What, no pictures!
06/June/2009 05:11 PM Filed in: Tourist
Okay, I worked for my free tour today! Actually, I had 2 tours today, so it was a busy day. The day started at 8:00 am on the dock where I waited in the freezing cold for my tour group to arrive. We are in St. Petersburg, Russia again today, so getting everyone through immigration is a bit of a process. I don’t have a visa for Russia, which means that unless I’m able to be an escort and tour with a ship tour, I can’t get off the ship. We are docked at a far away port this time and the view is not very nice. We are looking at cargo bins and scrap metal pretty much. We didn’t get the docking position we had last time right in the center of the downtown, because the Economic Forum is being held in St. Petersburg so there are many dignitaries, etc downtown so the ports are very busy. There are also 9 cruise ships in port today, so the tour locations will likely be PACKED! Bob, bless his heart, offered to stay on the ship today so that I can go on both tours since he’s been here before and I haven’t. Okay, back to my group. We finally got everyone on the bus by 9:45 am and headed for the Palace of Catherine the Great in PusHkin. It is about one hour from St. Petersburg. It is cold and rainy today and we have 43 people on our bus. We have 2 tour guides and will travel in 2 groups with our guides through the museum. We got to the museum and proceeded to stand in the rain and wait to get in along with several others. The museum was so busy, keeping everyone together was a huge challenge. Between headphone sets that didn’t work, lost coats, lost people, barely recognizable Russian english by one of our guides, soaked clothes, etc. it was quite a day. Oh, and did I mention the camera I took (Bob’s good one) went dead before I got one picture! Yes, I had back-up batteries too, but they were dead too. So, unfortunately, I have no pictures of my trip to the Palace of Catherine the Great (who I was named after, by the way! ha, ha), but only my memories of this day! I’ve never been happier to get back to the ship and have a warm shower! Actually, the Winter Palace was amazing, and it was great to be able to see one of the amazing sights of St. Petersburg today. The evening brought on a totally different slice of Russian life as I took in the Russian singing and dancing show which I loved! The musicians were excellent and the dancers were everything I thought I would see when I think of Russian dance. I was prepared tonight with 2 cameras and a lot of back-up batteries! And, I didn’t have to wear the blue escort t-shirt tonight either. What a treat! I do have some video of the evening too, but I’ll have to show you that when I get home. Enjoy the pics...well, of half the day, anyway.
NO BLUE GOLF SHIRT!
The army band and choir
This guy was incredible and a riot to watch!
NO BLUE GOLF SHIRT!
The army band and choir
This guy was incredible and a riot to watch!