Russian River Cruise: Arriving in St Petersburg Read Part I of My Very Russian River Cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg here. The Zosima Shashkov slipped into her berth at St. Petersburg, the northern Russian capital, during the night. The St Petersburg cruise port lies a few miles outside the city center but on the …
“If Moscow and St Petersburg were sisters, Moscow would be serious and businesslike, compared to this relaxed, light-hearted sibling,” I say with a flourish to my husband Rick. The main street, Nevsky Prospekt, bustles with chattering people strolling arm-in-arm relishing the day. The historic area side-streets with imperial classical architecture in pastels of coral, opal, …
The woman in the ball gown is waving at us. Her hair, elaborately piled atop her head, rises slightly in the breeze and settles back over her brows. “Zdrastvuyte!” she calls out. She mimes taking a photograph. “Photo with Russian Countess only 100 rubles!” The actress is one of several who roam Palace Square in St. Petersburg. …
St. Petersburg is like an old photograph: mysterious, alluring, strangely nostalgic. Its palaces, with their shuttered windows and paint peeling in pastel strips, invite fantasies of more elegant times. Flat-bottomed boats swoop through the canals, ducking past the remnants of Russia’s imperial past. While it has transformed into a bustling, modern city, St. Petersburg retains its historical allure. …
It was a frigid, bland kind of Tuesday in St. Petersburg. I could not tell if it was colder than the day before, but it was definitely weather for the wooliest, thickest socks and gloves. It was the kind of weather that starts to freeze the blood in your face so that you can’t feel the tip …