your arrival in st. Petersburg Airport
is quite similar to landing in any other
big city Airport any place in the world
well in our case we're arriving as a
group from Hawaii and our bus is waiting
for us now this is pretty odd because
we're arriving close to midnight and yet
there's still light in the sky
we're traveling during the month of July
and at that time of year they have what
they call the white nights where it
hardly ever gets dark during the 24
hours you'll notice the new terminal
building and next to it the older Soviet
style architecture of the original
airport terminal building from the 1940s
there is lots of new construction
happening in st. Petersburg today with
all of that oil money that's flowing in
our guide and escort Olga tells us about
some of these developments so you have
landed at International Airport of st.
Petersburg this is quite a new facility
and Denis has noticed that a lot has
changed this is growing very very
rapidly actually this is the result of
that oil body which is coming to Russia
in abundance due to that the area
unexpected rise in oil prices which
surpassed the expectations of the
quadric planners of the government
because of that wast Co which received
the first portion of that huge
investment you can no longer digest that
money
they have received so much that
everybody's driving the Mercedes and
Rovers and BMW and they are not driving
but they are staying at the traffic jams
of course their whole lifestyle is
changing rapidly and as part of that is
the prices grow dramatically as we get
closer to the city the spectacular
monuments start to appear such as this
tram full arch in the middle of the road
it looks very picturesque now in this
right your tour of st. Petersburg will
be taking place the your tour guide will
be vieira services that team helping you
in st. Petersburg mostly that will be
their tour of their most picturesque
sights of the city with photography
stops and there will be a showing you
everything around you will have some
time for walking around and visit some
of the most beautiful streets of st.
Petersburg enter one of your stops will
be at the road famous ballet school of
Russia
maganda the ballet academy we have
received their kind to promote that and
you will be able to see the Museum of
the ballet academy where they exhibit to
the relics the belongings of famous
ballet dancers of Russia well now we're
going to show you some various
highlights of our visit to st.
Petersburg one of the things that we
like to do is visit the palaces of
course our bus takes us right there and
our guide brings us through if you'll be
entertained by some music as you enter
the palace grounds these fellows perform
for free but they'd appreciate any tips
or you can buy their CDs the various
sites we're going to be showing you as
you visit st. Petersburg there's a lot
of palaces lining the many canals of the
city and we're going to bring you on a
boat ride that's one of your highlights
of a visit to st. Petersburg certainly
just takes about one hour for the boat
ride
it's really a pleasant experience to
relax on your boat and watch these
former palaces and deluxe apartments
gliding by and then worry about getting
seasick it's all very calm here in the
canals now we'll give you a quick taste
of one of the fine palaces this is
Catherine Palace just on the outskirts
of the city and this makes a real
highlight of your visit to st.
Petersburg the amber room has been
recently restored and you'll see a lot
of the interior dining rooms and
gathering rooms the ballrooms and we're
gonna walk through it with our local
guide Vera who is going to tell us all
about it coming up a little bit later in
the program the gardens of Catherine
Palace are even more beautiful than the
interior
you've got the floral plantings the
pavilions wonderful statues and
fountains out in the gardens st.
Petersburg is a huge city of five
million people but they do have a nice
amount of green space in the city we'll
be driving around town here's the statue
of Lenin one of the rare relics from the
Communist days take you down the main
nevsky prospekt the most important and
busiest shopping street in town there's
a lot of department stores boutiques and
cafés along Nevsky
we'll bring you inside their big
shopping mall it's just like a modern
Western store Russia has really come a
long way in the last five or ten years
and look at this de luck
Hotel and they often have live music
provided by a harpist or other kinds of
solo instrumentalists here
Russia has really gotten upscale anyways
it's really the finest hotel at st.
Petersburg with sky-high prices to match
and they're gonna for five hundred
dollars per night in the summer rates
this would be an ultimate indulgence for
your home base while in town take a look
at art square this is just by the Grand
Hotel Europe statue of Pushkin in the
middle and other statue here of Peter
the Great over at Decembrists Square and
yes we will have some fine meals and
show you where you can enjoy gourmet
food while you're visiting in st.
Petersburg this is just across the
street from the Grand Hotel Europe the
restaurant is actually a branch of the
hotel and there's plenty of gift shops
nearby in this same central neighborhood
as well you've got to look for that
Sylva near trophy to take home and by
all means go to the ballet in the
evening
you'll find music everywhere in st.
Petersburg at such a classical City now
we're showing you a quick preview of
Peters Palace this is Peterhof and it's
got the grand cascade this golden series
of statues on the staircase a real
photogenic backdrop for us and lovely
gardens to walk around in also called
Petra Moritz and of course perhaps the
main highlight of a visit to st.
