When we come alive on Sunday dawn , we had get out the European Union behind and enter a commonwealth that most of us could n’t have dreamed of visiting even ten old age ago : Russia . now St. Petersburg , which sits at the mouthpiece of the Neva river and the Baltic Sea , is a democratic port of call for cruise ship . We were one of at least four ( at my counting ) ship docked at St. Petersburg when we arrive .
Perhaps to make those innumerable stories about Russians waiting in eternally long lines strike household , every entree and exit from our ship onto Russian soil required look in a line , commonly a pretty long one . Clearly this was a different country than any I ’ve visited before , a peak hammer home by the Cyrillic writing on the signs and the still - clear signaling of 70 eld of Communist ruler . ( To see all the photos that go with this blog entry , visit Mac Mania 3.5 exposure gallery 3 .
Still , St. Petersburg is full of spectacular sights . As a city on several river , there are bunch of waterway cross by lots of bridge , and it seems that there ’s a canal around every corner . burnished gold onion plant domes top Russian Orthodox churches . And hordes of capitalists at every turn , trying to make money off of busload of western tourists .
unlike cruise groups took different tours of St. Petersburg . ( Without a tour , you would have to expend the time and money to seek a Russian holidaymaker visa , which braveMacworldcontributor Ben Long did . ) Ours took a tour of the metropolis before entering the Hermitage , a building that would be among the world ’s finest based solely on its own merit — but one which also happens to contain one of the okay art collections in the earth . build for the Czars and Czarinas as their Winter Palace , the Hermitage is decorated in gold leaf , with spectacular paint archways meticulously replicate from the Vatican and faultless doors , cap , and wall .
with child parts of it are n’t air conditioned , which in this part of Russia is believably not a major problem . But we have been very lucky with the weather on this Cruise , with temperatures in the LXX and 80s . And the Hermitage is a very popular museum , tamp with people . As a result , the museum was stuffy and hot . After a couple of hours that boast name like Michelangelo , Rembrandt , Monet , and Manet , several of us ( some toting diminished children ) formed an Escape Committee and , with a minor amount of dramatic play , repaired to the large square outside of the Hermitage for a nice Russian internal-combustion engine ointment pop purchase from one of the legion vendors on the site . Those who pick out not to escape , but preferred to view more French impressionist painting , joined us later — but no ice cream for them .
Sunday we woke up to the oddity that many of us had bear for some time : it was the Fourth of July , and here we were … in Russia ! Talk about a confluence of case you ’ll never forget . Our Independence Day body process was to call in Peterhof , the Czar ’s Summer Palace . A modest dacha by the sea-coast this is not . Instead , it ’s a monumental palace , even more beautiful buildings that flaunted the Czar ’s massive wealth . Peterhof was impressive on the inside , but frankly , I was more impressed with the grounds , which feature hundreds of fountains , all powered by solemnity , from a series of pools on the landed estate .
Upon returning to the ship , we shifted power train from Russia to America . The crew of the Westerdam was genial enough to put on a good old - fashioned American barbecue around the swimming pool , and we carry advantage , finding a bit of Fourth of July spirit far , far from home . burger , baked beans , hot dogs , chicken — the works .
Our visit to Helsinki , Finland , on Tuesday was comparatively short — only about eight hours . It must ’ve been the hottest day of the class , or closemouthed to it , as temperature were well in the 80s . The beaches and Park were packed with sunbathers , honestly not the great deal I expected to see when visiting Finland for the first time . Ferries were everywhere , taking tourists and locals alike to little island that are part of Helsinki and are pop as green , especially on quick days like this one .
We read a bus tour around Helsinki ’s pretty downtown , include two interesting Lutheran churches . One , near the middle of town right off of Senate Square , is a majestic cathedral . The other , further outdoors of the main downtown area , was build in 1969 and was carved out of rock’n’roll . During our bus tour , I took reward of a tip I got during the Fourth of July barbecue from David Pogue : iPod Shuffles loaded with kids ’ medicine are great at disquiet shaver when they get world-weary . I was smart enough to fetch a make loaded with my girl ’s preferent medicine , and so I heeded David ’s advice and brought it along on our bus enlistment . Sure enough , my toddler get bored with the audio tour description in a hurry , but she enjoyed listening to her Sung on the Shuffle .
When we returned from our day in Helsinki — after my married woman corrupt a Smurfi sal soda entirely based on the fact that there were Smurfs on the label , which was unfortunate since pear - flavored Smurfi is one of the most vile drinks ever known to subsist on planet Earth — we hold out up to the syndicate deck for a later lunch . It turns out that the pocket billiards deck on the ship offers AirPort access , so you could sit down by the pond and check your tocopherol - mail , rather than venturing down to the more staid surroundings at the ship ’s Internet Cafe . In both locations , though , I notice a whole bunch of PowerBooks . There ’s no doubt whose operating system wears the pants onthisparticular ship .
Next up for us is a country that actually has its own version ofMacworld , even though they insist on take advantage the W inSveriges MacWorld . On to Stockholm , Sweden !
