Arriving in St. Petersburg, Russia

“Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!" Translation of Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev, quoted in Time magazine in 1956.

When I was a little boy, I couldn't imagine visiting Russia as a tourist. I thought of it as a cold, gray country filled with unsmiling people led by a sour-faced bald guy who pounded the table with his shoe while he shouted. As I grew older, I learned more, and every new revelation made it less desirable. Somewhere I heard they didn't believe in God, because they thought the government in effect superseded god. Their country was based on the philosophy of Karl Marx, who famously said, “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” I wasn't sure what it meant, but I didn't like it. They wanted to destroy our country and the freedoms and liberties for which it stands.

I vividly remember playing four square in my drive way with Glenn Rocha and a few other kids from my street as we talked about the Cuban Missile Crisis, repeating what we overheard our parents say, and fearing nuclear missiles from Russia (without love). Russia's “democracy” allowed them to vote for the Communist Party's official candidate or abstain. Their government forced them to work in assigned jobs, and not unlike slavery, regardless of their personal output, they all made the same income, except for the fortunate few in government and those deemed worthy by them. The Politburo, not the free market, decided what was fair.

Their athletes were powerful foes at the Olympic Games, and I hated when they beat our American team at anything. Where smiling Americans sacrificed all the fun of living in our great country to pursue the honor of winning gold for our country, the unsmiling Russians had been forced into training while children as the only chance for their families to possibly move above the sorry state of being part of the proletariat. It was a country of equality, where all were equally miserable, except the privileged few. This is what I believed growing up. Why visit a country like that even if I could?








In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan called Russia the Evil Empire and told them to adapt to the rising tide of freedom. “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Reagan's policy, posture and speeches told the world he wasn't afraid of Russia, giving courage to satellite states of the USSR to stand up to Russia, too. Reagan called Russia's bluff, and raised it. He raised it again. Everyone was surprised when Russia folded, including me. It happened after Reagan's Vice President, George Bush, had succeeded him as president, but it was the relentless efforts of President Ronald Reagan that wore Russia down.






The day before St. Petersburg we had visited Finland, which stood up to Russia at the time of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 to gain its freedom, and again after World War II, when Russia undoubtedly would have liked to drag Finland behind the Iron Curtain. While Russia's state run economy floundered, next door capitalist Finland became the country with the highest per capita income in the world. After St. Petersburg, we would visit Estonia, Poland and East Germany, remarkably brave countries that followed President Reagan's lead and threw off the shackles of communism. It was a fitting preamble and exclamation points to our visit of Russia.

Due to circumstances beyond their control, our ship arrived in port an hour or two late, which led to chaos getting ashore.

While Russia has opened St. Petersburg to tourism, it is still Russia, not Florida, so there is plenty of red tape even in the best of situations. Visitors must be escorted and officially be guests of other Russian citizens. Visas must be purchased with schedules of what will be visited and when, unless you have a hosted shore excursion. Most passengers take the path of least resistance, booking tours through the cruise line. Even our family, which almost never buys shore excursions through the ship, were among the throngs waiting for Princess to sort out tours going ashore. While they announced the excursions would leave an hour to two hours behind schedule, people still showed up at their assigned times, overflowing capacity of the meeting area and staff. Others going ashore who were not on Princess excursions could not debark until Princess shore excursions had been processed, so going with Princess was still the right choice.

To make a long story short, we eventually made it to the customs area, which was actually actually modern and quite attractive, just as they are when built by cruise lines all over the world. As might be expected in a bureaucratic country, few of the booths were occupied, so the lines were long, but the civil servant stamped our passports without incident. On the bus, we waited longer than we would have liked, because apparently someone scheduled to join us got lost in the shuffle. Eventually we left without them.

Riding through the streets of St. Petersburg, I was surprised that the traffic jams reminded me of Long Beach city streets. This wasn't a Scandinavian city of bicycles like we previously saw on this trip. It kind of felt familiar in an odd way, although the signs were written in Russian instead of in English or Spanish.

