Brilliance Cruise to Scandinavia and Russia, planning, cruising and LOT of photos

[Kevin's girl]

I wish we had more time to explore this museum. Like the Louvre, you could spend all day here. Unlike the Louvre, the crowds are not as oppressive. The Vatican is like the Louvre. Too many people. Russia is great....not too many tourists :)

 

Moscow is on my bucket list, but I may have to add a return to St. Pete.

 

 

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I know what you mean. It would be nice to have an entire day here, just to soak it all in. I would also like to see Moscow.

This trip was a great taste of Russia and enough to make one want to go back.

[Kevin's girl]

As I began to post the last of my Hermitage photos, I realized that I probably should have shared this photo from the English version of the “P-2” Art Publishers illustrated guide book which we bought at the cruise port in Saint Petersburg. It has been great in jogging my memory on facts as well as the overwhelming amount of artwork we saw while there.

The Hermitage is a large collection of buildings which were built over time to house an ever growing collection of art. This picture will help to visualize just how large the Hermitage really is.

 

 

There are three interconnected halls in the center of the New Hermitage. These halls are collectively known as the Skylight Halls. These halls are just a few more rooms where you just stand with you mouth hanging open. The effect of the glass ceilings and the walls of artwork are just simply awe inspiring. My photos just did not capture the true feeling.

 

 

 

[Kevin's girl]

These are the last rooms we visited in the Hermitage.

The Twenty Colum Hall. Originally named the Hall of Greek and Etruscan Vases.

 

The Kolyvan Vase Hall

Siberian stone cutters worked fourteen years to produce this vase from a single block of green jasper weighing nineteen tones. It was delivered to Saint Petersburg on carts drawn by 160 horses.

 

Leaving the Hermitage we passed people waiting their turn to enter. I wished we could have spent more time here, but was so excited for all that was yet to come.

 

 

 

Looking ahead of we saw Palace Square

 

 

As we met up with Gennady and got back into the van, we passed the Entrance of the New Hermitage. This is the Portico with Atlantes.

 

 

This is from the Hermitage website:

 

Every facade of the building has its own decoration. The main facade, overlooking Millionnaya Street, is notable for the monumental portico with ten wonderful figures of atlantes carved by Alexander Terebenev from grey Serdobol granite. His immediate assistant, the stone-mason Gavriil Balushkin, wrote that 150 masters worked with Terebenev. Klenze highly appreciated Terebenev's skill and wrote: "The beauty and noble character of these sculptures, the accurateness and delicacy of the work and the glittering polished finish are beyond comparison and allow us to say that just as Egyptian Pharaohs could make their monolithic colossi, so these telamones are no worse for the Extreme North."

 

[Kevin's girl]

I am afraid I need to stop for the night. I feel happy that I finished the Hermitage today. We even made a 3 hour trip to the ER for stitches in the middle of the writing today. My husband has learned an important lesson about juggling knives and I got a lot of writing done. I plan to get right back at it tomorrow. I only hope that work doesn't get in the way. So until tomorrow, sweet dreams everyone.

[kftw]

Thanks again for all the work you are doing on this review. It's been great.

[campbell51]

Thanks for taking the time to do this loving the review looking forward to reading more

[Kevin's girl]

Thanks kftw and campbell51 for the words of encouragement. I really appreciate you taking the time to read and comment. The review is taking me much longer to get done than I thought it would. It's nice to know I haven't lost everyone :)

[Kevin's girl]

Next we were to visit the Church of our Savior on Spilled Blood. I was very excited about our visit here. I had read the history and had seen photos of the church. I thought I was well prepared, but I was mistaken. We waited again for Irina to get our tickets and while we waited we looked around the outside. I kept feeling as though I need someone to pinch me. I could not believe I was actually standing there in front of this beautiful church/monument. I kept telling Kevin everything I had read about it and how beautiful it was inside. We went inside as soon as Irina had our tickets. I walked in the door and got my first real look at the just awesome views. I do really mean awesome, I stood with my mouth open and near tears at the beauty of this church. The walls are covered in the largest collection of mosaics in the world. The church is a monument to Alexander II and is built at the exact spot of his assassination. There is a small cap built around the cobbled street where he fell and died. Inside the mosaics depict the life of Jesus and draw comparisons to Jesus the Savior and Alexander II as the Liberator of serfs and a reformer for his people.

Pics we took while waiting to go inside:

 

 

 

 

[Kevin's girl]

The next few posts will be mostly just photos. There really isn’t much more I can say.

 

Our first look

 

To the right of the entrance, the place where Alexander II died

 

 

If you look closely at the figure on the left of this photo you can see the tiny tiles that make up these mosaics.

 

Edited October 28, 2014 by Kevin's girl

[Kevin's girl]

Looking up into the center dome

 

Closer detail

 

Inside the other domes

 

 

 

[Kevin's girl]

The alters and the artwork there:

 

 

 

[Kevin's girl]

Our tour complete, we went outside for a final look and then on our way.

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow I will continue with day six and Saint Isaac’s Cathedral, a hydrofoil ride and the Peterhof. Goodnight everyone.

[campbell51]

Thanks kftw and campbell51 for the words of encouragement. I really appreciate you taking the time to read and comment. The review is taking me much longer to get done than I thought it would. It's nice to know I haven't lost everyone :)

 

Planning on doing this itinerary in 2016 so I am following your review with great interest. Once again you are doing a great job.

[Kevin's girl]

Planning on doing this itinerary in 2016 so I am following your review with great interest. Once again you are doing a great job.

You are going to love this itinerary. There is so much to do and see in these ports. I would do it again.

