FUN-travel: Saint Petersburg – Day 11 – Uniworld River Cruise
July 17, 2014 by Susan Clarke
Day 13 – Sunday, July 13 – St. Petersburg – blue skies w/high, wispy clouds – low 80’s
Inside the Hermitage
Inside the Hermitage
What I LIKE
- 6:45 – cappuccino
- 8:30 – bus departs
- 9:00 – 1st stop – St. Isaak’s Cathedral
- – adorned w/112 granite columns
- – 400 reliefs & bronze sculptures
- 9:20 – 2nd stop – The Hermitage – originally the winter palace
- – contains one of the world’s largest collections of art
- – 5 buildings w/3 million works
- – from Stone Age to contemporary
- – all paintings removed & hidden during WW2
- – was told it would take 6 yrs to see everything if you spent 1 min @ ea
- 9:50 – ticket entrance time
- Line wraps around building
- 10:30 – finally get inside
- 11:30 – go outside to take pictures
- 7:00 – Captains Farewell Reception
- 7:30 – dinner once again better than average
- Tenderloin & tasty dough w/meat inside & cream sauce
What I DON’T LIKE
- More hurry up & wait in line
- Hermitage is packed like sardines w/tour groups!
- Every ship in port has multiple groups
- Can’t even begin to really see the art
- Totally miss seeing the Impressionists
- Total waste of time & big disappointment!
- Sunday & Tuesday are busiest days
- – so why did this not get scheduled on Saturday?
St. Isaak’s
FUN-fact – St. Petersburg is located just 500 miles south of the Arctic Circle and for a few weeks each summer they celebrate the “white nights.”
Not so FF – That means essentially the sun never sets and is brutal if you want to sleep in darkness.
The Operahouse