Notice how much wider spaced the text is in these patters for our overnight stay in St. Petersburg. They severely limited the amount of activities planned as they didn't expect many people to stay onboard.
With a 6:15AM excursion meeting time there was no opportunity today to photograph the dinner menus much less think about what items might be on them to try as we were off the ship before dawn and back after 1AM the next day. Today we participated in perhaps our priciest ship excursion, "Moscow in a Day."
We had to start so early because it was a four hour train ride into Moscow. We once again had a Princess contracted guide who met us at the ship and rode with us via bus to the train station. There were about 3 other younger female guides in addition to ours and each guide had their own bus worth of passengers. On the plus side, heading out so early meant we had very little wait dealing with immigration and they had a woman there whose sole job was to keep the lines moving directing people into the stalls as soon as one became available. Passport checked, visa filled out and printed and we were on our way in minutes.
We got to the train station so early that we had to wait inside the terminal for over an hour. And of course our whole bus full was so nervous about sticking to the guide that we all stood there in a big clump watching the clock on the wall. Our guide pointed out that our train to Moscow (Mockba) would be the one listed on the signs leaving at 8:42AM and since it was so chilly we would be waiting inside by the doors.
Many of our tour mates were already in the mood to shop and started admiring the display contents at the central counter nearby. I was a little confused as to why this one section seemed to be offering cat food cans until I looked closer...
...and realized it was cans of souvenir candy!
And if you're a traveler who seeks out the most American sounding foods, it seems Russia was most proud of both their kinds of "Subways":
Finally around 8:20AM our train was assigned a platform and our guide told us which specific car number and seat range to choose. This train setup was a little nicer in that the seats were more like business class airplane seats. The ones that were four seats facing each other had a full table in between.
Breakfast was served rather quickly. Today's menu featured a full liter size water bottle per person, a tray of what seemed to be a mix of quiche and hash browns (left) and a fruit Danish/popover (right). What fruit it was, we couldn't decide whether it was pineapple or apple but both were tastier than I expected for a train ride.
Later in the morning tea or coffee was offered and they passed out these packages of some sort of berry filled fruit pastry. Not wanting to push my luck with a full day of touring ahead, I stowed these in my backpack in case I got hungry later. They stayed there until I was so desperate at dinnertime that I pulled one out to try. Fig Newtons they weren't!
After a small nap thanks to a satisfied belly, we met our main guide for the day on the train platform in Moscow. She proceeded to escort us to St. Basil's Cathedral, Red Square, and the Gum department store/mall (pronounced Goom) before letting us wander on our own for about an hour. After succeeding in Dad's quest to find a Moscow specific T-shirt, Dad had to try the ice cream stands set up throughout Gum. Our guide had said they charge 50 Rubles but when Dad bought a chocolate ice cream cone, the guy insisted it was 100 Rubles. Dad liked the ice cream though and agreed with the guide that it tasted very rich.
Important to stay hydrated on a long tour even though it was cool outside. We bought this bottle to share from a street vendor who also had a cooler of frozen treats. We figured out with the conversion that this bottle cost us about $2-3 USD.
Once the group came back together, we walked over to the Metropol Hotel for tea time where all of our bus groups were attending at the same time. By the time I made it through the ladies' room line, the 15-20 seats they provided for a group of at least 100 of us were gone and so was most of the baked goods. I did get to partake of some more water and literally the last few cookies I could gather from various trays around the room.
Don't know what that fruitcake looking slice is but I didn't even want to try it.
Several tables but the chairs didn't even fill the perimeter of the room.
Thankfully our next stop of The Kremlin meant a bus ride because I was certainly lacking in the sugar rush energy department by now. That is definitely one site not for those who can't walk long distances! Cannons, broken bells, and many church buildings later, we finally were led into the super overheated Armory where our guide led our group (and every other person in town it seemed) to each and every artifact and display with a story to go along with it. Finally, at the end she led us to the top floor where Dad had been waiting to see the display of Faberge Eggs.