Petersburg is the Hermitage Museum this
is one of the top five art museums in
the world certainly some might consider
it the best and the biggest it has a
great collection of European old masters
and beautiful interior architecture
we'll take you through it with our guide
bureau we're starting out our first big
day of touring with a trip to Catherine
Palace residence
which is called catherine's palace and
blue and white that's catherine's palace
we are on the way there
Catherine Palace one of the most
beautiful of all Russia's royal homes
and it's about an hour's drive outside
of town the stunning place was created
by Peter the Great's daughter
Zarina Elizabeth the first who
commissioned her favorite architect
Rastrelli the palace is named after her
mother Catherine the first who died 30
years before the palace was begun in the
mid 18th century Elizabeth also died
before the palace was completed so she
never did get to live in her new home
Catherine Palace was later expanded by
Catherine the Great into the Magnificent
structure that we see today
helped by the innovative designs of
Charles Cameron a Scot with no previous
building experience and yet he learned a
lot he had a natural talent for
architecture and design while she had
many palaces to choose from this became
the favorite residence of Catherine the
Great built over two generations the
palace displays a dramatic mix of
baroque and neoclassical styles the
facade is nearly a thousand feet long
featuring many muscular statues of Atlas
whose massive shoulders hold up the
windows doors and roofline flanked by
dozens of plasterers and 200 types of
stucco ornamentation that complete this
amazing architectural scene painted
bright blue and white with golden
accents it is an immense ensemble that
matches the grandeur of the sky above
when constructed this was the longest
building in the world but it is only one
room deep inside this museum there are
20 rooms restored to their original
appearance as well as exhibition
galleries who have informative
historical displays the most impress
of room is the Great Hall the room is
long and narrow but gives a feeling of
white spaces because of the illusion
created by all the windows and mirrors
while the painted sky in the ceiling
adds a sensation of more space to this
ballroom an elaborate mosaic floor
precious woods arranged in geometric
patterns enhances the effect it was lit
at night by 700 candles in elaborate
chandeliers hundreds of unique rokoko
wood carvings on the walls of birds and
flowers with no two images looking alike
extend the space even further by the way
a note on the rokoko verses baroque key
differences are the rokoko was even more
elaborate came a little bit later in
time more florid more detailed and in
particular it's asymmetric the design on
one half is different than the design on
the other side whereas baroque tends to
be more symmetric meals were served
non-stop in his lavish home which
conveniently had 30 dining rooms
serviced by a small army of Butler's
cooks footmen and maids it is said for
example that Catherine the Great drank
50 cups of coffee every day which was at
that time an extremely rare and
expensive brew the Russian aristocracy
did not practice much self-control
enjoying a lavish lifestyle we see
reflected in these opulent surroundings
the rooms continue with exhibitions of
furniture ceramics musical instruments
and decorative arts from Turkey and
Japan perhaps the most famous feature of
the palace is the Amber Room whose walls
were completely covered in carefully
carved panels of amber which is a
fossilized tree sap but these panels
were stolen by the Russians during the
last war international negotiations are
continuing to find and then return these
precious items in return for some
impressionist paintings that the raiding
Russian stole from the Germans and
meanwhile Russian craftsmen have
completed a recreation of the original
panels using that precious natural amber
which is also quite popular for the
local jewelry throughout the region in
one large picture gallery the walls are
completely covered from floor to ceiling
with paintings by rather obscure 18th
century French and Italian artists when
you finish the Palace visit then you can
have an ice cream or a sandwich or a
bowl of soup at the slightly expensive
snack shop while recharging your
batteries then we took a walk with our
guide Vera who told us more about the
history of the palace it took about 10
years to build it
about 300 servants worked here we saw
only the staterooms they were private
rooms bedrooms and studies on the first
floor but later they were not restored
during the time of Soviet period after
the war they thought it was not that
important to show very rooms and status
also they didn't have a wish to show
private side of life of Zayed with
governmental measure they were
interested in showing the most beautiful
rooms showing the Tsar's lived in luxury
as well as the rest of the country was
poor for up to 1861 it was served in
Menasha and this palace was built very
quickly because they had lots of very
very cheaply but many people were
created for food there's a lot more to
see in the extensive royal gardens
there's little duck ponds rolling lawns
manicured bushes surprised gazebos and
scattered statues all connected by
comfortable gravel pathways there are no
fountains on the scale of peterhof so
you must visit both palaces to
experience the complete package of
interior and exterior delights there are
some baths
houses for steam soaking there are some
summer pavilions where the royalty and
their friends would take their afternoon
tea the rooms inside with Jasper and
agate which is striped stone also from
Ural Mountains the facade was decorated
in the Pantheon style pump in style
that's usually bright color quarters
like bright yellow white and terracotta
and usage of natural stone it was
