St Petersburg - St. Isaac’s Cathedral

St. Isaac’s Cathedral was designed by the French architect Auguste Montferrand and built between 1818 and 1858. The massive dome is covered with 220 pounds of pure gold and is the 4th largest cupola in the world (after Vatican, Florence, St Paul’s in London). The large exterior columns are made of single pieces of red granite. The interior columns are made of malachite and lapis lazuli. The church was designed to accommodate 14,000 standing worshipers but is now only used as a church on major religious occasions.

St Petersburg - Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood

This church was built on the site of the March 1, 1881 assassination of Tsar Alexander II whose radical reforms, including freeing the serfs, did not sit well with his enemies. This church took 25 yers to restore (it only took 20 years to build originally) and was reopened in 1996. The façade is lined with ceramic tiles and colored glazed bricks and there are 1,000 square meters of mosaics.

I LOVED this church, not only for its colorful exterior but for the amazing mosaic murals. I took 2 close-ups of the mosaics and then many pictures of the murals themselves.

St Petersburg - Peter and Paul Fortress and Cathedral

After Lunch of Stollis (meat, spring onion & egg, whortleberry which we suspect is cranberry), Cabbage soup, and Tinkoff beer we visited the Peter and Paul Fortress and Cathedral.


This fortress was originally built to protect the city from Swedish attack, but soon became a place for imprisoning political prisoners - including Peter the Great’s own son. Inside are the tombs (some jasper and carrera marble) of many Tsars and Tsarinas, including Peter the Great and Catherine the Great.

St Petersburg - City Drive & Catherine Palace

We were greeted by a band as we walked off the ship. Julia from Denrus met us and began an intense two day tour of St Petersburg for our group of 6. On our way to Catherine Palace at Pushkin, Julia pointed out many sights. We made a quick stop to St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral (no pictures) where I bought an icon of Saint Panteleimon, Patron of physicians and medicine.

We finally reached the opulant Catherine Palace and were in awe. The palace was designed by Rastrelli in the baroque style. It is over 1000 feet long, features an ornate blue facade, and is set in over 1400 acres of manicured lawn. I had to take 6 shots of the front to get a full panorama.

Julia loved to tell us that Catherine the Great died at age 67 after a "night of love". It was her husband Peter III who inherited the throne but he was weak and Catherine's supporters thought it best if she took over. The fact that she ruled until she died of natural causes (stroke) was testimony to her cunning as many of the royal family members were assassinated over the centuries.


We were brought through a serious of fabulous rooms including the Grand Hall with Delft China fireplaces, the Green Room, the Amber Room, the Portrait Hall, the Crimson Pilaster Room and more. 3 of 10 remaining Meisen snowball china vases are in Catherine palace. The Amber Room (no pictures) we saw was reconstructed in 2003. The original panels were "hidden" and then "lost" during the invasion of Leningrad (now St Petersburg) during WW II. I enjoyed the table of gold wall decoration being restored.

We were too overwhelmed by Catherine Palace to remember many of the sights Julia pointed out on the drive back to St Petersburg. My notes say we saw:
- Former mansions of the Russian nobility
- Bronze Horseman in Decembrists' Square
- War Memorial
- Mariinsky Palace
- Former Stock Exchange Building and Rostral Column

Stockholm - Steve Bloom, Under the Bridges & Gamla Stan

Our first stop was to view an outdoor wildlife photography exhibit by Steve Bloom. So many incredible animals, but our favorite was of an elephant swimming in the Andaman Sea.

Next we took an “Under the Bridges” sightseeing boat trip. Two locks separate freshwater Lake Malaren from the salty Baltic Sea. Stockholmers love to play in the water (we saw boaters, dock sunbathers, kayakers, summer homes, kids on plastic floats pulled behind motor boats) because you can swim without getting sick. Key sights included the Grand Hotel, National Museum, Wasamuseet, Light Ship, Skansen, Cranes painted to look like giraffes, City Hall and Riddarholmskyrkan (burial place for Swedish royalty).

After the boat tour, we walked to Gamla Stan. We passed a Royal Guard outside the Royal Palace. The view of the Great Church (Storkyrkan) is a famous landmark.

We visited the Nobel Museum that included a special exhibit of Winston Churchill's paintings. We came out of the museum to find a Blasmasters Big Band / Jazz (mix of teenagers and middleagers) concert in full play. Everyone was enjoying the fantastic music and weather. We admired the Great Square (Stortorget) Fountain from which all distances from Stockholm are measured and the golden organ pipes in the German Church (Tyska Kyrkan).

But even a mix of Chinese / Indian tea at Chaikhana did not give us enough energy to participate in the Stockholm late afternoon Half-Marathon event. It was back to the ship to relax and admire the archipelago on sail away.