[Kevin's girl]

In planning for Russia and for this cruise in general I had read many warnings of pickpockets. There were specific warnings for St Petersburg. It reminded me of the warnings we had received years back before a trip to France. At that time we bought and used a money wallet. The one we chose was of soft cotton with a place for passports and a separate place for money. Given the fact that passports were necessary each time we entered through the port in Russia and as we went through customs on our later day trip to Paris one of us wore the money wallet under our clothes to store cash and required ID. Irina noticed us using the wallet during our days with her and commented on what a good idea it was. You can see it in some of the photos of us.

 

On to Saint Isaac’s Cathedral, along the Nevsky Prospect.

 

 

 

The entrance to St Isaac’s Cathedral

 

 

 

Our first look inside

 

 

The alter

 

[cruising twosome]

We took this cruise a couple of years ago and also used TJ's, we loved them and the cruise was amazing! Thank you for the memories.

[Kevin's girl]

We took this cruise a couple of years ago and also used TJ's, we loved them and the cruise was amazing! Thank you for the memories.

You're welcome. TJ really gave us an experience to remember. They were just amazing.

[kftw]

Still here & still enjoying your review. Looking forward to your next installment.

[Kevin's girl]

kftw, I'm so glad you are still hanging with me. Here comes the next installment.

 

As we walked around inside the cathedral, I kept taking pics of the beautiful artwork. My DH, of course kept saying “It’s a chuuurrrch” (please remember the church-beer ratio rule we had agreed on back in Tallinn). There had been no beer today (nor lunch for that matter) and this was the second church.

 

St Isaac’s really is pretty, not jaw dropping like Spilled Blood, but pretty.

 

As we went along I was taking more photos of the ceilings

 

 

and Irina told me I needed to stand on the spot on the floor and look straight up.

 

 

I found the literal spot, and looked straight up

 

 

Here in the absolute center, is a Peace Dove

 

More of the ceilings

 

OK, CC says limit of six photos per post, so I will stop here with St Isaac’s Cathedral. As I had mentioned we had been touring for hours now and really needed some lunch. We had a quick conversation about what sort of lunch we wanted. We told Irina that we wanted a typical Russian lunch. The kind of place a working person would do during a lunch break. This was a perk of having a private tour. She smiled and said she had the perfect little place. We ran into a small café type place where you went up to the counter and ordered and (being able to see your choices behind the glass counter). My DH really wanted to try Borscht and I had read about the savory pies in Russia, so these were our choices. It was a very tasty lunch. It seems that this was one time I failed to take a photo. I could have sworn it did, but I have nothing. I will blame the lack of food porn on the fact that I was STARVING at this point. I will tell you that the food was very good.

Edited November 2, 2014 by Kevin's girl

[Kevin's girl]

After lunch we headed down to the Neva River to catch the hydrofoil to the Peterhof. The weather was getting worse and I was afraid they would cancel the hydrofoil ride and we would have to go by car. This was warned in the TJ tour documentation. I really wanted to ride the hydrofoil.

We arrived at the pier and boarded quickly as it was raining pretty hard. I didn’t take any photos prior to boarding as I was trying to run and protect my camera. Here are a few pics from after we boarded.

 

 

The pier is right across the street from the Hermitage.

 

 

It was a great perspective seeing the city from the water. Not to mention an exciting prequel to our river/canal tour we have coming up in the evening, more on that late.

 

The Peter and Paul Fortress. I would have loved a tour here. I think I would have opted to skip St Isaac’s if we could have gone in here. It is the original citadel of Saint Petersburg. The cathedral here is the burial place of all Russian tsars from Peter I to Alexander II except for Peter II and Ivan VI. The remains of Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and their five children and also buried here.

 

Inside our hydrofoil

 

Our ship fueling up as we get underway.

 

The ride does take something like 45 minutes so Irina and Kevin nodded off for a while. I was so excited I had a hard time napping, but just as I did nod off there was this loud noise and I woke to this sight

 

 

Yep rain so hard you couldn’t see out the windows. I was amazed that we never felt a wave. The boat did have to slow down, but it stayed smooth as glass.

[Kevin's girl]

Once we arrived at the Peterhof we made a dash for the little coffee shop to wait out the worst of the storm. Irina and I had coffee and Kevin tried out a couple local brews. We sat talking about family and home life in our countries. It seemed a treat to get to know each other and talk as friends. This was a personal touch you just don’t get in large group tours.

 

A quick look at the pier, as we went running down to get out of the rain.

 

As soon as the rain stopped we followed the path back to the main path leading to and from the Peterhof.

 

Looking back towards the water and the pier we came in on.

 

And looking up the way to the Peterhof.

 

Our tour included only the gardens and not the inside of the Peterhof. I think you could surely spend an entire day here if you were to see it all. The gardens were amazing.

 

 

Looking back over the little bridge, you can see one of the small fountains with the path to the coffee shop in the background.

[Kevin's girl]

 

 

The parks and the fountains here are just beautiful. I could wander out here for hours and not see it all.

 

 

 

 

[Kevin's girl]

 

 

Chess Hill or Dragon’s Hill Cascade

 

There are also a few fountains that are just plain fun and anyone with a sense of humor will get in and play. I just could not resist

 

The first fun fountain is Umbrella Fountain

 

 

The next was Oak Trick Fountain. This one seems to be triggered by stepping on the wrong stone and getting strayed, there is however a man in hiding and he turns the sprays on the unsuspecting people.

 

I did have fun playing in the water.

[Kevin's girl]

Feeling very tired and coming to the end of the gardens we bid farewell to the Peterhof.

 

 

 

 

[lemonade-sails]

Thank you for sharing your trip with us! Your pictures are great and I am enjoying it!