September
2 - 4, 2016
I have been dreaming about going to St.
Petersburg since I arrived in Moscow. Not that Moscow isn’t spectacular – it
most certainly is! But, St. Petersburg is different and a new chapter in my
Russian adventure so I was very excited that today was the day.
Since I over-packed (surprise surprise)
and didn’t want to haul my suitcase up and down stairs in the various metro
stations, I told the ladies that I would spring for a car from the Embassy and
we could arrive at the station in style. The traffic was very light for a
Friday afternoon so we arrived at the station without incident and our Embassy
driver escorted us to the correct gate so we wouldn’t get lost in Leningradsky
Station, the oldest of three stations on the same block!
Bags screened, we headed for our train
and grabbed our assigned seats. The fare includes a 2000 ruble ($40) budget for
food and drink that is useful when you are drinking lots of wine. We had a
light dinner washed down with copious amounts of passable red wine and still
had a few rubles left over for snacks and chocolate for later.
The “fast” train reaches speeds of up
to 220 km/hour but the ride is smooth and the four-hour ride flies by and we
are “finally” in St. Petersburg. We grabbed a cab from the stand and headed to the
hotel. We had secured rooms at the Belmond Grand Hotel Europe http://www.belmond.com/grand-hotel-europe-st-petersburg/?langredirect=true
for the weekend at a really good rate.
The hotel, the oldest in the city, is
perfectly located on the famous Nevsky Prospekt and truly Grand! Their smooth
check-in process is fueled by glasses of sparkling wine. After a quick trip to
our rooms to drop off our stuff, we headed out to explore our new
neighbourhood.
First its Arts Square where a monument
to the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin stands directly in front of the
State Russian Museum. Continuing along we are delighted by an older Russian
woman with the most amazing voice singing for spare change.
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| Pushkin |
Turning the corner, we see the Church
of the Spilled Blood for the first time. This beautiful church, on the Griboedov
Canal, was built on the site where Emperor Alexander II was fatally wounded by
an assassin in March 1881 in his memory by his family. Even in a country full
of beautiful cathedrals and churches, this church is a wonder! Maybe it is
because, the city was designed to be more European with its baroque and
neoclassical architecture and this majestic church is a celebration of medieval
Russian architecture; reminiscent of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. Either
way, it is simply awe-inspiring.
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| Church of the Spilled Blood |
There is a long line of boarded up
kiosks along the canal that will no doubt be hawking souvenirs to unsuspecting
tourists tomorrow but tonight there are just a few awestruck tourists, some
jaded locals and a young man playing a sitar; a perfect counterpoint to the
church’s quiet majesty.
Soon enough we continue on our journey
and after some window-shopping, we pop by a Georgian restaurant for a
“midnight” snack. We enjoyed the sampling platter and a “loaf” of Khachapuri
washed down with a bit more wine before heading back to the hotel.
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| Georgian Sampling Platter |
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| Georgian Cheese Bread - aka Khachapuri |
After a good night’s sleep, we fueled
up for the morning at the hotel’s gargantuan buffet whose offerings featured a
wide spectrum of food and beverages including the making for a morning mimosa;
sparkling wine and orange juice. Full to the point of bursting we headed to an
amber store that we had spied on our explorations around the hotel the night
before.
Wow! I have never seen so much amber in
one place before; there was likely something for everyone and with a very wide
range of prices. We browsed through the treasures and baubles for much more
than our allotted 30 minutes.
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| My new bling! |
We had booked a walking tour for 12:30
(Peter’s Food Tour http://peterswalk.com/food.html)
so we needed to get moving if we were going to explore any of the local sights
before our next meal. We also needed to burn off some of the calories from our
grazing at the breakfast buffet! The siren song of the souvenir shops continued
to distract us but we eventually made it to the end of the block and got our
first glimpse of the Kazan Cathedral which is dedicated to Our Lady of Kazan.
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| Kazan Cathedral |
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| Singer House |
We wanted to see the Church of the Spilled
Blood in the daylight so walked past the souvenir kiosks with only a few short
stops to peruse their wares and were rewarded with this spectacular sight.