As we drove along, our guide spoke about how Peter the Great, upon returning from traveling abroad, wanted to build a more European capital which would be located on the coast to open the country to the world. He built this city in marshes using his greatest resource among an impressive store of natural resources: a massive labor force. Everyone was told to bring a bag of rocks when they came to St. Petersburg, and if a worker died, his body became part of the foundation of St. Petersburg. Peter built a city of canals that the Russians like to call the Venice of the North, although I would have to say a lot gets lost in the translation from sunny Italy to St. Petersburg. As our guide the next day, Sophia, said, quoting a local truism, “There are two seasons in St. Petersburg: the season of expectation and the season of disappointment.”

I think that applies to not simply the weather but also the plight of the people. As we drove past apartments, our guide pointed to those built in different eras and described what they were like inside. Those built under Lenin when communism was young were larger and relatively comfortable. Lenin was a mass murderer, killing tens of thousands of political dissenters, but he must not have been a bad real estate developer. As times went by, many of those units came to be shared by several families, sharing common spaces like kitchens and bathrooms while cramming a whole family into one bedroom for sleeping and private space. Under Kruschev, the apartments got smaller, with low ceilings to squeeze more units into the same city block. They kept getting smaller, and a joke is that the small units are great for the housewife, because she can remain seated at the kitchen table while she takes things from the stove or puts dirty dishes in the sink.

Now, with the emergence of capitalism, deluxe units have become fashionable. Large and comfortable, they unfortunately are beyond the reach of most citizens. If you're an ex-KGB agent running a nightclub or oil company, however, then you can live in style. As we continued on toward the monument of excess known as Peterhof, I found myself hoping that the unfairness of their transition toward the freedom we love doesn't get sidetracked in Russia. Even more, I pray that my own country doesn't get blown away from the freedom and liberty we have always cherished by the winds of change. Karl Marx said, “The proletariat is the undertaker of capitalism.”

Sadko and St. Isaac's Cathedral

At the outset, before touring the incredible Hermitage, our guide said she had two names, Sophia and Sonia, one of which had been assigned by her tour company. She said Sophia meant wise, while Sonia meant sleepy. I guess because I found her more wise than sleepy, I remembered that as her name, but Amy corrected me, reminding me that Sonia’s joke had been that she was more sleepy than wise, so that is what we called her.

Sonia selected Sadko for lunch. The lovely restaurant was relatively empty when we arrived, possibly because we took our lunch hour so late in the day. Regardless, several waiters stood at the ready, and we enjoyed excellent service and delicious food.

As an entrepreneur I couldn’t help but consider how the restrictions on tourists limit a place like this, as opposed to Cafe Optimisten, for example, in Copenhagen, a city where tourists just wander wherever they choose and pick based on their individual tastes. Obviously, if you could persuade enough tour guides to bring their groups around, then you could open in a poor location and not worry about losing too much to someone paying high rent for better exposure. However, so much of tourism relies on people wandering around and discovering a wonderful place, and that avenue to new business is almost completely forfeited in Russia. In any case, the guides definitely have it in their best interests to choose a restaurant with great food and service, which Sadko definitely is.

The local beer was a refreshing lager, which in the Russian alphabet looked to be named something like bOYKAPEB. The tasty brew went very well with my Beef Stroganov. I can’t remember what everyone had, but I know Gina ordered something including the word Paprika, which was a stuffed red bell pepper, and Jay had some kind of kabob that looked rather unique. Brooks ordered borscht as a starter, and he said it was much better than borscht he had ever tried elsewhere. He and Darlene said the wine was good, too. All of us enjoyed our meals thoroughly.

Sonia shared some personal feelings with us about life in Russia. I had the inescapable feeling there would be a crackdown on her if she went too far, although I certainly didn’t see anyone spying on our tables, unless the waiters waiting to serve were KGB. Nonetheless, there isn’t that American atmosphere where you can say anything you want, whether about politics or the state of your life, like we historically experience in the United States. Complaining or telling jokes about President Bush or President Clinton, for example, would never have seemed likely to lead to imprisonment, even if expressed on television. That’s the American way, and I pray we never lose it.

I’m not exactly sure how degrees translate, but I believe Sonia had just received her master’s degree in art to go along with a bachelor’s degree in biology. She undoubtedly enjoys being a guide for American tourists and is very good at it, but in America, she would have many more opportunities to exploit her education. I think she is representative of many Russians who love their country but are frustrated by the limitations of a controlled economy. One of our previous guides, for example, had stated that Peterhof was patterned after Versailles and then added wistfully that those of us who had been to both could say which was better. She had the knowledge and wisdom but not the freedom and finances to find out for herself.

