The Zehrens Go Global

St. Petersburg ~ July 17

Thank goodness John woke up feeling better but stillnot 100%. Poor Hailey got attacked by Mosquitos again last night. Her little arm has huge welts from the bites. We packed up and checked out of the apartment by 11:30 am. John smooth talked his way into having the bell man hold our luggage for the day at a hotel around the corner. Our flight to Moscow doesn’t leave until 8:10 pm so we had a few hours to enjoy St. Petersburg before leaving.

We decided to split up for our last day in St. Petersburg. John took Zoe and Hailey while Stacy and Kallin ventured off together. The plan was to meet back at the hotel where our luggage was at to get a taxi and leave by 5:15 pm.

The day was sunny and warmer than the prior days 🙂

John, Zoe and Hailey stayed near the city center and rented bikes for a few hours. They explored St. Petersburg and ventured out to the third canal from the center. They had a blast and much to the girls’ delight, they stopped for cheeseburgers and fries. I don’t know if we mentioned in our earlier blogs but for some reason they really ration ketchup here. For those of you that know our family, we REALLY like ketchup. They charge $1 for a pack of ketchup that looks like the BBQ sauce packs that McDonalds hands out. They are always shocked at the amount of ketchup that Zoe and Hailey consume. They returned happy and on time to the hotel.

Kallin and Stacy wanted to go to Peterhof which is the Summer Palace that was built by Peter the Great in the very early 1700’s. To reach it you must take a hydrofoil boat. The ride is 40 minutes each way. The round trip cost was about $30 each and very efficient. We arrived at the dock and the grounds were vast and green. To enter the park from the dock it was about $15 each but doesn’t include a palace visit. Kind of a gimmick because to reach the palace, you have to walk through the park. Anyways, you immediately are greeted with a very long manmade waterway with beautiful lily pads with fountains and lion heads spitting out water the entire way up to the Palace. As you get closer there is a massive fountain with a man. See the picture below because it is too hard to describe. From there you climb up beautiful steps to the Palace. The Palace is much smaller than the Hermitage (Winter Palace) but very elegant. It is pale yellow with white trim and in typical Russian style, lots of gold accents. Although only about two stories high, it is truly lovely.

By the time we had arrived by hydrofoil, it was about 1:45 pm There was a massive line to get into the Palace in which we waited over a half hour. We were scheduled to return on the 4:00 pm hydrofoil. We finally gained access into the Palace, purchased tickets for another $15 each and stared our tour. The Palace is even more grand in its decor than the Hermitage which is hard to imagine. It was stunning and unfortunately no photographs were allowed at all. Each room was well equipped with furniture from the time period, silk fabrics on the walls that matched the incredibly fancy curtains, beautiful wood floors with inlayed patterns, gorgeous chandeliers and candelabras. Even elaborate tables set with gorgeous china. Since we were not part of a tour, it didn’t take us long to complete a walk through. We were done in a half hour. Clearly only a portion of the Palace was open to the public. Afterwards we walked around the gardens a bit and returned to the dock to catch the hydrofoil. It was a quick afternoon but we both enjoyed our adventure. We beat John and the girls to the hotel by five minutes 🙂

Our taxi was waiting for us, we loaded up and headed out to the “airport”. We made good time despite a lot of traffic. We made it by 6:10 pm which was a good thing because after the taxi left and we went through security, we found out we were at the wrong airport!! He dropped us off at the International Airport. Who knew there were two? Oddly, Russian makes you go through metal detectors with your luggage before entering the building. Then after you check in with your airlines and drop off your luggage, you go through security AGAIN!

Well to reach the right airport we had to hire another taxi for $20 to drive us the 5 minutes to the right airpot. They got you because you have no other way to get there. Once we arrived at the correct airport we started the whole security process again. We made our flight and are on our way to Moscow. Hopefully they don’t give our hotel rooms away because we probably won’t make it there before 10 or 10:30 pm. This is our only hotel stay on the trip.

There are not many photos for today because John used his Blackberry camera which doesn’t work with this blog and we were not allowed to take photos within the Summer Palace.

We are all excited for Istanbul. We have a guide arranged that was recommended to us. He will bring us to all the major attractions and is supposed to get us in faster without waiting in the long lines. Another day we will fly to Ephesus and then one last day to maybe take a boat trip on the Bosporus and hit the Grand Bazar.