Day 11- St Petersburg 8/19

We left Finland behind last night and traveled through the soft white light of the Baltic sea to Russia. Steve and I had a late night, the blackjack tables were hot last night and Steve won over $100. Woo hoo! Our excursion didn’t leave until 1pm, so we were able to sleep in a bit and get brunch before going down to the pier towards Russian Immigration. Entering Russia for the day was much like going through immigration at the airport. They stamped our passports and scrutinized us, though it was obvious we were here with the cruise ship tour. We then boarded a bus and headed off for our tour. We signed up for the Lenin & Russian Revolution tour. We began by driving past the Peter and Paul fortress on our way to the Lenin museum. The Lenin museum is in the current Saint Petersburg government buildings. We were struck by the lack of advertising, pedestrians and general commotion from the city. It did seem like we entered a third world country. The courtyard to the museum was beautiful, but the building smelled musty and dank. It was hot in the Lenin museum, but we were over whelmed by the history they presented and didn’t get restless until the end of the tour after we saw several of the rooms Lenin slept in (boring), and where his work for the revolution started. In general, as St. Petersburg was once Leninburg, its obvious that Lenin is revered by the Russian people and still regarded with “god” like awe.

After the Lenin museum we drove by the battleship Aurora. It was used in several of the revolutions, WWI & WWII. Hopped on board for a quick look around (Also present by the ship was a baby Bear! Kate – did I see more bears in Russia than you did in Alaska?) The bear was eating nuts and leashed with a muzzle… pretty sad actually. From Aurora we drove to the Kshesinskaya Museum. This is Russia’s Revolution museum which used to be a private residence of a woman (Kshesinskaya) who was a very wealthy Ballerina who came to Russia and became the mistress of many famous men including Tsar Nicklaus II… the Museum was very interesting and really helped to explain the revolution, the move to socialism, and the implications of these policies on Russian life and culture.

It was a long day in Russia! We finally got on board the ship with just enough time to change for another fabulous dinner.

Baby Russian Bear - also available right by him were bear-skin hats (Ohhhhh!)

Sarah in front of the Battleship Aurora - this ship sounded the alarm for revolution.

Steve holding up the lifeboat on the Aurora.














Sarah and Steve by the Statue of Peter the Great.














Maritime - a ship by the Aurora.