follow Bill, an experienced and well-travelled passengers, to sneak through the groups with priorities. It worked and we were off the ship with no question asked! The lines at the immigration shack were long but moving quickly. No smiles on the officials faces and they looked very serious. They didnt care whether people are on the ship tours or not. We just put the tour papers that we received from Alla on the counter and they gave us a laminated card to keep so we can get back in the afternoon.

We found our tour guide, Ana, outside the shack with many other drivers and guides waiting. Bill was already on the van and we were the second to get on. This is the shot that I took while waiting for the rest of our group to come through.





I believe this is St. Peter's Cathedral, our first photo stop. It was early on a Saturday morning, so it was kind of empty.

Passing by Hermitage, but it'll have to wait.

The van for the 16 of us.

Peter and Paul Fortress--where the royal families were buried.

Exterior of Peter and Paul Fortress

Next stop--Catherine Palace--the entrance

Once we were inside, we had to get in line to go in.

our short line

the other long line

It was just amazingly beautiful inside--gold everywhere.

Yes, we all had to have shoe coverings.

While we were driving from Catherine Palace to Peterhoff, we had our sack lunches on the way. Lunch was something like a pancake wrap with chicken meat inside.

It was a Saturday, so there were a lot of people here.

Absolutely beautiful!

Can't see it from this picture but this fountain is suppose to be like a checker board.

From Peterhoff we took the hydrofoil back to St. Petersburg. A really nice ride.

This is right outside the Hermitage.

Many newly weds taking pictures around the scenic areas with families and friends all following along.

 This is the 8-bridges area of St. Petersburg.

Our day one in St. Petersburg ended around 5pm. We had a good day in this city getting a glimpse of how this country was like and just touched the very surface of all there is to see in this country. Will continue our second day visit tomorrow. Many people had night excursions, like going to the ballet performance etc. We just wanted to relax and rest up for another day of touring this wonderful city.

Getting back to the ship was quite easy. We just walked through the immigration counter and dropped off that laminated card to get back on the ship.