Thursday, July 4th, St. Petersburg

It is another beautiful day, sunny and 79 degrees. We went to the dining room for a late brunch before leaving at 1:00.

As we leave the ship we are required to go through Russian Immigration. The officers do not smile or acknowledge you are even there. It seems to be the thing to talk about, we were told on the ship by Destination Specialist Ian and also by all of our tour guides over the two-day stay in Russia.

Today our excursions was St. Petersburg Waterways and Church of the Spilled Blood. Tania was our tour guide today. The boat had interior and exterior seating, we chose exterior. We travelled the waterways of St Petersburg viewing the beautiful buildings and sites. As we travelled along, a young man was running. He ran from bridge to bridge and would wave to us and do flips now and again. He made the trip very entertaining along the way. We went by the Peter and Paul Fortress which has a beach. Unbelievably there were people swimming in the water which I imagine was very cold.

Our next stop was the Church of the Spilled Blood. This beautiful church has mosaics inside and out. The church was packed with tour groups, but it was spectacular.

We returned to the ship about 5. We left port about 6 and went to the Crows Nest to listen to the "sail away" commentary. Ian was so bad and we couldn't get a drink so we went to our Neptune Lounge for snacks and to our room for drinks. We went down to the Hudson Room (along with everyone else on the ship) for the Grand Russian Bazaar. I bought a Nativity ornament set and Lois won the free prize....a chocolate candy bar!

Dinner was at 9 in the dining room. The waiters talked Lois into two appetizers so I had them also. We had the Smoked Hot Salmon with Lentils and Apple-Horseradish and the Corn Pancakes with Dill-Orange and Cured Salmon. Have to say the waiters recommendation of the Smoked Salmon was the better choice. Lois had the Garden Bounty Salad and I had the Dutch Green Pea Soup. For the entrée Lois had the Grilled Tuna and Haricots Verts and I had the Prime Rib of Beef au Jus. Lois picked the Crème Brulee and I had the Banana and Coconut Cream Trifle.

We headed to the stage show "Dream Park" but it was so terrible we just left and went to bed.

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