Getting on the ship

St Petersburg.




Today was a zoo to start out with because all 200+of the members of the trip were in the lobby at the same time. They got us boarded onto the buses and out and after that, it was fine. We drove around as the guide (another Natasha) told us about things and she was excellent. We finally stopped at St Isaac’s cathedral which was beautiful. It truly was one of the prettiest churches I have ever seen even though it was gilded with gold all over. Next we went to lunch at a nice restaurant. It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining and we didn’t even have to wear our jackets. Hope this lasts. After lunch we went to the Hermitage which was one of the best museums I’ve ever been to. The art was just outstanding and we went on our own instead of listening to the guides as we knew we would not remember it anyway. There were a number of Renoir and other painters that I love and lots of Picasso pieces. We stayed until mid afternoon and then finally came to the ship. It was so good to get on the ship and get settled in, though it took awhile as the luggage was not loaded on the bus we were on-just whatever and my luggage came on the last bus. But Jim’s came and he was able to unpack and get his things put away. We explored the ship some and it is very different from the other GCT Riverboats. The beds are permanent instead of fold down types and the rooms are very small but well thought out. There are two lounges and for meetings our yellow group has been assigned the smaller lounge as a meeting point. We are on the middle deck and the restaurant is on our floor. There is a library with two computers and you can use them but they are not free and I can’t use my laptop. The Viking ship docked next to us has free wifi. But you have to have an account so I can’t use it. Hope GCT gets with the program and offers that soon. It is timed on the computers here for 15 min segments. And it is not cheap. But at least they have it most of the time.

Dinner was nice-the dining room is basically two rooms with a few tables in between which is where we sat. I had salmon and baked potato and it was very good. It is one of the two choices you can get any meal so that is good. I will probably be sick of salmon by the time this is over.

It is almost 10 oclock