St. Petersburg

I woke up at 4:30 this morning full of excitement about St. Petersburg, and I couldn't go back to sleep. We had set the alarm clock for 5:30 am because we love to watch the ship come into a port.  You can see a lot of the area and city that you will never see flying into a country.  The pilot boarded the ship at 4:00 am, and by 5:15, we were out on a cold bow of the ship with a handful of other people.  It was still dark, and the clouds really never allowed us to see a sunrise, but we did see the lights of the city and the nearby area as we closed in on the port.  The captain eased the ship through a narrow passage of islands as we came into what was a continuing branch of rivers. (Thank goodness for the pilot)

We were all called to pick up our passports, and then called to head out on trips.  Russia was an anomaly (in many ways) for a visa.  If you wanted to only go on Semester at Sea sponsored trips and never get off the ship any other time, a visa was not required, BUT you couldn't explore on your own. On the other hand, if you wanted to get a VISA, it was pretty pricey.  About 40 percent of the voyagers chose to get a visa, and the rest of us signed up for many trips that guaranteed you would not get lost.  So, we chose a popular trip that met at 8:30 am--the river voyage city exploration. We were met by a bus and guide and headed out to meet an open boat on a chilly morning.  It was great, unless you hadn't really dressed for it.  What followed was a tour by water of a city that is in its entirety a World Heritage Site.  I'll just post some pictures without any narrative since I can't really label them yet without a guidebook. I do know that many of them were palaces of Russian royalty through the ages.  Many of those royalty were killed in their homes during coupes or insurrections.

The students were taking some great selfies, of course.

In the afternoon, we went on a walking tour and market tour.  We saw some  of the same places on the drive over, but we got out into the everyday life of the citizens (well not all 7,000,000)

Here are a few shots with the first one starting at the National Library of Russia.

And just in case anyone is inclined to feel sorry for me because I don't have a visa and am not out on the town.  Here is my view from where I am typing, and I have live rock music coming from the festival next to the ship. BTW, I've offered a $5 reward to anyone who can get an immigration official to smile.