March 16, 2015
Monday started early. Alarms were set to have us up by 6:00am to catch an 8:55am flight to St. Petersburg, Russia. Sure enough we were walking to the airport by 7:15am. Before we knew it we were aboard a Norwegian airlines flight to Russia.
We both caught cat naps on the flight. Jen had a great view on the flight over of the Baltic Sea. After going through passport control (the officers were very similar to our TSA in bedside manner), we gathered our luggage, and cleared customs. The airport was very quiet for a Monday morning in a major city. Perhaps it's because President Putin was coming to visit, or perhaps it is because of the current economic situation. Nevertheless we found our pre-arranged english speaking driver from LingoTaxi and headed to Pushkin, just south of St. Petersburg where we toured the Catherine Palace. This lavish imperial palace for Catherine I was built in 1752, and was the summer residence of the tsars for many years. It suffered major damage during World War II from Nazi Germany who the dismantled and removed the famed "Amber Room". A reproduction of the room was finished in 2003 and is a sight to behold. Further restoration of the palace is continuously being done.
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| Catherine Palace Pushkin, Russia |
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| The Grand Entrance Catherine Palace Pushkin, Russia |
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| The Grand Ballroom Catherine Palace Pushkin, Russia |
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| Green Dining Room (Malleys Chocolates Color Scheme Inspiration) Catherine Palace Pushkin, Russia |
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| Looking out the Front Gate Catherine Palace Pushkin, Russia |
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| Dining Room Catherine Palace Pushkin, Russia |
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| Ceiling Fresco Catherine Palace Pushkin, Russia |
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| Part of The Amber Room Catherine Palace Pushkin, Russia |
Once we were done in Pushkin our driver took us to our hotel, The Official State Hermitage Hotel. Upon our arrival at the beautiful hotel we were greeted with cherry juice (can't say either of us have ever been greeted with cherry juice before) and water. We enjoyed a little refreshment and then were shown our room. A few of the in-room amenities that stand out to us were the towel warmer and an all in one toilet (heated toilet seat, bidet, etc). The remainder of the afternoon was spent relaxing and recovering from the early start to the day.
We took dinner at Catherine the Great Restaurant, the onsite restaurant specializing in Russian cuisine. Our first experience with Russian cuisine was memorable. We started with an appetizer of beef tongue (it's good if you can get over the texture), an appetizer of pelmen (meat dumplings), then moved on to a smoked vinaigrette salad (heavy on the beets and radishes, light on the greens). The salad was smoked in front of us, being served with glass covers full of smoke from the grill. Chicken Kiev and beef stroganoff were shared between us for the main course. For dessert we had mille-feuille cake "Napoleon". Live entertainment from an opera singer with a piano accompanist serenaded us during dinner. The best part of dinner was the cost- it was significantly less than we've paid for like quality in the rest of the world.
The weather today was absolutely amazing there were blue skies no clouds and highs in the low 50's. It was truly a beautiful day in St. Petersburg.
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| Catherine Palace Pushkin, Russia |