Finally as the sun was barely starting to set, our guide had us walk all the way back to the street level where our buses were parked. We stood there at the end of the line of buses hoping each bus we saw pull up was ours for the longest time until finally word got passed along between the groups that our bus driver was actually way back at the front of the line waiting for us!
This time, we arrived at the train station and it was super busy with large tour groups and sports teams waiting. Our guide gave us a time to be back and sent us off to wander. One small convenience store style shop was open and many gravitated to that but Dad and I went to check out the vending machines. Dad bought a Twix bar and was surprised that it came out frozen. A lot of the non junk food items were labeled in Russian so we joked with another couple about who was brazen enough to try one of the mystery packages.
Coming from Maryland, I found it funny that it took coming to Russia to find crab chips! (Thank goodness for the picture on the bag.)
Or if you were the more adventurous type, you could even buy these tubes marketed under the name "space food."
For the train ride home, we rode on a bigger train than this morning and thus it took longer to get any food service. They came around with a bar cart offering everyone their choice of free drinks but if you ordered anything other than the cans of beer, they gave you only a small cup worth. An hour of waiting to get anything served, I was afraid to finish off my cup full of Sprite because I had a feeling it was all we were going to get.
Dad went with the can of beer while my cup of soda was half the size.
Another hour or so passes and finally we get served our pre-packaged meal. As shared by fellow cruisers online, we knew the main dish for dinner was going to be salmon so Dad packed some cookies from the ship and our leftover M&Ms from Copenhagen in my backpack to make sure he met all his non seafood food groups. The salmon seemed to be in a sort of barbeque sauce. Our "salad" was a few greens with chunks of hard boiled egg, salmon lox style twists, and cold potato lengthwise slices. Don't think I'll think of "potato salad" quite the same way again. The bread was tough and even tearing off a piece to try left us chewing forever. The saving grace of the tray was a slice of cheesecake. Another 30 minutes to an hour later they brought the bar cart around again. Dad offered to pay in order to get a full bottle of water and the train staff was so shocked that someone could want more than one little cup full. They offered to give him the last half of a liter water bottle they'd been pouring from and we split it between ourselves.
Our train arrival back at the St. Petersburg station was delayed by almost an hour. A crew member who'd chosen to take our tour after working the overnight shift, spent the whole day today on her feet in the hot buildings, and had alcohol with her dinner, promptly stood up to stretch her legs and collapsed. Those with her were quick enough to grab her and lower her to the floor before she had the chance to hit her head on anything. Once on the floor, she had a seizure. After several train staff ran through our car to check on the poor woman in the neighboring car, someone finally thought to ask the passengers for anyone medically trained since the train staff just gathered around staring at her. One of the passengers was a nurse so she stepped up and made sure the woman was stable and would be okay to wait until we got to St. Petersburg again before seeking further medical treatment. This whole time of uncertainty, the train would slow down and speed back up after a while only to slow down again. Dad and I both felt that it would have been better, especially if there was more of an urgent medical crisis, to hightail it back to St. Petersburg faster rather than slowing down just in case she needed to be offloaded in some small town along the way.
Once we did return, our contracted escort guide was helping the sick crew member so we all tried to stay close to one of the other guides who was standing around on the platform. Finally our guide came out onto the platform and instructed us all in her group to go around the large group standing there which meant walking along the far edge of the platform in the dark. She had given her sign for us to help spot her to one of the tall men in our group and he led us all back to the train station and out to our waiting bus. A few minutes of catching our breath on the bus and our guide returned to us expressing her gratefulness at how organized a group we were.
We finally made it back to the ship at 1AM where of course, there was no line to get back through immigration which was great since they had only two stalls open. A quick pit stop to our cabin once back on board to drop our things and we weighed our only two real "dinner" options at this hour - room service and the International Café. Opted for the International Café and it turned into a sort of reunion as many of our tour mates chose the same option. We spent the next 30-40 minutes filling our stomachs with sandwiches and the sodas that a kind bar waitress who had been chatting with the IC staff was able to scrounge up from somewhere. Finally, we dragged our bodies back up to our cabin and settled into bed by 2AM, almost a full 24 hours since we woke up to get ready for this tour!
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