A Day in St. Petersburg
Flynn Marr                                                        19 March 2026
When we got up in the morning of our 9th day it was pelting rain. Leaving the ship was a very wet experience!
When we woke up in the morning of Day 9 we were tied up in St. Petersburg and it was raining heavily. It was obvious this was going to be a wet day!
Travel in Russia requires a Visa however there is an exception for cruise ships. If you book one of the tours in the city offred by the shipping company you can travel on a group visa held by the Russian tour company contracted for the purpose.
We were instructed in the procedure to go ashore which included completion of a Landing Card to present to the Customs officer. We were warned that
these officers were very sober and serious and not to expect any smiles or welcomes. That certainly turned out to be true! It is interesting that of all the countries we visited, Russia was the only one that required us to pass through a customs check point.
We were to be in St. Petersburg for two days and we had chosen a tour for the first day that included visits to some of the city’s most well known cultural sites. Once we were through customs we were directed to a very nice tour bus and we were off to the city. We had a tour guide who spoke excellent English and was very informative. Outside it was raining so hard by that point that we could see very little through the windows as we drove into town.
Our first stop was an embankment on the Neva River across from the Heritage Museum. When it rains on vacation you must remeber that is a part of the trip and you should still be taking pictures. Just have proper raingear for your camera.
Across from our first stop through the mist and rain was the Peter and Paul fortress which we were to visit later that day for lunch. Even though these pictures are obscured by the weather they still bring back memories of the day fifteen years later.
Across the Neva from our first stop we could see the Hermitage Museum and the Winter Palace on the right end of the Palace Embankment. The Winter Palace was the official home of the Tsars for hundreds of years. This picture is actually a composite of three photographs.
Do not let a little rain spoil your trip. Accept it and get on with having fun. The rain is clean water and a warm shower awaits you back on the ship.
Our first stop was along the banks of the Neva River. Across from us was the Hermitage Museum which we were to visit later in the day and in the distance through the mist was the Peter and Paul Fortress where we were to have lunch later.
St. Petersburg was a city built by Peter the Great who wanted to turn Russia into a naval power. To do this he needed to have a port open to the Atlantic Ocean. The Northern Ocean was too remote and clogged with ice much of the year so he looked west to the Gulf of Finland and chose a spot on the Neva River that flowed into the Gulf, the site of present day St. Petersburg. The Peter and Paul Fortress was built to protect his new port from Russia’s traditional enemies around the Baltic Sea.
After our rather wet stop on the Neva we were taken to a gift shop where we could browse and buy souvenirs. A nice little touch was a small table at the entrance with glasses and an open bottle of vodka. We were able to help ourselves while we looked around the shop.
This souvenir shop was interesting because there seemed to be an emphasis on Russian folk art and it appeared that little or nothing came from China. That was a nice change. There was a lot of wood carving, Russian nesting dolls of every size, Christmas ornaments, and the like. It was actually a very enjoyable stop.Â
The gift shop we visited on our tour had an interesting variety of souvenirs that seemed to be mainly Russian crafts. The hand painting on the dolls and Easter Eggs was beautifully done. It appeared that no two were exactly alike. Although we did not buy anything it was an interesting stop and we quite enjoyed it.
Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood
In the Russian Orthodox Church a “Church on Blood” is a church built over the spot where blood was spilled. There are four such churches in Russia and one of them is in St. Petersburg: the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood.
On 13th of March 1881 Tzar Alexander II was passing along the Griboyedov Canal when he was cut down by an assassin’s bomb. His son, Alexander III, began construction of a memorial church over the spot where the attack occured in 1883 and construction actually continued until 1907. This was the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. And it was our next stop on our tour.
This church is the absolutely most beautiful space I have ever been in. I was not expecting to find this jewel here in Russia. Since the Russian Revolution it had an up and down history but it was restored in the 1950’s and ’60’s to its present glorious state.
The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood through our bus window as we parked. This stop was to be one of the highlights of our trip.