I asked her how the citizens liked the freedoms versus the old way, which I phrased about that awkwardly. I was wondering if the emerging capitalism was working, because at my age, I see a clear break around 1990 when new freedoms were introduced. However, as a young woman whose life experience was focused on more recent events, Sonia interpreted my question differently. She said somewhat haltingly that things seemed to be moving in the direction of less freedom, as the government has taken back some of the control they gave up after the Soviet Union breakup. Of course, the problem with central government control is that moving toward it is an easy slouch, but breaking out of the calcified shackles takes great effort. I hope Russian citizens can stand up tall for freedom.

With the 40th anniversary of Woodstock being recently celebrated in the media, I heard the old Crosby, Stills and Nash song, “Wooden Ships,” on the radio yesterday in Manhattan Beach. The anti-war lyrics basically talk about two former enemies meeting in a post-apocalyptic world, realizing they are the same and must work together to survive, regardless of knowing which side won the war.

I also find that countries have mostly good people everywhere in the world, regardless of their governments, but what CSN and those with heads in the same smoke cloud may fail to notice is that there is a major difference between a country that allows personal freedoms and one that does not. I hope Russia can find its way toward greater freedom and America doesn’t lose our way.

We went to St. Isaac’s Cathedral after lunch, and behind its neoclassical exterior is a remarkable interior filled with gorgeous art.

Again, we’re fortunate that the communists didn’t tear it down completely. Instead, they made it into a Museum of Atheism, and now it is a reborn church.












We also enjoyed a pleasant walk in a beautiful park, arriving at a statue of Peter the Great, the Russian I seemed to keep finding wherever I went in St. Petersburg. In fact,
St. Isaac’s Cathedral was named after Peter’s patron saint, Isaac of Dalmatia, on whose celebration day Peter was born. There’s still much more I learned about St. Petersburg I haven’t covered.  


For example, in 1914, on the cusp of World War I, they changed the name to Petrograd from the German sounding name we know, because they were on the opposite side from Germany in that war. The communists changed the name to Leningrad, to celebrate their mass-murdering leader’s accomplishments. In 1991, the new wave of freedom brought back the original name, St. Petersburg, symbolically paving the way for tourists to discover the amazing history of the area before the gray Soviet era.




We had maybe fifteen minutes to spare, and we considered driving to see a few other buildings, but the traffic, like American big cities approaching rush hour, had become a snarling mess, so we headed back to our home away from home.

After a great dinner including snapper in Thai sauce, we saw “Boogie Nights” in the showroom. While it was a well-conceived show, the sound mix was poor, something I rarely hear on a cruise, where they seem to always have great sound and lighting teams to complement the talented performers. Regardless, it had been a terrific day, perhaps the best of the trip.

An Evening at Catherine's Palace

The intrigues of Russian royalty fill many long books, and it would be unrealistic to attempt to cover them all here. Suffice it to say that Peter the Great divorced his first wife and eventually married Catherine, who was not Russian but rather from a part of Sweden that is now Estonia. They had nine children together, but only two survived to adulthood, which was the sad state of medicine at that time.

While St. Petersburg was being built, they lived in a three room log cabin, where she tended house and he gardened as if he was not the Tsar of Russia. Perhaps that love of common life as much as her great beauty, intelligence and warm personality attracted Peter to Catherine, who was the daughter of a commoners rumored to be escaped serfs.

Peter continued with enormous construction projects, and as with the tradesmen who worked for Mad Ludwig in Germany decades later, I’m sure a lot of people were happy to have good jobs making his big dreams reality. In 1717, he and Catherine commissioned Catherine’s Palace, another amazing place we were privileged to visit while in Russia.

Despite his common touch, Peter the Great changed his title from Tsar to Emperor, and he made Catherine his Empress, a title he did not take from her despite the fact that they became estranged in 1724 when he learned of her involvement in some court intrigue that involved selling favors based on political connections, something completely anathema to his idea of a meritocracy.

Peter had modern ideas, believing people should rise in positions due to competence rather than noble birth. Had he not died at the age of 52 due to health complications suffered as a result of rescuing drowning soldiers from freezing water in the winter of 1725, perhaps Russia would have developed more along the path of America’s example.