Sadly, there was no time to go inside and explore as it was time to head back
to the hotel to meet our tour guide; Peter, the husband of a friend of one of
the locally-engaged staff at our embassy in Moscow.
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| Church of the Spilled Blood |
Peter had a very ambitious agenda for
the four hours but we lead him astray and added a few touristy things at the
front-end of the tour. We made a quick stop at the Great Gostiny Dvor (Большой
Гостиный Двор) – St. Petersburg’s oldest shopping centre and also one of the
first shopping malls in the world so peter could show us a good place to buy
amber. The elaborately designed mall is over one kilometer long, has two
stories and 100’s of shops selling almost anything you want. Heaven or hell? -
you be the judge.
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| Great Gostiny Dvor |
The beautiful statue features Catherine surrounded by carved figures of the most prominent individuals of her reign: politicians and poets, military men and courtiers; many of which were her favourites if you know what I mean! Peter pointed out one of the figures whose likeness was carved on the statue's pedestal; Prince Potemkin’s foot is placed on a turban symbolizing Crimea which he “peacefully” annexed in 1783.
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| Catherine the Great and her Peeps! |
Back on track, Peter took was leading
us gradually toward five corners and the first stop of a culinary nature on the
tour, one of only a few farm-to-table restaurants in St. Petersburg. Вкус Есть
(Taste to Eat) is a hip spot with interesting decor located on the bank of the Fontanka
River http://tastetoeat.tastetoeat.ru/en/.
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| Apps! |
For our “mains” we all ordered soup. I
am still enamoured with borscht as a lover of beets so I selected traditional
borscht with beef which was served with sour cream, dill and a couple slices of
dark rye slathered with lard. I am salivating just thinking about the food which
was fresh, creative, and delicious. Lunch was about $20/person all in and well
worth a return visit.
We continued toward our original
destination through the hidden “squares” in the heart St. Petersburg where the
residents have soccer courts, playgrounds and live out their lives.
Today is the birthday of Sergei Dovlatov – a Russian and American journalist and writer and Peter had gotten wind of some celebrations in his old neighbourhood. Peter described Dovlatov as robust and popular man; the Russian Ernest Hemingway. We appeared to have missed the main celebration but the back alleys were still alive with his fans, quotes and people reading his works aloud. I have added reading one of his books to my long lists of things to do while in Russia. There was even a temporary statue in his honour in front of a local watering hole.
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| Entrance to Social Club |
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| Social Club |
I love their wine menu which categorizes
their wines by the occasion – Social Wine, After Work Wine, Special Day Wine and
Meditation Wine! Eva had a stunning dessert called Ruby Club that was
beautifully presented and featured coconut and mango. Peter and Alex had a
beautiful parfait with pumpkin, mango and sea buckthorn ice cream.
Even though ulitsa Rubinshteyna
features >100 restaurants and bars, we all agreed that we had more than
enough food for a while and that it was time to walk some of it off. Walking
along the bank of the Fontanka River we entered the splendid wrought-iron gates
of the Sheremetyev Palace which has a collection of musical instruments from the 19th
and 20th centuries. We didn’t have time to go inside but we tried the outside
installation where you sit in a number of chairs that represent the various
instruments in an orchestra and hear the piece being played from the
perspective of the individual instruments. Fascinating and worth a second visit
at another time.
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| Ruby Club |
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| Gates to Sheremetyev Palace |
On the other side of the river is the Fabergé Museum; another possibility for future trips but no time today. Continuing along the river, we take a right just before Russia's oldest permanent circus complex, St. Petersburg State Circus and head to our last stop for a quick drink before Peter needs to leave us and start his next tour – Pinch Bar.
I opted for the pomegranate lemonade with chili which was spicy and refreshing. Need to save some room for wine tonight as we are heading out for dinner at Schengen; a restaurant recommended by a colleague. Not sure the 20,000+ steps we walked today will help to burn off our breakfast let alone the lunch, snacks and drinks!
Booking a private tour for the three of us what a bit of an extravagance but it was great to have the opportunity to set our own pace, chat with a local and have someone who could explain the history to us.
