Day - 20: Monday, June 15, 2015
Starting Location: St. Petersburg, Russia
Interim Location: Pushkin, Russia
Ending Location: At Sea En-route to Helsinki, Finland
It's our last day in Russia and our final tour will be to Catherine Palace in Pushkin, about an hour south of St. Petersburg. En-route we passed by the Russian shipbuilding yards in St. Petersburg where the submarine fleet undergoes major maintenance and once the site of submarine construction.
On arrival at Pushkin we departed the bus and walked the short distance to the palace passing street vendors and street bands. Upon arrival at the gate, we entered the domain of the past Russian elite.
After being welcomed by the Catherine Palace Band (note bucket for donations) we donned special shoe covers so as to not scratch the parquet floors.
By mid-afternoon we had returned to the ship, passed through the Russian immigration check-point for the last time and settled in for a quiet afternoon. Dinner tonight was in the ship's Italian restaurant Toscana and for me. a nice bottle of wine and a tasty dinner of Osso Buco.
Our last sighting of Russia was a beautiful sunset silhouetting one of the St. Petersburg power plants.
Interim Location: Pushkin, Russia
Ending Location: At Sea En-route to Helsinki, Finland
It's our last day in Russia and our final tour will be to Catherine Palace in Pushkin, about an hour south of St. Petersburg. En-route we passed by the Russian shipbuilding yards in St. Petersburg where the submarine fleet undergoes major maintenance and once the site of submarine construction.
Shopping centers and toll booths not so different than ours.
On arrival at Pushkin we departed the bus and walked the short distance to the palace passing street vendors and street bands. Upon arrival at the gate, we entered the domain of the past Russian elite.
The Royal Cat
After being welcomed by the Catherine Palace Band (note bucket for donations) we donned special shoe covers so as to not scratch the parquet floors.
Catherine Palace dating from the mid-18th century was practically leveled by the Germans in WWII but has been completely rebuilt/restored to what is believed its original condition.
As one would expect, the palace has a huge and beautiful garden complex, actually so complex that our tour guide somehow lost her charges. Turned out that her group of twenty had been trisected and was now comprised of three groups, two unguided and alone in the "evil empire". As in American fairy tales, all ended well as after 15-20 minutes we were all reunited for our ride back to St. Petersburg. (Update: Story goes that said guide is now conducting tours in Northern Siberia)
By mid-afternoon we had returned to the ship, passed through the Russian immigration check-point for the last time and settled in for a quiet afternoon. Dinner tonight was in the ship's Italian restaurant Toscana and for me. a nice bottle of wine and a tasty dinner of Osso Buco.
Our departure time of 6 PM came but strong winds could not be overcome by two tugs and the ship's props and thrusters. After an hour of trying, the Captain announced that we would try again later. Around 11 PM with three tugs we eased away from the dock and were on our way to Helsinki.
Our last sighting of Russia was a beautiful sunset silhouetting one of the St. Petersburg power plants.
The Russia adventure was over. Was the experience worth the effort, both time and expense? I would just say that Sheila and I have differing opinions on the subject.
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