Wednesday 3rd of July 2019 - St Petersburg Day 2 (Russia)

View from the cabin - lots of ships in today

Thankfully we didn't start this tour till the afternoon - it was one of the worst tours we've done so far.

This was the ship that signalled the beginning of the Russian revolution (according to our guide)

We started with a tour of the city by bus, there are a lot of grand buildings and it's trying really hard to be Moscow as far as I can tell - they even have a replica (but better according to our guide) of St Basil's.

We then moved onto a tour via boat - this was quite nice (except for the guide forgetting to hand out the drinks, and loudly arguing with the crew).  Anyway, the boat dropped us somewhere the guide wasn't expecting - so we had to walk through a construction site - great for the old people with canes, almost had a few fall.  We then took a walk through the Palaces and had another look at the ridiculous wealth of the Tsars.

At this point it started raining - and the guide kept us standing outside (rather than move under cover) while she bullshitted on - at this point Dave and I walked away and just took cover from the rain.

We rejoined the bus eventually and headed back to the ship.

A rare occurrence - after midnight - clear hallways!

And guess what - Dave got stopped at customs - again.  This time it was right before sail away, they called in multiple supervisors and eventually a military officer - the officer however wasn't stupid - he escorted Dave onto the ship, past the customs officials - Dave was the last passenger to get on the ship!  We were later told by other passengers that they also had been delayed for stupid reasons (hair not styled the way it was in the passport photo, wearing glasses or a hat).

Why they didn't question him coming back the first day - or going out the second day.. but right before the ship was to leave they had a problem with him - Russia, nice place to visit - wouldn't want to be imprisoned there!