While built for Empress Catherine I and improved by Empress Elizabeth, Catherine’s Palace is most closely associated with Empress Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great. Under her reign, the noble class was strengthened, and she relished the glamorous life.

On our evening excursion to Catherine’s Palace, we were granted a glimpse into that world, along with about 90 others, so let me share a little information about Catherine the Great. Born in 1729, four years after the death of Peter the Great, Sophia Augusta Frederica was a child of Prussian nobility. Attempts to arrange a marriage between her and Duke Peter von Hostein-Gortopp, who was in line to be Emperor of Russia, were thwarted when her mother was accused of spying for the King of Prussia by Empress Elizabeth.

However, Sophia eventually was invited to visit the royal court and went out of her way to impress Empress Elizabeth and the Russian people. A bright girl, she studied the Russian language intently, and in 1745 at the age of 16 she married the Duke and became Duchess Catherine.

She read extensively and enjoyed friendships with some of the great thinkers of her day, including Voltaire. She stayed current with all the news throughout the world. The marriage, however, was less than ideal. Duke Peter had a mistress, while Duchess Catherine took many lovers.

In 1762, Empress Elizabeth died, and the Duke became Emperor Peter III while Catherine became Empress Consort. The Emperor left St. Petersburg to live with his courtiers in Oranienbaum, and rumor had it that he planned to get rid of Catherine. She beat him to the punch, staging a “bloodless coup d’etat.” Three days later, however, Peter was killed by Alexei Orlov, who supported the coup. Whether Catherine was involved or not, Russian royalty and the populace went along with the succession, along the lines of non-Russian Catherine I succeeding Peter the Great upon his death.

Catherine saw no reason to improve the lot of her subjects, but in international terms, she was a powerful leader, winning wars and modernizing along the lines of Europe.

Russia became one of the most powerful nations in the world, which is quite remarkable considering what it had been about a century earlier when Peter the Great came to power.  After the French Revolution in 1789, Catherine II rejected many tenets of the Age of Enlightenment, preferring the old ways of nobility ruling by right of birth, which had certainly been good for her and her cousins throughout Europe.

Coming on the heels of our visit to Peterhof, which was amazing but definitely overcrowded, this was like being honored guests at a royal reception. We took a leisurely stroll through the lovely gardens, greeted by a uniformed band. We toured the carriage house, where gorgeous carriages that once carried royalty are on display.

Once inside the Palace, we took a leisurely, uncrowded tour of the amazing rooms. The amber room, with walls made entirely of amber designs, was both garish and amazing. A flute player by an incredible fire place entertained us as we passed one room, and a harpsichordist played in another ornate room. It was really a treat.

Eventually, we arrived in the giant ballroom, where we had string quartet and champagne awaiting us. Dancers entertained us, and even Empress Catherine herself made an appearance.
(Okay, I know it wasn’t really her, but it was cool.) She invited us out to the garden, where a horse drawn carriage arrived carrying a couple who further entertained us with dancing.

Afterwards, we headed to a restaurant on the grounds, where we had excellent vodka, mediocre caviar and bad wine before a great dinner was served.

The gentleman sitting next to me and his wife didn’t drink vodka, so they gave me theirs. With Amy’s, that meant I had four, but Jay and Julie quickly made like communists and redistributed my wealth, so we each had two. All the while, a band of folk musicians featuring a singer who had the range of Pavarotti entertained us with great music and dancing.
Not all of the music was Russian, but it was all delivered with good-humored energy and flare worthy of a command performance. Not at all stuffy, the band came across as happy celebrants, welcoming honored guests to the hospitality of Russia.

This was an expensive excursion, and I would never have selected it if Julie hadn’t insisted, but I highly recommend it if you take this cruise. How often will any of us be in St. Petersburg?

Though it was close to midnight, it was still dusk, and we all had contented smiles on our faces as we rode back to the ship on the bus. We'll always remember fondly An Evening at Catherine's Palace.

Morning Stroll in Kotor, Montenegro

Arriving in the Bay of Kotor, it became obvious that claims of this being "the Fjords of the Mediterranean" were not hyperbole.

The black mountains rise majestically from the blue seas.

