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Rick Steves' Best of St. Petersburg, Tallinn & Helsinki in 9 Days Tour
After a train ride from Helsinki to St Petersburg, we are in Russia! The climax of this trip and a huge bucket list item for me. Double headed eagles! Signs in Cyrillic! We’re here!
We started our Russian adventure in the birthplace of St Petersburg, Peter and Paul Fortress. This is where Peter the Great founded the city in 1703. You can see the gold spire from all over the city. We headed into the cathedral, which is the final resting place of the Romanov dynasty, which ruled Russia from 1613 through 1917. Even Peter the Great is buried here - this relatively small building truly houses hundreds of years of Romanovs. White marble tombs mark their graves and there is a special room set aside for Tsar Nicholas II and his family. Anastasia (of rampant public interest) is also buried here. Let’s just say, my mom was a great sport (“See that’s Dagmar, she was Nicholas II’s mother and Alexander III’s wife,” “Okay, do you remember Catherine the Great, this is her,” “See the double headed eagle?!”). We were treated to a special concert of Russian songs, the acoustics were simply phenomenal. These special extras are truly what differentiates Rick Steves tours!
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While I can honestly say my heart dropped a little bit to see the restoration in progress, our next stop at the Church on the Spilled Blood simply took my breath away. It is built on the place where a revolutionary assassinated Tsar Alexander II in 1881, in fact you can still see the cobblestones where he lay after the bomb exploded under his carriage. I was struck by the mosaics, it was one of the most unique churches I have ever seen. The scale is amazing and this history buff just couldn’t get over the fact that I was actually there.
Across the street I was amused to see Russia 2018 World Cup signs still prominently displayed.
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St. Petersburg: Gallery
We finished the long day at the hotel restaurant, with another fantastic performance of Russian folk music and some vodka tasting.
There is something so special about learning about another culture's music and folklore. Before TVs and Netflix and all of the other entertainment options, people around the world had fun and entertained themselves and their families through song and dance. While I've seriously enjoyed the musical performances in Rick Steves tours, seeing dancing included in this performance was the cherry on top!
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I don’t think words can do this day justice. The Winter Palace! The Hermitage Museum! Hundreds of years of Russian culture and might! I visited Versailles in 2017 and expected to see a similar mass of people in the Hermitage. Nope. It was practically empty. Our early entrance tickets courtesy of the amazing planning helped, but some of it was sheer luck. I was stunned by the tour (largely because this was how the Romanovs wanted visitors to feel!).
As we made our way towards the entrance, we passed a sign for "cats crossing." You'll have to make your way to the Hermitage to hear the story behind that!
We explored the throne rooms, the War Gallery of 1812, Pavilion Hall, the Raphael Loggia and Majolica Room, and the Rembrandt room almost alone. The throne room was magnificent. The floors! The opulent decor! Like I said, words can’t really do it justice. An experience I will treasure forever.
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St. Petersburg: Gallery
After lunch, Mom and I decided to do the majority of the Rick Steves self-guided Nevsky Prospekt walk and check out the Russian Museum before meeting the Gs for dinner and a ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre II. We started out in the Palace Square (home to the Winter Palace and quite literally 3 blocks from our hotel). It was incredible thinking back to Tallinn, the entire Old Town of Tallinn would fit in the Palace Square!
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We passed a moving memorial to the Siege of Leningrad. In September 1941, Nazi forces bombarded Leningrad (aka St. Petersburg) for over 870 days. This memorial commemorates the million people who perished during the siege.
We also passed the delightful Singer House, imposing Kazan Cathedral, and Alexander Pushkin statue on our way to the Russian Museum. The main entrance was closed due to construction, but we rolled with the punches and found our way to the new entrance. This was a stop I was really interested in since most of the Russian painters are unknown to Westerners - what a great opportunity to learn more about Russia through the eyes of its great artists. We did the Rick Steves self-guided tour and seriously enjoyed it! We could have spent another hour here, at least. But it was time to head back towards our hotel for dinner before we saw another type of great Russian art - the ballet! The Mariinsky Theater is one of the most famous venues in the world and has seen the likes of Anna Pavlova and Tamara Karsavina pirouette through its halls. While ballet did not originate in Russia, it’s impact on the dance cannot be overstated. It was a no-brainer that we would see a ballet while in St Petersburg. Unfortunately, the ballet that worked with our itinerary was performed in the Mariinsky II opera house. But it was hard to be disappointed with the opportunity to see Anna Karenina, not a classical ballet but a modern look at a grand Russian tragedy.
