Day 9 ~ Tuesday Jul 9, 2019 St. Petersburg Russia on the 34 Day Baltic Spitsbergen & Icelandic Fjords Exployer

Are second day started nice and early.
Our morning we were up early to tackle the day.  We had a great breakfast and packed some goodies as well.  We are not suppose to take food of from the ship but I had brought some granola bars just for this reason.  So today we started with this Itinerary

09 July 2019  Day 2

7:00   Meet at the ship
7:00 - 8:00 City orientation drive tour with the panoramic views on the bridges, squares, palaces, and the Neva river embankments
8:00 - 8:30 Subway ride and tour of the most beautiful Metro stations
8:30 - 9:30 Boat ride: scenic tour along rivers and canals
10:00 - 12:30 Guided tour of the Hermitage Museum (early entry)
12:30 - 13:30 Guided tour of Church on the Spilled Blood
13:30 - 14:30 Lunch time
14:30 - 15:30 Guided tour of the Faberge Museum
15:30 - 16:30 Free time for shopping, walking on Nevsky prospect
17:00   Onboard
18:00   Sailing off

The subways here are so clean and very modern. Some Facts  There are 69 stations with 126 planned in the future.   There are 5 lines with 9 planned  System length is 118 km or 73.7 miles  Average speed is 40km/h or 25mph We had early entry to the Hermitage so that was a blessing it gets pretty busy in here and it very very big. So we had a skip the line tickets and had a few hours to visit the Hermitage.  Which consists of several buildings on the banks of the Neva River.  The Winter Palace is the most important building because that once housed the ancient Tsars.  It has one of the largest Art gallaries and antiques museum in the world, which rivals museums rich as the Louvre in Paris and also the El Prado in Madrid.  If you were to walk and see more that 3 million works of art, paintings, sculptures and archaeological pieces lots of different object. They say that going through all the rooms means walking around 24 kilometers.  I am tired already.  We really don't focus on museums a lot don't really get into it.  But this was a must.  This picture is of the General Staff Building opposite of the Winter Palace. You can see how large the squares are.  Next we went to Church on the Spilled Blood.  What a funny name but lots of history here.  Built in 1880's on site where Emperor Alexander the second was fatally wounded.  His son became Emperor and had this church built and dedicated to be a memorial to his Father.  The cost of Construction 4.5 million rubles.  Just a beautiful sight.  Next we went to a Faberge Museum.  Eggs everywhere. Thanks again for traveling with us. We need a rest after 2 full days in Russia.  But no tomorrow is Helsinki Finland.  Your friends Leslee & Bob