Day 21 is the first day of two in St. Petersburg, Russia. I did not sleep well the night before. My mind was racing on any number of subjects. I did finally go to sleep but we had to get up early. Actually we are up by 6 o’clock. We had to be downstairs by 8 o’clock so we had breakfast delivered. I think we were both a little anxious because we weren’t sure we had everything we needed to get through Russia immigration process. The notes that the ship people sent out were conflicting and confusing. They kind of all said the same thing but a different mix. We know we needed our cruise card, our passports and proof that we had a tour scheduled. We had these things so I felt pretty comfortable. I thought worst case they would not let us in and we would have to spend two days on the ship. We ate our breakfast and got our stuff together. We left the room about 7:50 so we were a little early to where we were supposed to meet – on the fifth floor in the Savoy dining room. We got down there and the lady there asked us to we have the things I mentioned above. We said yes and she said go down to the fourth floor. We get off the ship by showing our cruise cards like always. We walked into a building and right there was Russia immigration. We had waited in line for a couple of minutes but then we walked up show the lady behind the cage our passports and the tour ticket and we were through immigration in about 45 seconds. We were officially in Russia. We had to walk through the little port building to an area where various tour guides were waiting for their people. Literally right outside the door was a lady holding the sign with my name and Anna’s name. Anna and Gram, from Australia were traveling with us on this trip too. The company we booked the tour with is called I Love to Travel St. Petersburg. We did quick introductions and made our way to the van. It was the same type of van that we used in Estonia but thankfully it was only two wheelchairs. This driver had a much better idea on how to tie down chairs. He was much more efficient. So he loaded us up and we were pretty much our way well before 9 o’clock. If I remember correctly the drivers name was Eugene in the tour guide’s name was Eugina. Like every bus tour we’ve taken so far it starts out by driving around the city for an hour. This tour guide was much better because we could hear her and understand her. When we get off the ship it was cold – probably only about 50° as we moved away from the water it warmed up and I was still in my jacket. It got really warm in the van for a little while but I was able to unzip it a bit. We passed countless buildings of different historical references. We learned that there were 24 palaces in the city. Countless other buildings had some historical value. There were all kinds of monuments. I was surprised at the size of the city. I was equally surprised by the number of people on the street corners that early on a Saturday. Granted a lot of them were tourists but a lot of them had to be locals because there were just so many of them. The first thing that I noticed was there were no small buildings. Every building was a block or two long by about 10 stories tall. There were entire stretches of street that were one long building. The streets were narrow with about 4 feet of sidewalk on each side and then buildings. You felt like you were going down a tunnel. Our tour guide said that most people live in apartment buildings. She mentioned something about having to pay the state for hot water. I may not of understood correctly but she made it sound like hot water was a luxury. Most of the buildings had that old almost unkempt look. There were a few very modern buildings out towards the edge of the city, but in the city itself everything was a couple of hundred years old it seemed. Like other European cities, the traffic was crazy. I am surprised that there is not an accident every 14 seconds. It seems that if you don’t change lanes 10 times in a block you’re not doing it correctly. Cut the other guy off is expected. All this wandering around for about an hour led us to Peterof, which is a huge park. When the van stopped, the driver got us out. We made our way through the ticket gate. I was a bit worried because right off the bat there were a couple of pretty serious downhills. This would make the trip back difficult. Mary worked her way down the hills with me. Towards the bottom there is a bathroom. I didn’t have to go but Mary and Anna did so we took a while there. After that we went down a little lower to the lower Park. You really have to see the pictures to understand how cool this park was. I think our tour guide said there were 23,000 fountains. I don’t think there were 23,000 fountains there were probably 23,000 waterspouts that made up maybe 1500 fountains. Nonetheless, even 1500 fountains is a lot. We saw countless gardens. There were several monuments. We walked by a few palaces of the various Russians czars. There were certain areas that had literally thousands of tourists in the same area but then you could walk for a minute or two and you would be all by yourself. Long tree lined access ways were broken up by monuments and gardens. Tourists tended to flock around these. All along the way our tour guide was talking about how this czar built this and this czar built this and all what happened in World War II etc., etc. It was all interesting information but after about the first half hour of it I was beyond confused and decided to just watch the people and the scenery. The fountains were cool. In one area outside of a big palace they were all in sync. Our tour guide claimed that pumps were not used for these water displays. She said somehow gravity and water pressure from above maintain the flow. I didn’t actually understand it but I believe her. We spent a good two hours wandering around. Mary must of got near 10,000 steps. We worked our way back up to where the van was. Going back up those hills was a pain in the you know what but Mary did well. We loaded back up on the van and drove away. Our intent was to go to a place for lunch. We decided to go to a place in the city that our tour guide recommended. Unfortunately, the place recommended was not assessible. St. Petersburg is a city that is beginning to address some of its accessibility options but it’s a far cry from being assessible. We then drove to a second-place which for some reason wasn’t acceptable. We ended up at a third-place which was actually