664. He is all tucked in.
Judy and John, I wish I could stow away with you..wait until you see all that there is to do. There just isn't enough time to shop. Perhaps you need to do a back to back!!! Have a wonderful time and be safe.
I have a few more tidbits to add to your enjoyment of this cruise:
The ship: Minor vibration issues only. The situation seems corrected. Gil's room is fixed. I asked the folks in it. I think that the right side of the ship offered the most interesting views. Our left hand side offered sea views, but no port views.
Temporary Exhibits:
The State Hermitage: Jewelry History 1: traces the history of jewelry from CII century BC to CC century
The Menshikov's Palace: Private Porcelain Factories of Russia
Peter and Paul Fortress: Image of the town and townsmen: 1921-1928 Everyday life of the people
Rumyantsev's Mansion: Behind the Doorstep of Old Apartment/life in Petersberg's tenement housing
Smolny Cathedral: The Amber Room exhibition timed to the opening of the room at Catherine's palace tell the story of the Amber Room's interior.
Tsarskoe Selo: Royal Court Carriage exhibition; Alexander II exhibition; Treasures Regained exhibition
Hermitage: Lost treasures stolen from Jewish families during WWII(temporary exhibit). The Museum is currently housing the exhibit while ownership is being argued.
Main Points of Interest ( over 100 working museums!!! I won't list them all)
Hermitage: 5 Buildings including the Winter Palace. Da Vinci, Raphael, Impressionists, Rembrandt, Rubens, Post-impressions, Matisse, Picasso, Gold Room, Sculpture, coins, medals, acheologic materials. We allowed 2-3 hours...not enough if you are an art lover.
Menshikov's Palace: Palace of the city's first general governor. 18th century. first stone building.
State Russian Museum: Russian art including Chagall. (I understand that this is great for an art lover and a second time visitor to the city)
Marble Palace:18th century museum using over 30 tints of marble
Stroganoff Palace: History of Russian Porcelain
St. Isaac's Cathedral: Beautiful and grand cathedral (we saw this...usually shown to all)
Our Saviour Of the Blood Cathedral: Russian style architecture. Interesting (we saw this...usually shown to all)
Peter and Paul Fortress: Burial vault of Peter the Great and other Tsars, museums, mint, etc
Summer Palace of Peter the Great
Cabin of Peter the Great
Central Naval Museum
Battleship Aurora
Museum of the History of Religion
The Historical Museum Smolny: All about the October Revolution and Lenin
Museum of the Polical History of Russia
Rumyantsev Mansion: 900 day seige history
Dostoyevsky Library and museum
Palace and Park ensemble Gachina (first landscaped park in Russia)
Oranienbaum: several palaces of Peter III/Chinese Pavilion, palace of Peter III, Chinese Palace
Pavlovsk: home of Emperor Paul I and Empress Maria Fedorovna
Tsarskoye Selo (Catherine's Palace)..Amber Room (this is a room totally made of amber and stolen by the Nazi's). It has been recovered in part and fully restored (some parts have been reconstructed). In fact, the entire palace has been reconstructed. The Nazi's almost totally ransacked the palace to bare bricks as most was covered in precious materials.
Peterhof: Extensive gardens and over 150 fountains; 10 museums including the Grand Palace, Monplaisir, Catherine's Block, Marli, The Kitchen, the Museum of Collectors, Private Room of Catherine the Great, the Bath Block, the Chapel,etc. You need to decide how much time you want to spend walking the extensive grounds or would you rather see the interiors of three palaces, all decorated quite differently. If the weather is bad, you cannot see Monplaisir. Some folks were taken to the Grand Palace. We weren't told the difference. Our guide decided to do the grounds and take us to a lesser palace since she said that the interior of the Grand Palace were similar to Catherine's Palace. The ride to this Palace complex was fascinating.
Palace of Peter the Great: Wooden Palace
I hope this helps you see that you could spend one day in just one place or a week at just the Hermitage.
We saw Catherine's Palace, Catherine's Block and Garden's at Peterhof, Highlights at the Hermitage and had a city tour in two days. The City tour included a lot of monuments and stops for picture taking. I would have sped up the city tour and not have stopped for pictures and spent more time either in the the Hermitage or at another site. It's awfully hard to decide what to do, but I hope this gives you a good start. Now where do you find time to shop? I know, just don't stop to eat!!
