September 19, 2015

 

Russia with Love

We’re at the window (porthole) at 8:30 this morning.  We are scheduled to dock at 9:30 local time and we’re already cruising close to shore.  I can see Russia from my room!  John and then Mary appear in the coffee lounge while Pat sleeps until the last minute.  We have to walk down steep exterior steps to get down a level from the ship which is a challenge for Mary with a pretty big suitcase.  John does a back and forth while swimming upstream through the outward bound tour groups to help (tour groups are a continuing theme).  There is a cruise line bus waiting to get us to our hotel so once we clear Russian passport control the transition is pretty easy.

The desk person at the hotel is very accommodating.  Our room isn’t ready of course, but he does have a deluxe room available for immediate check-in if we want to upgrade for 700 rubles.  OK, that’s ten bucks.  Pat can also stow her stuff in our room and we can all freshen up which is well worth the price even if it is a bit of a scam.  The room is great though so we decide everything is legit.

We’re off with a stroll down the River Neva towards the center of town and all of the typically Russian sights.  We cross the river between the Russian Admiralty building and the Hermitage, the palace/museum of the czars.  That’s for another day.

Our mission today is to walk Nevsky Prospekt, the Fifth Avenue of St. Petersburg.  We get our bearings and seek out a Teremok for lunch.  This has been recommended as a pretty good fast food option for Russian food.  Mary has a Russian Borsch, John and Pat each have blinis, one with pork, mushrooms and cheese and the other with chicken instead of pork.  We also get a small order of meat dumplings and some little cheese cakes for dessert.  What a load of food for about $18 (1100 rubles).  We got an English menu from a woman behind the McDonalds-like counter and there were a couple English speaking ladies who also pitched in.  The counter lady then helped us through the order letting us take our time while the line grew behind us.  She couldn’t have been nicer and the food was great.  Apparently they will open a New York location next year which should be welcome news for all the folks in Brighton beach. 

Next stop is St. Isaac’s Cathedral.  It is very majestic from the outside with a number of wedding parties taking pictures around the park-like plaza in front.  One of the wedding attendees breaks away to come over and take a few pictures of us with the cathedral in the background.  Back to Nevsky and past the Stroganoff Palace and over the Moyka River to the Kazan Cathedral.  Churches are a pretty big deal in St. Petersburg in spite of 70 years of commie attempts to abandon them.  The Czars were diligent in keeping all their eternal options open and were big supporters of the Russian Orthodox religion.  This church is a pretty spectacular homage to the general who led the defeat of Napoleon in 1812.  People stand in line to kiss the icon of our lady of Kazan which was discovered in the sixteenth century and there are at least 30 people in line when we visit.

Yes, another church is in our future.  The church of Spilt Blood is the headliner among St. Petersburg churches. The exterior is all Russian in its Onion-Domey  glory with great carvings and dramatic colors. Inside, this church is beautifully painted with murals covering every inch of the inside of the building.  Upon closer inspection we discover that they aren’t painted, they’re mosaics with each visual made up of thousands of one inch tiles.  Impossibly stunning. There is a canopy in one corner of the church marking the spot where Czar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. This was well worth the trip.

We’re wearing down and a long way from the hotel at this point.  All of our walking has been in one direction.  We have most of the day tomorrow to hit a few more spots on our list so we begin the long walk back to the hotel. This was a 10-mile walking day.

After a bit of a break we have a cocktail in the room and then move the party to the hotel pub.  We have felt unthreatened all day but choose to stay closer to home after dark.  We have Russian beers, Mary and John have the cold fish plate, Pat has the meatballs with mashed potatoes and we have a bowl of little fried dumplings that are not our favorites.

We’re anxious to enjoy our “deluxe” room and need a good night’s sleep.  Off we go.

What did we learn today: Our Russian people encounters have been delightfully friendly.