Today we stopped in St. Petersburg, Russia (aka Petrograd or Leningrad). The ship docked on the Neva River, but visitors cannot enter the city without a visa or being with an organized tour. Our first day tour was of the Hermitage, the Winter Palace of Catherine the Great, built in the late 1700s. The architecture is "over the top", competing with the other palaces of Europe for ostentation. There are lots of statuary, parquet floors, marble staircases and columns, chandeliers, gilt and glitter, and of course Catherine's fabulous collection of art from all over Europe. She seemed to specialize in old masters, especially from Holland, Netherlands, and Spain. Unfortunately the Hermitage is a major tourist destination, so it is quite crowded. The tour has to keep moving, to make room for the following groups. It is difficult to appreciate the splendor while being herded along surrounded by other people. I did not bother taking photos; I just gawked at the architecture, decorations and treasures, overwhelmed by the quantity and quality. It was a cold windy rainy day, and we were glad to be indoors. After returning to the ship and taking a brief rest, we enjoyed Tea Time and the string quartet concert. We had dinner at the Red Ginger restaurant, where once again we enjoyed the Asian Fusion menu. Kiyomi reports the sushi plate is satisfactory, and the Chilean Sea Bass is delicious. Stan had the Thai chicken soup with coconut milk and pan-fried noodles, then a delicious tapioca-mango dessert. The show featured the Marina Singers and Dancers in "Swing Time", a retrospective of the music of the 1940s. Again, lots of energy and color made for a very enjoyable show. The second part of the show was the Liars Club, where we had to guess which of three definitions of a word was correct. Des, Cherry and one of the dancers were the "definers" of five words that were unfamiliar (such as tittup, groaking, xhosa). Each definition was accompanied by a very funny story about how the person knows what the word means; but only one definition is true – the other two are lies. The audience guesses which definition is true by applause. Sad to say, we were wrong 3 out of 5 words. Who knew there was a word that means, "fear of having peanut butter stick to the roof of your mouth"?
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