8. St. Petersburg.

For many, the two day stop in St. Petersburg is the highlight of the Baltic cruise, and indeed, for the cruise lines it is the same as unless you are on an organised tour where no paperwork is required, as the bureaucracy involved in getting a full Russian visa is second to none. Thus we booked the ship's excursions for both days.

The first day we boarded a coach (driven by Sergei, obviously, and who did actually resemble a meerkat), and made our way to one of the jetties on the city's many waterways so as to complete a hat trick of canal cruises. It's definitely a way of seeing a big city from a different viewpoint, especially if your particular interest is Russian architecture. It wasn't a particularly busy afternoon although we did make the obligatory stop at the church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, one of St. Petersburg's more familiar landmarks.

For those guests not going ashore for an evening at the ballet, a troupe of Russian folk singers and dancers gave a performance in the ship's theatre. It was definitely an entertaining hour although I'm not quite sure where songs such as Back in the USSR, and California Girls fit into local folklore.

Our second day was much more active as we spent the morning looking around just a very small part of the famed Hermitage Museum - a bit of a misnomer really given that the building has some 10,000 visitors a day. Our extremely knowledgable guide led us around the best exhibits in the limited time available as it would take several months to view every museum piece and artwork in the collection. Opulence abounds, with gold everywhere and intricately decorated ceilings matched floors inlaid with marquetry. Paintings by such masters as DaVinci, Goya and Rembrandt (to name just three that I can remember), adorned the walls. It is truly an important and impressive building and museum. 

One having viewed these treasures, we no longer had to listen to our guide's commentary in our personal earpieces like being controlled like Cold War spies, and we were let of on our own to explore a little bit of St. Petersburg. We found a small cafe on Nevsky Prospekt (the Main Street), for a sandwich and on the basis that you are reading this blog post, we can assume that the coffee was not laced with Polonium. Nevsky Prospekt is a wide boulevard some 4km long, lined with shops, supermarkets, restaurants and designer boutiques and more than enough to keep the most dedicated shopper busy. Just like any other main shopping street in any other major world city!

We walked a circular route taking us along canal embankments, through green parks and back to the Admiralty Building and Palace Square, the very large square at the back of the Hermitage Winter Palace. It was crowded with locals and tourists alike and also several newlyweds. Indeed, we were informed that it is a tradition that just married couples have their picture taken at the City's most famous landmarks. 

And so our time exploring the city came to an end. St. Petersburg has so much to see and do and you need much longer than two days. However, until such time as the authorities make getting a tourist visa easier, the cruise lines will continue to make a small fortune.