Day 2 in St. Petersburg, Russia

Day 2 in St. Petersburg was spent in the city. Martina was to be our guide and some remarked that she was a pleasant change from Irina. We also liked Irina, though.

We first went to St. Isaac's Cathedral. When you see all the "onions" atop the building in the travel brochures, it's St. Isaac's. It's the world's third largest domed cathedral and took 40 years to build.

And, one would think from those travel brochures that all their buildings look like that. Far from it.

We weren't able to go inside, but spent much time taking photos.

St. Petersburg is known as the Venice of the North because it's built on many islands that are connected by many bridges.

After some souvenir shopping and lunch in a brewery, we visited the Hermitage Museum in the afternoon, which is housed in the green and white Winter Palace . It contains one of the world's most important art collections. This was once the tsar's family residence.

The crowds were almost overwhelming! Masses of humanity. When it came time to leave, we ended up with several more passengers on our bus than when we began the day. Separations happen in crowds that huge. One stray was a cruise ship escort who'd lost her group when she went to the ladies' room. Two other ladies had lost their group - and we tried to help a young woman who'd lost her Holland America cruise group. The bus drivers seemed more than willing to help get everyone where they needed to go, whether it was our ship or another one.

Times are not great, economically, in Russia these days. Unemployment is high and so are prices. In many cities our guides told us of immigrants who came looking for work that just wasn't there. The Euro is now worth approximately 1 1/3 times what the dollar is worth. It didn't make shopping very fun, that's for sure. We were told that Russian must-have souvenirs were the Matroyshka (I'm too lazy to go and look up the proper spelling) dolls that are stacked one inside the other inside the other inside the other, etc. They can range in price from a few Euro to thousands of Euro, depending upon the artistry of the maker. Also, the black enamel boxes, vodka, Faberge eggs (way out of our league) and other kinds of decorated eggs.

Back on board ship I headed down to the jewelry and gift shops area for the raffle drawing after dinner. The prize was a black enameled box made by an artist. And, I WON IT!!!!!! YAY!

The first sea day after St. Petersburg was Thursday, after our port day in Tallinn, Estonia, and it featured the 10,000 item Russian Bazaar shopping extravaganza. Igor advised all to get there at 8:30, as the doors opened officially at 9:00 A.M. I was there! So was the man who'd won the Faberge Christmas ornament a few nights earlier. We were the only 2 people there, so had a nice visit for the following half hour. He and his wife live in Florida - and commented that there are a lot of low-lifes moving into Florida these days as well.

We didn't buy much at the bazaar. Souvenirs for people back home mostly.