a restaurant inside of a high-end hotel. We wasted a good hour or more trying to track down a place for lunch. This had some repercussions down the road. When we finally did get to the hotel for lunch it was a great experience. We were seated in a second-floor open area. It was kind of a cool room to be in. The menu was displayed on iPads. Everyone looked at their iPad trying to come up with what they wanted to have for lunch. They had a large selection. One of their areas of interest was foods of Russia. I went there and found vodka and something called the Russian Plate. I ordered the vodka – real Russian vodka. I can’t even tell you the name of it because it was all in Russian Cyrillic. The Russian plate had hearing, pickles, pickled onions and rye bread. There was something I thought were green beans but turned out to be something completely different – not sure what it was. The vodka was good. I was tempted to have another, but decided against it. The Russian plate was interesting to. The herring was good. As was the cheese and pickles. Mary had a salad and some perogies – meat filled pastries. She was happy with her decision too. Everyone was happy with her selections. Actually, before the food arrived we were given a bread bowl, butter, olives, nuts and a few other small dishes of stuff. This was a meal in itself. When the actual meals can it was just that much more food. We sat there for about an hour. We’re not exactly sure based on the conversion rate of rubles to dollars, but we think we spent about $35 on lunch, just for Mary and me. It seemed odd but the waitress had a hard time with separate bills. Our tour guide had to literally break the bill into our separate bills and then have the waitress create three separate checks. This took a good 15 minutes or so to get straight. Nonetheless, it was a good experience. I can honestly say I’ve had true Russian vodka. I can say I had true Russian delicacies. We paid for a lunch and made our way downstairs. The driver was waiting for us so we got back on the van. I believe the next stop was supposed to be to a cathedral but because we are running late and it looks like the weather was changing our tour guide decided on the boat tour. We drove a short distance to a nearby canal. We got out of the van and went towards the water’s edge. Every trip is not complete unless we have some cobblestone. There was about a 50 foot downhill stretch of cobblestone from the top of the street to where the boat was going to pick us up. Mary muscled me down to the water’s edge as we waited for the boat. The boat pulled up and tied off. If you are looking for a safe way to do it, it was not here. I didn’t see a life jacket anywhere. The boat was kind of tied off, while others were holding it steady. They put a piece of wood between the boat’s edge and the street. It went smoother than it could have gone but we were on the boat. Anna didn’t want to do it but I think she felt obligated after I did it first. The boat tour itself was cool. We were on it for about an hour. We were able to see buildings and things that you were not able to see from the van. Mary took countless pictures and I got a time-lapse video of part of it. The downside was the weather was turning and got really cold and windy for the last half hour or so. Part of the problem was I got warm with my jacket and so that when I got cold and I got really cold. There were blankets on the boat and that helped a little. We were not tied down on this boat so it was quite rocky then our captain decided to cut off another boat which made the whole experience extra rocky. Like the van driver, the captain did not speak any English. During the entire trip the captain kept talking on the radio about something. As I mentioned the river was very busy so he may have been directing traffic for all I know. I was not afraid of flopping in the river, but it could’ve happened. If you can imagine a traffic jam on the street, there was a traffic jam of boats on these canals and rivers. We did come to an area that opened up wide and everybody went their own way. As with the entire tour, our tour guide had a story for everything. By this time I just tuned her out. It was just too much information. We made our way one huge circle back to where we got on the boat. The driver was there with the van. Much like getting on the boat, we got off. Getting off seemed to be a little easier because we were going backwards. What we couldn’t see couldn’t bother us. Again, we were loaded on the van. By now it was almost 6 o’clock. The tour was supposed to end at 5 o’clock. We made our way back to the ship. We set our goodbyes to the tour guide and driver. We would meet them again tomorrow at 9 o’clock in the morning. Mary and I went through the souvenir shop in the port building. We picked up our magnets and a few other miscellaneous things. We had to go back to immigration to get on the ship. This took a few seconds and we were on our way back to the ship. We came up to the room dropped the stuff off and then went up to 14 for dinner. 14 is the buffet area. Because there were 600 passengers that got off and took a train to Moscow, the ship had its dining rooms closed. There was one dining room that was open though. Mary suggested going to the dining room but I said let’s try 14. It’s one of those times I should’ve listened to her. We went up. None of it was good, except for the soup. We set up there for about a half hour before coming back to the room. That’s where I started this entry. Mary went down to seven to pick up pictures and get yourself some tea. As I write this line she is sitting next to me managing the pictures. She down loads the pictures from the camera her laptop and puts them in the proper folders. It’s about 930 at night. We are trying to go to bed early. We’ll see how that goes. As I’ve mentioned before when we have a personal tour it makes a world of difference. The first day in St. Petersburg is no exception. The park was cool. The lunch was cool. The boat ride was cool – literally in this case. If we did a Princess managed tour we would not have been able to do all three of these. We might’ve been able to do one but it would not have been to the same level. Tomorrow is a whole day where we get to see even more of St. Petersburg. Yes, it’s probably expensive, but it’s worth it for the experience. I can honestly say I know St. Petersburg a little better based on these adventures. That wraps up day 21. Six to go.