The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in the Griboyedov Canal.
Susan outside the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood.
The interior of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood is covered in the most beautiful mosaic images I have ever seen.
The church was dark inside and the light from the windows and chandeliers provided an incredible soft glow on the mosaic images on the walls. Every surface, walls and ceiling, were covered in glazed tiles formed into Christian images. It was the most beautiful place I can remember being in. My pictures here do not do it justice in any way.
This was a challenging place to take pictures. The space was not large as churches go and the incredible beauty was wraped all around you in deep shadow. As I have said, my camera was the Canon 60D which is a great camera but, truth be told, its high ISO performance leaves much to be desired. The wide lens I had was the EOS EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 which is not a fast lens. But that was what I had to work with. I pushed the ISO to 6400, the fastest the camera had which washed out colors and gave us serious grain in the image. The lens was wide open at f/3.5. This allowed me to shoot at 1/60 of a second.
Because I wanted to show you the detail in the images I have brightened the results in Photoshop. You can see the inside of the church but the pictures do not convey the atmosphere or the real experience of being there.
Every surface was covered in wonderful mosaics.
The only light was from the windows and huge crystal chandeliers.
The actual colors were far more brilliant than you see here.
This is Susan outside the Church waiting to board our bus. The two columns are distorted by the 10mm wide angle lens.
The Peter and Paul Fortress
After we left the Church our next stop was the Peter and Paul fortress for lunch. This fortress was built in the years 1706 to 1740 on orders of Tzar Peter the Great. It is on what was called Hare Island on the North bank of the Neva River.
Our tour did not include a detailed visit but we did enter under an important gateway and we were escorted to one of the buildings where lunch was laid on. Our lunch was simple fare but very good.
After lunch we had an opportunity to walk up on the ramparts for a view of the city but the rain and mist made that difficult. However, we were able to see that the size of the Neva river was impressive.
In the far distance, if you knew where to look, was our next stop, the Hermitage Museum.
The gate into the Peter and Paul Fortress.
The lunchroom with Susan on the right in the black hat.
We passed these doorways on our way out after lunch.
The Hermitage Museum
In 1764 the Empress Catherine of Russia established the Hertiage Museum to house a collection of paintings that she had acquired. Since then this museum in various forms through wars and revolutions has come to be the custodian of the largest collection of paintings in the world.
Today the museum is housed in six buildings, including the Winter Palace, along the Palace Embankment on the Neva River. After lunch this was to be our destination. Because of the rain we really did not get to appreciate the setting on the river or the Palace Square on the other side of the building. But this still proved to be another wonder on this afternoon of wonders.
It is hard to know where to start describing this collection of art. There were paintings on every wall, furniture, glass, precious minerals, even a throne room. And in the few hours we had, we could only scratch the surface.
This is the Hermitage Museum through the bus window as we arrived. Notice all of the tour buses outside on the street.
Our ticket for the afternoon in the State Hermitage Museum.
One of the grand halls in the Winter Palace as it may have looked when it was the official residence of the Tsars.
A hallway in the Hermitage with some of the paintings in the collection.
The garden outside the window on the right in the picture on the left.
The Hermitage has amazing art objects in it. On the left is a solid Malachite Urn about five feet high. On the right is a table made of malachite. The mineral malachite is a copper compund which gives it the beautiful green color. Russia once mined this mineral in the Ural Mountains.
A throne room in the Winter Palace.
Susan on a bench beneath one of many imposing paintings.
And that was our first day in St. Petersburg. I could talk on and on about what we had seen but this post is already overly long.
When we arrived back at the ship it was still raining and it felt really good to go up to our cabin and have a hot shower and put on dry clothes. After dinner we again went to listen to music and dance. That has become our routine evening when we cruise: a good dinner and then dancing til midnight.
There is a lesson in this day: don’t let rain dampen your holiday. It is simply part of the experience. Don’t stop taking pictures. Just be sure to have means of protecting your camera and keeping it dry.
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