16/5 St Petersburg and farewell

Thursday 16^th The Iron Curtain

We spent the night in St Petersburg but we can’t go ashore without Russian visas. We didn’t have time to get one before we left home and at that stage the visa site we rely on was saying we didn’t need one. They tend to change frequently and seem to have done so again. At least J got ashore yesterday.

We joined a trio of Poms and a Yank which made for a well-balanced and complete quiz team. Not surprisingly, we won by 4 clear points. Almost 2 hours in the gym then we cleaned up and had lunch. A very good seafood stew. We got to play off for the golf putting tournament and I added that title to my shuffleboard win yesterday.

It wasn’t warm enough to get in the sun so we had a read instead. I went ashore and tried to get past the immigration but to no avail. Two humourless Sovietski Sheilas who would only say “Russian visa”. I suggested all I wanted was a passport stamp but eventually I conceded that this was one I was not going to win.

We scored a 2^nd in the evening trivia then came 2^nd at shuffleboard. We took our complementary Napa Valley merlot down to dinner, which was very good. We had a richly flavoured chowder full of seafood, seafood stew and the lamb shanks reappeared on the menu – beautifully done. We finished with vanilla balls and coconut soufflé with lime and mango sauce.

By this time we had cast off from St Petersburg and cruised out past the island of Kronstad. In fact the channel narrows right down to about 80 metres, with a highway full of trucks tunnelling underneath. The island has some picturesque buildings, particularly a smallish cathedral but there were also onshore oil rigs, a commercial and naval port and old fortifications. The Russians managed to defend St Petersburg (then Leningrad) during the war.

The shops were full of Russian merchandise and they re-opened with great ceremony but the great bulk of it was cheap Asian imitations, which we will probably find cheaper in Hong Kong. Certainly J bought cheaper nested dolls ashore. The art gallery showed a very interesting 12 minute film called Destino, which was a collaboration between Salvador Dali and Walt Disney in 1945. Dali had designed the animated story and painted a lot of his surreal artworks to complement it, but the project was sidelined and archived before they made the movie. It was only rediscovered recently and a team of French artists did the artwork. We found it interesting and a good conversion of Dali’s work into a movie but when they then unfurled a set of Dali prints, which they wanted to sell for $22,000, we turned and fled.

The evening show was a girls only tribute to the music of the 60s. It was a bit patchy and totally ruined for me by the incessant chattering going on behind us. I think we need to make a point of sitting away from the back, although that does not guarantee considerate behaviour either. One couple sitting directly behind us moved away after a glare but there was a general babble all along the back.

We are getting our two hours back tonight and the next night. Then attention will shift to ensuring that we get to the airport at Copenhagen in time for our flight to London. We dock at 7.30 and the checkin closes at 9.35. Very tight. We know how to get there and have Danish money ready but it will be a nervous few hours.