I’m fortunate in that I have an opportunity to travel with my two sons every now and then and we’ve taken some pretty amazing trips together. I’d like to devote the next several posts in this category to one such journey we shared recently, an unforgettable trip to Eastern Europe beginning and ending in Russia with an intermediate stop in Hungary. It took some advance planning as all foreign nationals must have an entry visa to visit the Russian Federation. This means a US citizen must have a valid passport and a bona fide visa issued by a Russian Embassy or Consulate. It’s impossible to obtain an entry visa upon arrival, so you need to apply for your visa well before your departure date. As is common elsewhere in the world, US Passports must be valid for at least 6 months and have 2 blank pages for the visa and migration card. The application fee for the most common nonimmigrant visa types is $160. These include tourist, business, student and exchange visas. Of course, if you use a commercial service to shuttle your passport, completed application and required photograph through the embassy or consulate (as we did), the fees will increase accordingly. We received our visas in a little over 1 month’s time.
I had turned in some #United miles for our trans-Atlantic award tickets and we planned to first visit St. Petersburg, then Budapest, and return home directly from Moscow. Unfortunately, before we left the USA, United Airlines closed their Moscow Station so we were forced to change our flight itineraries. We ended up traveling to, through and from Germany on every leg, thereby becoming very familiar with #Lufthansa’s Inter-European Business Class cabins, service and lounges.We departed the US from #fly2ohare to #MUC_Airport aboard a United Airlines B777-200 and enjoyed the International First Class prduct that has since been replaced by their Polaris Business Class.
We were scheduled to make a mid-morning connection to St. Petersburg but the outbound flight was delayed, causing us to miss our original connection in Munich. The agents at the Lufthansa Business Lounge were terrific and booked us on the next available flight which left later that afternoon. This gave us a chance to shower after our overnight United flight and partake of the excellent food and beverage offerings at this very spacious and pleasant lounge in Terminal Two. This is but one of 12 lounges operated by the carrier in Munich, the second busiest airport in Germany that was ranked first in the whole of Europe for 10 of the past 12 years. In 2018 alone, the Munich Airport handled over 46 million passengers.
Our arrival into St. Petersburg occurred in the evening and we went directly to The Renaissance St. Petersburg Baltic Hotel, our home for the next several days. This #Marriott property, located in a prime city center area, was the perfect place from which to explore the rich history and unique style of one of Russia's most captivating and most European cities. Our adjoining rooms were over 250 square feet, each with a small sitting area and soundproof windows which shut out the traffic noises from the street below. The Canvas Restaurant served both a buffet and a full American breakfast each day and lunch was available there as well, although we were normally elsewhere during the Noon hour.
This hotel is located just a few short blocks from Saint Isaac’s Cathedral, one of the city’s most iconic structures. Designed by French-born architect Auguste de Montferrand, this cathedral took 40 years to build. Work began in 1818 and final construction costs totaled, a then unbelievable, 1 million gold rubles. The gilded exterior is capped by a dome rising 333 feet above ground decorated with 12 statues of angels by Josef Hermann Tautenhayn, noted Austrian sculptor.
The cathedral's interior is massive, at over 75,000 square feet, and the wall of icons and religious paintings is framed by 8 columns of semiprecious stone: 6 of malachite and 2 smaller of lazurite. Under the Soviet regime, the cathedral was stripped of its religious trappings. In 1931 it became the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the museum was removed and regular Russian Orthodox worship services resumed. One could spend hours touring this beautiful cathedral; it’s a truly magnificent and historic structure.
One evening we took the suggestion of the hotel concierge and went to dinner at the famous Stroganoff Steakhouse. It was fairly close to our hotel so we chose to walk. The restaurant has a reputation as one of St. Petersburg’s top luxury spots and the best place in the city for high quality steaks cooked properly. It’s billed as a restaurant with pre-revolutionary style combined with the flair of an American steakhouse. That sums it up nicely. It’s not only known for being the largest steakhouse restaurant in all of Russia, it’s even more popular for its extensive collection of outstanding steaks of domestic meat in a distinctly Western atmosphere. It’s located in a building once used as barracks and stables for the Horse Guard Regiment before the revolution. Remnants of tethering rings, horse shoes and period photos adorn the walls as reminders of these long ago days. The extensive menu (in both Russian and English) offers everything from soups to sides, starters to seafood and a great selection of dry aged, premium cuts of grain-fed Angus steaks. We enjoyed a fantastic evening catching up on the day’s events over a memorable meal.
Not to be missed on a visit to St. Petersburg is the wonderful State Hermitage Museum which has such a rich history and a world famous art collection. The museum consists of 5 interconnected buildings, one of which is the Winter Palace, official residence of the Imperial Family from the 1760s until the Russian Revolution of 1917. Located on the banks of the Neva River, the palace is perhaps the city’s most impressive attraction. The Winter Palace was built between 1754 and 1762 for Empress Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great. Unfortunately, Elizabeth died before the palace's completion and only Catherine the Great and her successors were able to enjoy the sumptuous interiors of Elizabeth's home. Many of the palace's impressive interiors have been remodeled since then, particularly after 1837, when a huge fire destroyed most of the building. Today the Winter Palace, together with four more buildings arranged side by side along the river embankment, houses the extensive collections of the Hermitage. The Hermitage Museum is the biggest art gallery in Russia and is among the largest and most respected art museums in the world.
The museum was founded in 1764 when Catherine the Great purchased a collection of 255 paintings from the German City of Berlin. Today, the Hermitage boasts over 2.7 million exhibits and displays a diverse range of art and artifacts from around the globe and from throughout history (from Ancient Egypt to early 20th Century Europe). Their collections include works by masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian. They also include works by Rembrandt and Rubens and many French Impressionist paintings as well as several Rodin sculptures. The collection is both enormous and diverse and is an essential stop for all those interested in art or history. The experts say that if you were to spend a minute looking at each exhibit on display in the Hermitage, you would need 11 years before you'd seen them all. We made arrangements for a private, guided tour. It was well worth it, and we were able to experience a broad array of items, in only several hours.
Within a few short days it was time to depart St. Petersburg for our next adventure. I’ll tell you all about that in a future “Out of Town” post.
Until next time...safe travels.
What a fascinating trip. Sounds like you and the boys had a memorable experience.
Fascinating insight into St. Petersburg, but no mention of Vodka? A strange omission ... Na Zdorovie