Deane & Norm's Motorcycle Trip in
Northern & Eastern Europe and Scandinavia
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Deane & Norm's Motorcycle Trip in Northern & Eastern Europe and Scandinavia |
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July 14, Helsinki, Finland to St. Petersburg, Russia 400 Km (250 Miles) - By Train |
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We arrived in St. Petersburg, Russia today!! Early this morning we went to the Helsinki train station. Fortunately, our travel agent, Elisa, arranged for us to have a hotel very close to the train depot. We expected to find a tour guide that would accompany us to St. Petersburg. No one there! But time got short and we hadn't found any tour guide! We did find another tour group, and their leader said "just get on the train; maybe your tour guide is to meet you at St. Petersburg." Sure enough, when we got to the St. Petersburg station, our tour guide "Nona" was waiting with a sign in large letters "CRAWFORTH". What a relief! To understand the relief, you have to know that after an making application with the Russian Consulate for a visa, long before the trip, you must arrive there on the date you specified - July 14, 2008, in our case, - or you don't get into Russia!! Well, we did get in, and Nona and a car driver gave us about a three-hour tour of the highlights of the city. We took lots of pictures of beautifully kept historical buildings and monuments. - What a good ending for a great day!! Here is the entry to the "Peter and Paul Fortress". This fortress was built to defend St. Petersburg in the early 1700s, to protect against an invasion by the Swedes. The invasion never came, and the fortress was turned into a prison, with many cells available due to the thickness of the walls and the open spaces in between.
We were surprised to see the many pastel colors of the large buildings, and it made for quite an attractive downtown area.
Unfortunately for us, the outside of the "Winter Palace" was being renovated (under the green netting), but we did get to go inside and see many of the treasures. Nona is very well versed in the history and art of the various buildings, statues, paintings, and other things, so she is an excellent guide. The magnificent arches and statues have been created as memorials of large battles or wars won.
A close up of the huge statues on the arch.
Well, the day ended well, and we got checked into our hotel. We wondered what kind of hotel accommodations we would have, since we had no idea how good or bad Russian hotels would be. We stayed at the "Beleveder Nevsky", denoting that we were just a half-block off the Nevsky-Prospect, the well known upscale boulevard. Our hotel wasn't anything to look at from the front, but it had had recent updating and was beautiful inside. With excellent service and excellent breakfasts, it was a very nice place to stay. |
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