St Petersburg, Russia! This is the northernmost major city of the world & even though 3 centuries have past since Peter the Great began building his grand city on the Gulf of Finland, you feel the grandness of his time but also see the more recent past after the revolution and of the Communist era. We were up early to get ready for our first tour!
This is Anna who was our first tour guide. She spoke English well and was very young. The bus was new and very comfortable. There were huge crowds today as it is a holiday. We saw many, many military & police on the streets--maybe because of the holiday & crowds. Very clean city, saw street sweeping and other evidence of maintenance. Population is about 5 million.
We had to go through customs each time we got off & back on the ship. They emphasized that we were at the Lieutenant Schmidt Embankment in case we lost our way. And went over several times how we were to conduct ourselves going through customs. No joking, be very serious, have all documents ready, etc. It took a long time the first time going through and getting most of the 700 passengers off the ship. We went through without any problems and were glad to see that our passports were stamped. We were advised to dress & behave conservatively, not draw attention to ourselves by wearing flashy jewelry or patriotic articles. This is considered a Christian nation with most belonging to the Russian Orthodox Church.
St Petersburg, Russia! This is the northernmost major city of the world & even though 3 centuries have past since Peter the Great began building his grand city on the Gulf of Finland, you feel the grandness of his time but also see the more recent past after the revolution and of the Communist era. We were up early to get ready for our first tour!
This is Anna who was our first tour guide. She spoke English well and was very young. The bus was new and very comfortable. There were huge crowds today as it is a holiday. We saw many, many military & police on the streets--maybe because of the holiday & crowds. Very clean city, saw street sweeping and other evidence of maintenance. Population is about 5 million.
We had to go through customs each time we got off & back on the ship. They emphasized that we were at the Lieutenant Schmidt Embankment in case we lost our way. And went over several times how we were to conduct ourselves going through customs. No joking, be very serious, have all documents ready, etc. It took a long time the first time going through and getting most of the 700 passengers off the ship. We went through without any problems and were glad to see that our passports were stamped. We were advised to dress & behave conservatively, not draw attention to ourselves by wearing flashy jewelry or patriotic articles. This is considered a Christian nation with most belonging to the Russian Orthodox Church.
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