June 1 – Saint Petersburg, Russia. Today we are heading back to downtown Saint Petersburg this time with a tour from the ship. We're going to sail on the Neva River and some of the city's canals. They split us into two groups on busses A and B. In these circumstances I always take bus B. The first bus attracts too many A type personalities and people with sharp elbows that will almost knock you down to get a perceived advantage of some sort. I can be aggressive when it's called for but touring and trying to enjoy myself is not the time or place. However, the fifth time some pushy jerk jostles me to get the spot he feels he's entitle to I figure I'm all out of cheeks to turn and the idiot gets some sort of surprise that I deem appropriate under the circumstances. I've seen these knotheads almost knock elderly people down in their effort exercise their right to be first. At that point I figure some subtle but firm negative reinforcement is needed. I'm pretty good at making it their fault by anticipating their next stupid move and happening to be directly in their path waiting for them to clobber themselves against me in some way. I'm not very proud of this activity but sometimes it's just too much to take. The second bus rarely has these sorts of problems and you travel with a much more congenial type of person. Today that is definitely true.
I think the tour managers know this also and subtly reward the people on the second bus at times. That certainly happened today. Bus A arrived at the cruise pier first and boarded their boat. Everyone wanted to sit outside as it's a nice day and you get better pictures. The rear deck of the boat had plastic chairs of the Wal-Mart variety but the deck was small and about a third of the people had to sit inside the boat. I figured our boat would be the same. Boy was I wrong. After the first boat pulled away, up slides The Maximus, and believe me it was. It's a very posh boat with a large rear deck and padded metal chairs. Although our group was as large as the first one, everyone could sit outside with room to spare. As we were boarding the guide told us that usually the Maximus was only in service in the evenings for private parties and events on the canals but for some reason it had been booked during the day for us. We certainly weren't complaining.
We took the grand tour on several canals and smaller rivers and finally pulled out into the Neva River. The city's public beach in front of the Peter & Paul fortress was pretty busy. People were sailing small boats and the canal cruise companies were doing a brisk business as well. It was a georgeous sunny day with mild temperatures. Could not have been a better day.
We did sail past all the major sites, Hermitage, Peter & Paul, the Admiralty, St Isaac's, the St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral, the Church on the Blood, etc. We also sailed past some places I've wanted to get a good picture of but had never walked by and only see glimpses from the bus. The first was the Yusupov Palace. The main claim to fame of this building is that on the night of December 16-17 1916 he was murdered here. Apparently he was given enough poison to kill five men. When that didn't seem to affect him they shot him in the back and thought he was dead. When they came back in the room to dispose of his body he was getting up so they shot him three more times. He was still attempting to flee so they clubbed him on the head repeatedly with an iron bar. The wrapped him in a blanket and threw him in the Moika River right where we sailed. A later autopsy on his body disclosed that none of their activities killed him, he died of hypothermia.
The other site was the Stroganov Palace. No particular reason other than I love his way of preparing beef.
This was a very low key altogether pleasant day in a beautiful city.
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