Cruise Day 5 St Petersburg part 1

An early start in order to get through passport control. We had been warned that this would be slow compared to our other ports of call - and it was. Nowhere near as bad as the British were at Gatwick though. We were in a small tour party of 8, with a guide and a driver for the minivan. It was too early for the museums to be open so we drove around the city with commentary from our guide and several stops for photographing. Then it was time to go on a hydrofoil boat ride to the summer palace of Peter the Great. Besides being an impressive palace looking out onto the Gulf of Finland, this is famous for its garden of fountains. It is hard to say which is the greater wonder - that these were built in the first place or the amount of effort that has gone into restoring them. Some of this apparently involved hiding and even burying major artworks from invading powers. And being fountains this is a dynamic display that no photographs will do due justice. It would have been interesting to be there on a quiet day (surely a fantasy concept judging from the tourist numbers) in order for some of the surprise fountains to be truly that. Instead, throngs of tourists and laughter made the location of these quite apparent. The weather turned delightful while we were there, sunshine adding to the charm and to the glint of gilded statuary. I can't imagine how it fares in Winter. From Peter's summer palace we drove out to Catherine's palace, which is further inland. Whereas we'd only walked the grounds/gardens/fountains of Peter's palace, this time was the reverse with focus on the restored interiors. And what a wonder it was! The scale of the palace is jaw-dropping. Ignoring the bare facts of it all the effect is to give the reality to words "imperial" and "majesty". Especially notable were the hall of light and the Amber Room. In the latter all photography was forbidden, with steely-eyed Russian mamas on guard. The scale of restoration achieved is staggering and yet the whole palace can probably never be completed. In the lower floor passages were the pre-war historical photos from which they have worked as well as ones of the devastation by war's end. It is clear that Russians also enjoy visiting these parts of their history - the Empress' palace is clearly popular for wedding photos. Part of the restoration feature is having various rooms returned to the style of different empresses: baroque for Empress Elizabeth, classical for Empress Catherine the Great. We were driven back to St Petersburg, with some more drive-bys of famous places (e.g. the invention of Beef Stroganov, the murder of Rasputin) before returning to the ship. General impressions of St Petersburg: a barely believable collection of historic baroque/classical buildings in the central area. Many of these buildings are in partial or full restoration cladding. On the other hand there are many buildings that have cranes as if under construction but also appear to have nothing actually happening. Could it be that there are many stalled projects here?