Day 8: St. Petersburg, Russia

To our pleasant surprise, there was no waiting in line today! Got off the ship around 8:20am for our 9am tour and breezed right through passport control. Took some photos of the cruise terminal while waiting for our tour bus and guide.

Cruise terminal after passing through passport control

Refreshment stand inside cruise terminal 

ATM inside cruise terminal

9:30am - 12pm: Stopped by the tour office first for payment and continued on to the Hermitage. At the entrance to the Hermitage, there was a line of about 100 people with Princess signs waiting to get inside. Our tour guide got our tickets, spoke Russian to someone at the door, and cut in front of the line to get inside. That in itself was worth the price of the tour. Walked through the four main buildings: The Winter Palace, The Great Hermitage, The Small Hermitage and the New Hermitage.

At the end of the tour, we came out to Palace Square.

Since you can't bring any liquids inside the Hermitage, you're probably very thirsty after 3 hours of walking. This is what you can buy at the square. A little over $2 for a bottle of coke. Not too bad.

12pm - 1pm: Bus parked at Konyushennaya Square. One side of the street is lined with restaurants. The ones we passed served American, Italian and Asian cuisine. Decided to have lunch at 22-13 restaurant since our guide said they serve traditional Russian food.

Pelmeni: dumpling filled with minced meat. Served with sour cream on the side.

1pm - 2pm: Inside guided tour of the Church of the Spilt Blood.

2pm - 3pm: Inside guided tour of St. Isaac’s Cathedral

3:30pm: Back to cruise terminal. No waiting in line this time. The later tour groups were not so lucky. Around 5pm, there was a long line outside the terminal.

Our tour group. There were 11 in our group - almost like being in a private tour.

Ajtan, our tour guide. She was very good.

Our tour bus. Very comfortable

Overall, my impression of St. Petersburg was very favorable. The city was a lot better than I expected. The city was relatively clean, the public bathrooms we used were also clean, and the prices were reasonable. We were warned by our tour guide to beware of pickpockets in crowded areas but I did not feel any sense of insecurity in the areas we visited. It also helped being part of an organized tour as we didn't have to fall in line in any of the sites we visited. St. Petersburg was definitely the highlight of this cruise!