designed by Charles Cameron for
Catherine the Great
so let's walk through the gardens a
little this yellow building is bath
pavillion so bath was separate they
wouldn't go to about every morning like
we do now o course here was some sure
that your water like all over Europe
then we'll see English garden of
Catherine and then come out that way you
can get a nice garden view looking back
at the palace which is so huge that you
need to get far away to take it all in
well as you walk through the garden
you'll notice a large structure a
pavilion up on a hill with Greek columns
in the front looking something like the
Parthenon this was a party pavilion that
was also designed by Charles Cameron
there's even a semblance of a little
miniature village of little pseudo boat
houses to the delight of the aristocracy
as part of their garden which also has
some fake ruins and various column
structures and beautiful floral
plantings throughout
there that's called Admiralty Pavillion
just decorative Pavillion also used for
private parties just to make landscape
more interesting and beautiful it
reminds Admiralty shipbuilding yard in
st. Petersburg this is grotto Pavillion
it's also designed by rostral it's the
same style as the palace then they could
enjoy some fresh air also to have a
drink and sunbathe in front of it and
nice sunny weather and then all the
servants would bring food and everything
in green and then leave there Catherine
with friends but they really private for
servants that I meant extra ears now we
are giving in the direction Olga the so
called private gardens so even the
gardens of Catherine Palace are
wonderful to see now we're heading back
into town
and we're gonna go on a boat ride notice
the tour boat service that offers water
taxi canal rides the standard one-hour
boat tour through the canals and rivers
of st. Petersburg is an excellent
experience that's one of your highlights
of a visit to st. Petersburg certainly
you can catch these tour boats in front
of Decemberists square by that statue of
Peter the Great on horseback near st.
Isaac's Cathedral you can check the
schedule and prices and compare with
various boat operations along Nevsky
Prospekt
by the on its coughed bridge already you
start to see historic sites such as the
fortress of peter and paul in the
distance with that church spire that
high Needle spire is the highest point
in st. Petersburg this is the location
of the earliest fortifications in the
founding of the city and across the
river is the Museum of curiosities which
was the very first museum set up in st.
Petersburg by Peter and now we're
crossing along in front of the hermitage
museum it was formerly
haleh's of Catherine the Great and now
it is one of the finest art museums in
the world we'll be taking you in there
during our visit to st. Petersburg we're
planning to visit in two half-day
experiences rather than trying to cover
the entire museum in one day they've got
400 individual galleries one of the two
largest art museums in the world along
with the Louvre in Paris and ultra high
quality the interior is as beautiful as
the paintings the architecture the
paintings on the ceilings the stucco and
the walls just makes a wonderful
ensemble for your eyes
it was the Palace of course of the
royalty Hermitage means a place of
Hermits dwelling but it was hardly a
Hermits dwelling it was a very sociable
place in those days there's also a small
Ballet Theatre we'll show you some of
that dance performance in a little while
and the boat continues along and and now
we're passing by our hotel this is the
hotel st. Petersburg which is one of the
larger hotels in town a very comfortable
place to stay as we turn away from the
main river and into one of the side
canals and begin our journey through the
wonderful canals of st. Petersburg
there's a lot of palaces lining the many
canals of this city and just takes about
one hour for the boat ride it's really a
pleasant experience to relax on your
boat and watch these former palaces and
deluxe apartments gliding by and don't
worry about getting seasick it's all
very calm here in the canals and while
we're riding along enjoying this scenic
splendor it's a good time to reflect on
the history of st. Petersburg well st.
Petersburg began with Peter the Great
who founded the city in 1703 basing it
on the great capitals of Europe
he was particularly enamored with cities
such as Amsterdam that he visited in his
travels in his youth and wanted to
create a new great European city from
scratch in the mud
he chose this strategic location where
the Neva River joins the Gulf of Finland
as the perfect place to build his Navy
and launch attacks on his enemies to the
north Peter was determined to catapult
Russia from the dark ages straight into
modern times in a single generation and
he succeeded architects and artisans
were imported from Western Europe and
put to work constructing a glorious new
city on what had been empty swampy muddy
Islands it was the only European capital
to be built from scratch on a previously
empty patch of land following a rational
plan when construction began in this mud
pit there were no stones available
locally for construction so the builders
came up with an ingenious solution a
stone tax which required everyone coming
into the city to bring a rock if you
were walking only one rock was required
but if you came by a horse
you needed ten rocks and if by barge a
hundred rocks just like paying a toll on
our modern highways all other stone
construction was forbidden throughout
the entire nation to focus efforts on
st. Petersburg the plan worked
beautifully and the city was built you
see how pleasant the boat ride can be on
a beautiful day like this with lovely
weather and some light refreshments
served onboard ending our boat ride
passing the historic battleship Aurora
where the first shots of the Russian
Revolution were fired