Across the Baltic Sea to Saint Petersburg

I’ve wanted to visit Saint Petersburg for quite some time – I’ve seen the city when it was called Leningrad, quite some time ago, and was quite looking forward to seeing how it had changed over the years since the fall of the Soviet Union. Normally, visiting Russia is rather complicated due to the difficulty and hassle involved in getting a Visa, but from Helsinki, it’s possible to visit Saint Petersburg for up to 3 days without a Visa, if you go on a Peter Line cruise. So, we were very grateful when my parents gave us this trip as a birthday present!

The ferry trip was very reminiscent of the ferry trips I used to take to Sweden in my youth, except with a Russian touch. The buffet meal was similar as I recall them on the “Sweden boats” – except that they also serve blinis, and a glass of Russian sparkling wine (Le Compliment!) and vodka as well. The singing at the karaoke bar is about as bad as I can remember, the performances in the bars are still pretty tacky and the booze in the tax-free shop still dirt cheap (the best value I found was 1 liter of 70% vodka for 5 euros!). So, in short, it’s still a brilliant trip, one that everybody should experience at least once in their lives ;-).

We arrived in the morning, and after a surprisingly pain-free border control, took the shuttle bus down to our hotel, Sokos Hotel Vasilievsky, located at Vasilievsky Island (which makes it pretty central). The hotel was very classy indeed – but rather than lingering, we headed out to explore the city. We’d agreed to start with the big kahuna, meaning the Hermitage museum. The stroll over to the museum was a pretty scenic one, following the Neva River, with some splendid views across the river. The Hermitage museum, located in the Winter Palace, is also a sight to see – a truly grandiose building. The queuing was less fun – we spent about an hour and a half in the queue… (so looks like at least that aspect of the “old regime” seems to be alive and well…).

The museum was worth the queuing though. I would say the Hermitage is one of the absolutely best museums in the world – right up there with the Louvre and the British Museum. The size of the place is intimidating, we spent about 4 hours there and only managed to cover the must-see masterpieces (and not even all of those). We were especially impressed with the French Impressionist collection at the top floor, but I also enjoyed the Rembrandt paintings a lot. Some halls of the winter palace have been left the way they were – and are pretty darn impressive as well. So, to summarize then, it’s a real gem of a museum.

We decided to have dinner at the hotel, and even though it’s not the sort of thing I usually enjoy (I find hotel restaurants are quite often overpriced and rather impersonal places) – but in this case it was an excellent choice. We all had a pretty traditional Russian meal, and it was excellent, no complaints at all. I had a borscht, followed by beef stroganoff. Exquisite.

The next day, we decided to visit another must attraction near Saint Petersburg, Peterhof. Peterhof is sometimes known as the Russian Versailles, and with good reason. We decided to do the visit as an organized tour, and I reckon it was a pretty good choice. Our guide, Natasha, was really excellent and knowledgeable. The bus ride to Peterhof itself was quite interesting as well (the palace is located some 20 kilometers outside Saint Petersburg) – taking us past some other palaces (including one presidential residence). In general, we were quite surprised about how tidy and well-maintained the area was in general.

Peterhof was built, like Saint Petersburg, by Peter the Great (apparently he measured 2 meters 10, so he was literally quite great). The palace itself looks rather imposing from the outside, but is in fact quite small (compared to Versailles, anyway). But the interior is, of course, hugely impressive. Actually, the fact that the place isn’t overly large makes the visit somewhat manageable…

The gardens are what Peterhof is famous for – and for good reason. These do rival those of Versailles in grandeur and beauty. We spent a good hour and a half walking around, checking out the various buildings, fountains and so forth. Seems that Peter the Great was a bit of a joker (or, some might say, mad) – he installed plenty of hidden fountains in the gardens, giving him ample opportunities to make fun of pompous nobles and other notables. Good fun for tourists these days as well ;-).

So, I guess you get the grist – a truly magnificent place, well worth visiting.

We spent the evening wandering around Saint Petersburg. The sun even peeked out , which was a nice development after the somewhat dodgy weather we’d had so far. The rather good impression we had of Saint Petersburg got better as we walked around – the place truly is beautiful. There are few cities in Europe that are so harmonious architecturally speaking, and the city is very tidy and well maintained these days. The canals that criss-cross the city also add to its charm – it’s a surprisingly pedestrian-friendly city.

We crossed quite a few of the famous landmarks, including Nevsky Prospect (the main shopping street of Saint Petersburg – which also houses the biggest shopping centre in Saint Petesburg, the Gostinyi dvor, which measures and astounding 53,000 square meters), quite a few of the churches (including the splendid Church of the Saviour on Blood), The Peter and Paul Fortress (which is basically where the city was founded in 1703) and then back to Vasilievsky Island, where we were meeting up for dinner.

For dinner, we had chosen a traditional Russian restaurant from our Guide de Routard, rather unimaginatively called “Restorant”. Not to worry, the food was again rather excellent. The ambience was also very Russian indeed, with somewhat inefficient and not perhaps the most polite service we’ve experienced, and with some guy reciting Russian poetry at the neighboring table. Again, the food was really excellent! I started with some bilinis, and had some excellent game for main course.

We still until late afternoon to explore the city on Thursday, before it was time to get back on the boat, so we headed out early for our promenade. We really enjoyed the walk, following along canals again, and were happy about the continued sunny weather as well. After criss-crossing the city for a few hours in the morning, we finally arrived at the Fontanka canal (well, actually it’s a river branching off the Neva), the most famous of the cities canals. From there, we took the famous Saint Petersburg canal boat tour, another of the city’s many “must do” experiences. I’m not always a fan of these canal rides, but in our case, there were few people on the boat, and Saint Petersburg is just really beautiful seen from the canals.

After our canal ride, we still had time to visit the magnificent Church of the Saviour on Blood – which looks a bit like a more impressive version of the Uspenski cathedral in Helsinki. The interior of the church, which was built to commemorate the life of Alexander the Second, is as impressive as the exterior – nearly over-the-top. Good to see the Russians have managed to restore this church to its former glory – it saw use as a potato warehouse during Communist times and was probably in quite a sad state when the restoration works started….

We were quite sad to catch the ferry back to Helsinki, since it felt there was so much more to see in Saint Petersburg. Oh well, next time I suppose. That is the mark of a truly world-class city, I suppose, when you get the feeling of having only scratched the surface of the place during the first visit… Say what you will about Russian society, politics and their president (who comes from Saint Petersburg), but Saint Petersburg is a world-class tourist destination that everybody should visit!