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We started the next day on the bus headed to Tsarskoe Selo to see the Catherine Palace. On our way we stopped at the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad. As you drive out of the city via a grand boulevard, it is impossible to miss this monument. Even as a self-proclaimed Russian history buff, I did not know much about the Siege of Leningrad, the “Battle of 900 Days.” The Nazis blockaded the city and blocked supplies, electricity, running water, and more from the city. Bombings destroyed parts of the city, killing civilians. Almost one MILLION people perished. This monument was an incredibly moving reminder that, despite the propaganda wars of the Cold War, in World War II, the Russians fought valiantly against the Nazis and paid dearly.
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Next up, Tsarskoe Selo and the Catherine Palace, what I’ve been waiting for this entire trip! Originally built by Peter the Great (as in, St. Petersburg) for his wife, Catherine I (as in Catherine Palace). Walking in today, almost nothing is original - between the builds and rebuilds and renovations and destruction caused by World War II, but that doesn’t detract even a little bit from the experience. The highlight of the walking tour was certainly the Amber Room - unfortunately the original amber was stolen by the Nazis. The rest of the opulent interior was splendid. We marveled at the delft porcelain heaters and the airy ballrooms. The tour also included a walk through the English garden, and we actually happened upon a local school’s fashion show! The weather was truly perfect and it was easy to imagine Catherine the Great and her dogs wandering through the garden.
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It's called fashion, sweetie, look it up!
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St. Petersburg: Gallery
After our return from Tsarskoe Selo, we decided to enjoy happy hour on the roof of the Kempinski Hotel, a short walk from our hotel. The rooftop views of St Petersburg were spectacular - the Church on the Spilled Blood, the Palace Square, Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral, oh my! Even though we were warned that it was pretty pricey, we were impressed by the prices. Next up, Grampy led us to Hamlet + Jack’s for dinner, one of George’s recommendations. Delicious! As we walked back to our hotel, we were amazed at the crowds of people gathering for the Scarlet Sails festival, a celebration for graduating seniors. A concert, ships sailing down the Neva, and fireworks drew students and their families (and seriously clogged the streets). It was so fun to see such an iconic cultural event!
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Our last full day’s event was a walking tour of Saint Petersburg, one of my favorite ways to explore a new city! We crossed the Neva to explore the Vasileostrovsky District. Peter, our tour guide, was fantastic! I enjoyed walking along the river and was intrigued by the posts poking through the asphalt. It is easy to forget that Peter the Great built the city essentially on a swamp. As with all destinations, studying up beforehand can make the trip more enjoyable. I certainly appreciated my pre-trip reading when I impressed our guide with my knowledge of Catherine the Great’s illegitimate children, obscure facts DO come in handy sometimes. Another fascinating part of the tour was passing by the house where the legendary mystic Rasputin died. A looming figure in the Romanov saga, it is sometimes easy for me to forget that he was an actual, live person, not just an animated villain in a children’s movie.
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St. Petersburg: Gallery
The tour ended at St. Isaac’s Cathedral, a U.S. Capitol-esque building, that has been a museum since Soviet times. The interior is truly massive. It was fascinating to explore the huge nave and the looming iconostasis. We had tickets to the Faberge Museum afterwards, so we started to head that way.
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Taxis are notorious in St Petersburg, so the locals use an uber-esque app to order cars. Our guide offered to book a car for us (you pay the pre-set fee in cash at the end of the ride), which was incredibly convenient! Take note for when you take this tour, we had luck with multiple locals generously booking cars for us.
The Faberge Museum was spectacular. We viewed 14 of Faberge’s eggs, created for the last two Romanov tsars and their families. This was another place where a working knowledge of Russian history really improved my experience - my family may or may not agree that it was a perk ;) Even if you are a casual museum-goer, it is so interesting to see how the eggs became increasingly sumptuous as the years passed. Knowing it was our last evening in the city, I dragged my mom to see the iconic Bronze Horseman, a statue of Peter the Great commissioned by Catherine the Great. A gift in honor of one of the most influential Romanovs to another.
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We concluded the tour with a boat tour of the Neva, passing many of the iconic sights we explored on foot. The Winter Palace is even more impressive from the water! George brought celebratory champagne and we toasted our new friends and fantastic Baltic adventure. Our final dinner at a nearby Georgian restaurant was the perfect end to a once in a lifetime trip. Dosvedanya!
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