Welcome to St. Petersburg

Welcome to Russia!
Bear with me - I have six posts for St. Petersburg alone.
To get off the boat and see anything, you either need a Visa (more paperwork and $$) or you can get sponsored by tours for the time that you are there. The latter was our preferred method. We chose to join a non-cruise-sponsored tour which meant a smaller group. There were 17 of us - most from another boat that was ashore. We had a lovely, knowledgeable guide and an able driver! And we completely lucked out with our group - super nice, considerate people.

I must say that I was nervous to go through passport control but it was no problemo.

Here is Viktoria - "Vika" - our tour guide.
I still can't believe how much knowledge she shared with us.
And, I am so incredibly glad I read "Peter the Great" before I went.
Not a requirement but put a lot of stuff in context for me.
I tried to take notes but quit after about 7 minutes.
Just too hard to keep track of it all.

One of our shopping stops. I believe the author lived near here or something because there was a restaurant around the corner from this shop called "The Idiot".

We took a short hydrofoil ride over to Peterhof which is a huge complex of summer palaces.
We got there just as the national anthem was playing and the fountains turned on.
Samson slaying the lion represents Russia slaying Sweden.

This is a huge area with lots of smaller palaces, gardens, fountains.
Very popular with the locals on a nice day.
Below is a statue/fountain of Adam.
Eve is on the opposite side.

Heading to their locale for photo opps.

Peter the Great was a definite prankster. He built this trick fountain for when his guests wanted a breath of fresh air during a royal ball. They'd sit on the bench and then all of a sudden water would come out of it. Or they'd step on the special rock and the water would spurt higher.

More of the complex.
I can't get over how shiny the towers are.