Kotor itself is another gorgeous city, uniquely different from Dubrovnik and the other ports we'd visited on this cruise, but just as enticing in its own way.

With an early arrival giving us a couple of hours before we would meet up with our tour, we wandered into town after a delicious full breakfast on board.  It would not have been a bad decision to find a table at one of the quaint sidewalk cafés that were setting up when we arrived to enjoy coffee and pastries or whatever constitutes a full breakfast in this exotic part of the world.

We wandered along the ancient city wall and then around the cobblestone streets.  Kotor is a village I can easily imagine as the setting for an old favorite song, Year of the Cat.  Appropriately, we encountered several cats, including one particularly friendly one that looked like our family cat Raja.

It would not be a bad place for Al Stewart's lyrics to play out:

"Well morning comes and you're still with her.  And the bus and the tourists are gone

"And you've thrown away your choice and lost your ticket, so you have to stay on."

It would be the perfect setting for a romance with lovers walking hand in hand, or an action movie with a chase scene across fragile tile rooftops.  Perhaps a spy movie.  Not surprisingly, several movies have been filmed in part in Montenegro.

In one of the most famous spy movies, Casino Royale starring Daniel Craig as James Bond, Montenegro is supposed to be the site of the big poker game, but oddly the Montenegro scenes were not filmed there.  Perhaps for the next remake, the city will be ready to strike a glamorous pose?

Growing up, I had the Cold War image of Yugoslavia --- like the rest of the Iron Curtain countries--- being a cold, gray place where unsmiling men in trench coats and fedoras spied on anyone who dared have a joyful thought so as to immediately snuff it out before it could spread.

In the 1990's, that image turned to a war torn region where religious fanatics clashed.

Of course, lovely Dubrovnik had already shown us how historic beauty could survive the Soviet Era, how the spark of humanity could not be permanently suppressed.

For some reason, I simultaneously had an impression that Montenegro might be some sort of luxurious playground for the "more equal" cronies of the tyrant Tito and their counterparts among Politburo overseers vacationing from Moscow.  Perhaps the lingering image came from a reference in some old Man From U.N.C.L.E. or Mission: Impossible episodes?  I believe it was before 2006, when Montenegro "appeared" in Casino Royale.

The resort image seems most in tune with what we found in Kotor and subsequently our Viator Tour by Private Driver to Perast, Budva and Sveti Stefan, which resulted in so many photos they require separate posts.

With many wonderful excursions from which to choose for the port of Kotor, we selected that particular one for one primary reason.  As Julie asked, when will we ever find another full-day private driver tour for two for less than $200?  Since then, excursion prices seem to have crept higher, as the world continues to re-awaken as if from a poisoned-apple slumber, but it is still a great value.

Was the tour as great as the private van tour we took in St. Petersburg 13 years ago that cost considerably more?  In terms of beauty, Montenegro more than held her own, but the tour itself was not nearly as informative.

Our driver was neither a professional guide nor knowledgeable about history, art and literature like our guide Sophia in St. Petersburg.

Instead, she was a woman trying to make ends meet by juggling a job carting tourists like Julie and me around for a daily paycheck with the tough task of raising two kids alone while her husband tries to establish a new life for the family as a trucker in the United States.  She was certainly interesting in her own way, as humans tend to be when given the chance, sharing how her family and countrymen struggled through Covid-19 shutdowns to the vital tourist industry.

She spoke about how her parents were of the older generation that lacked sufficient time to build nest eggs for retirement in the short period since the Soviet Union crumbled.  She said they longed for the old days of a "more powerful" Yugoslavia, which was surprising to me.

Perhaps they were part of the ruling class, but more likely worked for a state-run seaside resort where their salaries weren't much but paychecks were steady and retirement assured.  Unfortunately, those gray men in trench coats seem to have received preferable treatment during the transition from socialism, becoming oligarchs who vacation in Cyprus while working people struggle.

Whatever those struggles may be for different families, the coast of Montenegro is a lovely place to live, at least during the warmer seasons.

On this morning, Julie and I relished the pleasant morning weather as we strolled around the village that was just waking up.  As you can see from the photos, it was quite a treat to walk off our floating resort ahead of the throngs and savor this ancient town stained rich with history and character.