Day 8 Wednesday, Aug 2 St Petersburg, Russia
Posted by Max Dunn Fri, 04 Aug 2006 11:57:00 GMT
(Suzanne) Today was our first of two days in St. Petersburg, Russia. Our main goal in Russia was to visit our friends, Eugene and Luba. Since we booked this trip at the last minute and procrastinated in getting visas (you must have a visa if you want to get off the ship), it seemed like the opportunity to see them wasn’t going to happen unless we booked an excursion on the ship (where you’re covered on a blanket visa) in order to get into town. So, at the last minute, we booked a Hermitage tour without the kids. The kids stayed on the ship in the Fun Factory (they were happy about this after the Estonia trek) while we took the tour.
The Hermitage is the second largest museum in the world (next to the Louvre). It is in St Petersburg’s Winter Palace (which has over 1000 rooms), situated on the Neva River. We only had about 2 hours in there and saw most the the museum’s “best of the best” works of art. My favorites were the impressionist paintings and a few Michaelangelo pieces. Despite the little time that we had in there, we were tired from all of the walking. At the end, we did finally meet up with Eugene and Luba. Max and Eugene had been texting each other and they were able to find us in the Hermitage’s huge maze. We had about 45 minutes with them before we had to get back on the bus—way too short. Oh and bummer, Max forgot to bring the Thumbprint wine that he hand carried over for them. Once we got back to the ship, we checked on the kids and went to lunch. The afternoon was spent relaxing until dinner.
Dinner was really the only time that we saw our kids today. If they had their choice, they’d stay in the Fun Factory and never get off the ship—it’s just way too fun. Going back to dinner though, all I have to say is “fillet mignon”. And it was cooked perfectly, exactly the way my dad would have ate it; red and barely warm. Also we had a late night sushi run, which they have every night until 10p. It’s not the best sushi in the world, but darn good for cruise ship sushi. There was a big group of people from Japan and they were even eating it so it had to be decent!
The sun didn’t set until 10:30p and it didn’t get dark until 11p so it was hard getting the kids to bed when it stays so light so late outside.
We’ve been on a cruise for 1 week. First we stopped in Tallinn, Estonia. I bought a scarf there, it’s really pretty. Next we went to St. Petersburg, Russia for 2 days. The first day we stayed in the kid’s club and my parents went to the Hermitage. It’s a museum. It used to be a winter palace for the royal family. The second day in St Petersburg, my family went into the city together. Do you know what a matryoshka is ? It’s one big doll with a lot of other dolls in it. And it’s made out of wood but it’s not like a real doll. It’s very pretty. I bought three. But at home I already have three. And now we’re in Helsinki, Finland. In the winter, Finland is a very snowy place, below 0 degrees. But now in the summer there’s no snow at all, it’s sunny.