Sunday 28th August St Petersburg - Day 1

Our first sight of Russia was a power station billowing smoke out of it's chimneys.
It was fine and warm when we docked, and after breakfast we ventured into St Petersburg.
This was the first port where we needed to fill out immigration forms and it took a while to pass through passport control. Our guide for the day was a middle aged lady called Vera who was very knowledgeable but had a raspy voice and kept calling us dear ladies and gentlemen until she got flustered and dropped the dear bit. She would get upset when she lost someone, we had been told earlier that ten percent loss was acceptable and the worst she got to was five percent. We travelled through St Petersburg on a quiet
Sunday morning and we were surprised how well laid out the city was with wide streets and plenty of open parkland. It is made up of a lot of islands so there are many canals very similar to Venice without the hype. There are some magnificent buildings but some of them look a bit tired and there is a lot of restoration work going on. We travelled to the Tsar's Village and Catherine's Palace (Summer Palace). The palace is breathtaking with incredible decor and works of art, the crowds were horrendous but it was well worth it. On the way back to St Petersburg we stopped at a "traditional Russian restaurant" for lunch, it was amazing how one chicken can feed forty people. After lunch we had a stop at the obligatory souvenir shop before going on to the Hermitage Museum (Winter Palace) which was the thing we were all waiting for. Next to the Louvre the Hermitage has the greatest collection of art in the world, not all of it obtained legally. Once again the crowds were horrendous and Vera didn't help by stopping at every exhibit we passed with fullsome explanations. We were all exhausted and only left because the guards were turning off all the lights. Many of us had the ballet (Swan Lake) on that night and we were getting concerned about the time. We were back on board at 6.00pm and had to be back on shore at 6:45pm. Di managed to grab some food from the garden restaurant and eat it in our stateroom while she was getting ready, David was past it and didn't eat at all. We enjoyed the ballet and managed to stay awake through it even if we were confused by the ending. The swan didn't die and our guide said thats the way they perform it in Russia so it has a happy ending. How can such a blood thirsty race be compassionate about a bird. We were back on board at 11:00pm both totally exhausted.