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Our arrival into the country was everything I could have expected. It took three hours for our coach to make its way across the border.

St. Petersburg, Russia

Hank Shiffman
2003-11-29 14:13:52

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my favorite. Not so grand as the Summer Palace, it has a warmth and a peace to it that appeals to me. It also had better shops at the end of the tour than the other two, but that's not why I like it. Really!

Part of the appeal of the Catherine Palace is inside, where you get a glimpse of the place as it was for the Czars. Each room is decorated in a unique style, from the magnificent inlay of the parquet floors (requiring us to wear these slippery protective gear over our shoes) to the fanciful ceilings. An incredible amount of work has been done to restore each room, undoing the damage done by the German Army during its residence and abrupt departure.

Not all our time was spent touring palaces and museums. We also indulged in the odd cultural pursuit. One night it was Swan Lake at the Alexandrinsky Theatre (not a high point, although the Russian Champagne at the intermissions certainly helped). The next it was a Russian Folklore show in a former private mansion, complete with balalaikas (yes, they did play Lara's Theme from Dr. Zhivago), traditional singers and dancers and more acrobatics than you'll see in the average circus. Now this was more like it! And the vodka and caviar at intermission was good too. This was also the place where I bought the whiskey flask with the KGB insignia. Just the thing for those long Fleming-inspired train journeys.

Russia is of course changing, in ways both positive and frightening. (The bombings in Moscow began not long after our departure from the country.) One interesting sign is the appearance of so many western firms. Seeing signs for familiar computer companies on old buildings still surprises me. Even more surprising was our lunch stop on the way out of St. Petersburg toward the border with Finland. This Russian MacDonalds could have been lifted from any suburb in the USA, although the prices were better than I'm used to. Still, even two days of scrawny chicken and borscht and cucumber and tomato salad (occasionally replaced by tomato and cucumber) couldn't make me homesick for American fast food. Although I could have killed for some barbecue...