Back to the hotel for an hour to rest and dress for dinner. I made the fatal error of lying down and managed to sleep through my alarm and texts/calls from Eva and Alex! I woke to the sound of Alex knocking on my door after our scheduled meeting time so quickly splashed some water on my face and threw on my dress. Luckily, I managed to get it on right side out!
My late arrival resulted in a bit of a shemozzle
finding a cab to get us to the restaurant at a decent price so we bit the
bullet and paid $20 to the cab parked in front of the hotel instead of waiting
for a cheaper Yandex car! To add insult to injury, the aforementioned and
expensive cab dumped us off a block away from our restaurant – asshat! Oh
well, we managed to find Schengen http://schengen.spb.ru/
and were soon entranced by it’s mellow vibe.
As it turns out, Social Club, the Israeli restaurant downstairs and Schengen are all owned by the same family. After procuring a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc to start, we ordered some appetizers to share. The chicken liver pate with orange jelly was as light and airy as the fabulous version we had that afternoon and the sweetness of the jelly, while not to everyone’s taste provided an interesting counterpoint. The seared tuna tataki on cucumbers with Asian dressing was a big hit while the Bulgarian vegetable salad with brined cheese was a nice fresh ending.
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| Chicken liver pate with orange jelly |
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| Tuna tataki |
I opted for raspberry sorbet as a “light” finish to the meal and it didn’t disappoint served on a pillow of meringue.
If you are ever in St Petersburg, this is a restaurant worth trying. Dinner for three including two bottles of quite drinkable wine was about $150. Sated we experimented with the Yandex app (Russia’s answer to Uber though they have that as well) and were deposited in front of the hotel for less than 400 rubles ($8)! After a day of walking (and eating) we were all a bit tired and crashed fairly early.
The weather for Sunday was looking less
promising so we were looking at inside activities, e.g., touring the Hermitage
unless the forecast was wrong. After a smaller but still plenty big breakfast,
we hit the streets and as it wasn’t raining decided to head to Saint Isaac's
Cathedral. Saint Isaac’s is the largest Russian Orthodox cathedral in the city
and apparently and the fourth largest cathedral in the world! Given the number
of tour buses lined up and that the rain was holding up for the most part, we
decided to skip the inside tour and continue with our meanderings instead.
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| Saint Isaac's Cathedral |
En route to the Neva River, we came across a statue of Peter the Great commissioned by Catherine the Great called the Bronze Horseman. The imposing statue sits on a 1250 km stone called the Thunder Stone; the largest stone ever moved by humans. After taking advantage of the photo op, we started walking toward the Hermitage but we were sidetracked by the offer of a river/canal cruise to see the sights.
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| Peter the Great! |
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| Me and Pete! |
I was really keen so the ladies obliged and for a measly $8 each (400 rubles) we toured the waterways of St Petersburg. The inclement weather meant that there were less boats on the water (and of course it was early for a Sunday – only noon!). The speakers blasted Russian as we checked out the sights. Next time, I will pay a bit more and go for an English boat tour but it was still a very entertaining 90 minutes with loads of beautiful buildings and the “thrill” of ducking as we went below very low bridges. One needs to pay attention as the bridges come up quite frequently and there is minimal (no) supervision!
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| Trinity Cathedral |
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| The Red Bridge |
We headed off to Palace Square to get
at least of glimpse of some of the beauty there: the amazingly beautiful
white-and-azure Winter Palace - former home of Russian tsars, the
imposing red granite Alexander Column and the Guards Corps Headquarters.
A quick look around and then we headed
off for some last minute shopping before heading to the hotel to pick up our
stuff and head back to the station to catch the train. Now that we have the
hang of Yandex, the cab is a mere 400 rubles (less than 1/2 of the cost of
picking up a cab from the hotel stand).
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| Winter Palace |
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| Cinderella's carriage |
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| Alexander Column |
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| Guards Corps HQ |
The train ride home was not as drenched
in wine as the journey there - Sunday is a school night after all. The
return trip was fast and smooth so we were soon back in Moscow. A quick Yandex
drive and we were home and getting ready for Monday back at work.
Two action-packed days in a beautiful city!
Can't wait to go back ...
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