We always enjoy being on the ship, so we've included a few pictures of our favorite ship board activities. We both enjoyed the Crow's Nest bar on the top level of the ship. Beautiful views, comfy chairs and good drinks. We also enjoyed going to high tea at 3 pm some days on board. This particular day was Thai tea with Thai treats and teas.
 
 Our two days in St Petersburg, Russia, really kick-started the tour portion of our trip . We signed up for a two-day tour of St Petersburg with Alla Tours, and it was a great way to see this fascinating Russian city. Actually, taking a tour is really the only way to see St Petersburg as tourists cannot go ashore without a visa, and the tour company arranged that for us. Our tour guide, Polina, was very knowledgeable, spoke excellent English, and explained what we were seeing so we could appreciate the history and stories behind the sights. We spent two very long days from early morning to evening, exploring and learning about Russian history.  

 Day 1 began with a city bus tour and a stop at a subway station that had a couple of significant features. Because the River Neva runs throughout the city, the subways have to be deep enough to travel underneath the river. The escalator we took to the subway station was 390 ft. long straight down, the length of a 39 story building! The station we visited was beautifully decorated with mosaic murals, marble walls and granite pillars . 

 After seeing how the ordinary working people get to work on the subway, we visited the Yusupov Palace where Gregory Rasputin was assassinated and saw the wax figures portraying the assassins and Rasputin in the exact spots where the killing took place. We weren't allowed to take photos here, so there are no pictures of the Yusupov Palace.

We then drove to the Peterhof Palace, built by Peter the Great, to see the magnificent gardens and fountains. These gardens are even more magnificent than Versailles' gardens, and we marveled at the many spring-fed fountains. In the afternoon we visited three churches. 

 The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood is an amazing building built on the site of the March 1881 murder of Emperor Alexander II. It’s a colorful building with multiple minarets and turrets and covered in mosaics. Next, we went to St. Isaac Cathedral, a white marble and gold building with malachite columns that houses fabulous mosaics of religious scenes . 

 The final excursion of the day was to the St. Peter and Paul Fortress, the original site of St. Petersburg. While it looks much like a military fortress, we went to see the Cathedral there where many of Russia’s emperors are buried, beginning with Peter the Great and ending with Nicholas II. Of particular interest was the small room where the last royal family of Russia were buried in 1998 after their remains were positively identified by DNA testing. The last Russian Tsar, his wife and five children were killed during the Russian Revolution in 1917. After a quick stop for some shopping and vodka tasting, we arrived back at the ship, tired but happy.

Our second day in St. Petersburg began even earlier at 7:30 am with a boat ride through the city’s canals and rivers. Did you know St. Petersburg is called the "Venice of the North"? Many canals and rivers wind throughout the city as it is built on multiple islands connected by bridges . We had views of many of the 500 palaces that still exist in the city and are very well maintained and used for different purposes by private and governmental offices.  

 After the boat tour, we visited the Hermitage Museum, one of the five largest art museums in the world and home to many rare works of art including pieces by DaVinci, Rembrandt, and Michelangelo, as well as many other artists. The Hermitage used to be royal palace and the building itself is so fabulous and decorated with gold gilt. Cory took many pictures of this place!

 After lunch at a beautiful restaurant, we spent the afternoon at the Catherine Palace, probably the most baroque palace I’ve ever seen. The daughter of Peter the Great, Elizabeth I, loved gold and white and decorated every bit of carving in the palace with gold leaf. It’s impressive and more than a little over-the-top. We also saw the Amber Room in the palace where the walls are entirely covered with mosaics made of amber. Quite extravagant. St. Petersburg is a beautiful city, and I was surprised at how much money and effort has gone into restoring and preserving its architecture and heritage.