Baltic Cruise- Memories of St Petersburg

Summer palace garden

Romanov Winter Palace

As part of my 17-day Baltic Cruise to six Baltic countries  last September 2012 , I visited the city of  St Petersburg in Russia. Contrary to my preconceived ideas, the city is vibrant with traffic jams everywhere and on  bridges across the main river dissecting it. There are many architecturally beautiful buildings among the latest rather ugly simple box-like buildings.

Intricate façade of the Czar's Summer palace

Newer building-not as aesthetic but practical

 As our time was short, we merely spent most of our two day there visiting palaces built by the Romanov, famous among them are Catherine and Peter The Great. We also had time to visit a great museum-like place called the Hermitage where belongings of the Romanov are being displayed. many consist of paintings, sculptures, furnitures, cutleries,room furnishings,vases,clocks among others. We also spent some time visiting famous landmarks such as the Church of the Spilled Blood.

Church of the Spilled blood

The Church and its pretty minarets

Looking at the old aesthetically beautiful buildings , you could actually imagine the luxury,indulgence, wastefulness  and decadence enjoyed by the ruling class with their palaces,gardens, massive properties and retinue of servants. No wonder the suppressed peasants revolted (the Revolution) and finally toppling their elites and got what rightly belong to every hard-working citizen and Russia became a Republic.

Summer Palace Interior Garden

Part of interior of summer palace

Summer palace

St Petersburg's early morning traffic

Summer Palace furnishing

We visited the Summer and Winter Palaces and were only able to do some souvenir shopping. We managed to have our meals at restaurants and experience their culinary offerings.

One of the hundreds of palaces with
late afternoon traffic jam

Well-kept Summer palace garden

Winter  palace

Chic porcelain-one of many
different varieties on display 
at the Summer  palace

Compared to Berlin which we visited earlier, the paintings in St Petersburg were more refined and beautifully maintained. Their sculptures were more modest with less embarrassing exposures.

The palaces are maintained by the State unlike that in Germany which is by some charity foundation and you could see the difference in appearance of the palaces in the two countries.

Despite Russians being famous for vodka-drinking and rough behaviours (remember President Yelstin ) but the reality is far different, perhaps more like the current sedate President Putin whom I admire in spite of his tough reputation.

They are more polite and friendlier than the Germans, at least those manning the palaces. The tourist guide was excellent and she worked at the university and very proud of her heritage. Sandra was really funny and could laugh at her own shortcomings. A lovely sense of humour.

Potret of Queen Alexandra wife to the last Czar Nicholas
 and grand-daugther of  Queen Victoria of England

There was so much to see but we only managed to tour the tourists' attractions only. It would have been great to look at other aspects of the Russian life. They have such a long and rich culture beyond communism. It was hard to look at them as really different people professing an  ideology completely foreign to us.

I certainly would like to visit the city again and this time on a longer basis. It is best to visit around June as the weather would have been not too cold or hot, a pleasant time for walking.