We were able to sleep in a little longer this morning, now knowing how the immigration process really worked. We also knew that it was supposed to be quicker today, the immigration officers were only going to confirm our passports matched us, and not have to process them through their computer station or print out the temporary visas.
As has been the usual MO for every morning so far, I went to the International Café and got us two heated breakfast sandwiches while Stephanie was finishing getting ready. We were packed up and set to go down to the gangway at about 7:30 AM. We did not have to wait in a holding area today, they were just letting people off as they arrived at the gangway. We breezed through the passport inspection, and were in the terminal in just a few minutes. We could have been even later getting out, but we erred on the side of caution, not wanting to be late for the 8:00 AM tour.
Svetlana and Demetri arrived promptly at 8:00 AM, and all of our group was waiting in the terminal, minus one lady’s daughter, who was suffering from migraines, and had to cancel, so now we were a group of 9 instead of 10.
We did a short photo stop of the St. Isaac’s Cathedral, but did not go inside. Next, we visited the Admiralteyskaya metro station on Nevsky Prospekt which is officially the deepest metro station in the world, over 86 meters below ground (282 ft.) It was quite an escalator ride down, but all of the metro stations here are decorated with mosaics, and it was really pretty inside. The metro trains were quite loud, and arrived about every 2-3 minutes.
Next we walked along the Nevsky Prospekt, one of the longer shopping streets in St. Petersburg, and saw the residence that was the birthplace of the beef stroganoff dish.
We visited the The Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan. It is a functioning Orthodox Church, and so we were not allowed to take photos inside.
We then headed to the Hermitage Museum, which was really crowded at times, but really beautiful inside. It was a little overwhelming with all of the famous works of art. Unfortunately, I had not been paying attention to the battery in my camera and it died. Luckily, we both had our cell phones for pictures, we will see how they come out in comparison to my Nikon DSLR.
We ate lunch at an authentic restaurant, and actually had the St. Petersburg version of beef stroganoff`, it was different, but tasty.
After lunch, we headed over to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, which was once a Russian Orthodox church built on the location of the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, hence the name “on spilled blood”.
It is no longer a functioning church, but is now classified as a museum. It was beautiful inside, full of very ornate mosaics. However, the outside, famous for its ornate onion domes, was being repaired and several of the domes were covered, a little disappointing.
Then we took a Canal Boat tour through the waterways of St. Petersburg on a private boat, and everyone had some champagne provided by the tour during the one hour ride. It was starting to get a little cloudy by this time, but for the better part of our two days here, the weather has been perfect. We spent a little time at a shop, looking at souvenirs and tasting some Russian vodka.
This was the end of our tour and we headed back to the ship, arriving at 5:30 PM. The tour had been great, and everyone really enjoyed the tour and our guides.
We boarded the Regal Princess and headed back to the room to drop off our gear and relax a bit before the sail away. It was raining a little by this time, and the sail away was a little wet, but we did enjoy the last views of St. Petersburg.
Once again, we ate at the buffet, we were way too tired for anything else. We had a few refreshments at Crooners, and headed back to the cabin. It had been a wonderful, but tiring two days in St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, there is no day of rest for the weary, tomorrow we stop in Helsinki, Finland.