Normally people need a visa to enter Russia, but tourists exploring the country with a cruise line are exempt from that rule. The only problem is you are required to stay with the cruise tour guides. With all the drama going on back home with trying to purchase a house and quickly move back to the other side of the pond before schools in Indiana start, K had no time whatsoever to try and research Russia. So, we just blindly signed up for the "Best of St. Petersburg" tour. It had to take us to the BEST places, right? All we really needed to see was the famously photographed Russian building, the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood (which at that time we had no idea what it was called, but had seen it many pictures of it). Well, apparently it didn't make the cut. So, K and I were touring around in St. Petersburg's museums all day, while listening to oh so boring facts about the city thinking, "When will we get to the Spilled Blood Church? Well, that never happened. We weren't the only disappointed ones. A sly American family was organizing a plan to leave the tour to walk down and get their prized picture since we were just a few blocks away...I saw it in the works (the teacher in me) with all their wispers and glancing around, but K and I are too much of rule followers that we just couldn't get the nerve to do it too. Those rebels! But, they got the picture. I came very close to asking them to e-mail a copy to me so I could pretend to claim it as my own.
Even though we didn't come home with our prized picture, Catherine's Palace was one of the highlights that made "The Best of St. Petersburg" list. Inside was one of our all-time favorites...an amber room. There were all kinds of amber stones and mosaics made with amber glued to the wall. It was pretty incredible.
After quite an exciting lunch of Russian entertainment, we continued on our tour, visiting the Peter and Paul Fortress.
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