Unwrapping Russia’s riddles
History and culture on Baltic Sea cruise
A Baltic Sea cruise to St. Petersburg, Russia’s historic showplace offers wonders galore, punctuated by breathtaking onboard views of dramatic Nordic coastlines.
But I had a specific mission for the sevenday voyage my wife, Eileen, and I took — one that began with an excursion to Berlin.
As a U.S. army cold warrior 45 years ago, briefly based in what was then West Germany, I aimed to make some sense of the vast changes in Europe since the Soviet Union’s collapse.
Thanks to cultural insights gleaned in Germany’s stately gem of a capital and in Russia’s glittering ‘second city,’ we returned to the U.S. feeling more knowledgeable about the country Winston Churchill famously called “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”
For this, we also give a nod to our local tour guides as well as the ship’s lecturers.
Whatever new impressions we got about Russian politics and history were dwarfed by the impact of the masterpieces on display in the museums and palaces.
They are one and the same in the case of the sprawling, pastel-tinted Hermitage that stretches in a seemingly endless series of connected buildings along the Neva River.
To celebrate Eileen’s impending retirement, we booked a cabin on the Symphony, a 960-passenger ship operated by Crystal Cruise Lines. Our first cruise had been on Crystal seven years ago.
That voyage had taught us that a premium price can come with such important but hard-to-value features as top onboard lecturers and better choices of tours ashore.
Our first stop after embarking from Copenhagen, Warnemunde was a town unfamiliar to me because it lies on Germany’s eastern coast.
Eileen and I were eager for our first look at Berlin, a 90-minute ride from Warnemunde by bus. The excursion focused on the once-divided city’s moves toward reunification at the end of 1989 and the Berlin Wall’s fall, after which the Soviet Union soon dissolved.
Berlin is far more than its Cold War remnants. Broad boulevards took us past modern high rises, as well as famous edifices such as the Reichstag building and the Brandenburg Gate.
After lunch, we immersed ourselves in taking photographs of various segments of the Wall. Other highlights included Checkpoint Charlie and the towering columns of the Brandenburg Gate.
In a museum dedicated to American, British and French occupiers two rousing speeches by U.S. presidents were played to demonstrate Berliners’ love for Americans: John F. Kennedy declaring “Ich bin ein Berliner” in June 1963 followed by Ronald Reagan, in 1987, taunting the Soviets with “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
After Berlin, we sailed overnight across the Baltic to Helsinki, spending the next day on a bus tour. One more night at sea got us to St. Petersburg.
Looking deceptively plain from the port, the city began to unfold its wonders as our tour bus neared the Neva River.
The excursion focused on Russia’s czarist architecture and great art collections.
As for life in the city, we hoped to learn something about that from our local tour guides, who praised how Russia continues to preserve and restore the treasures we were shown.
The topic of restoration led to another theme — one that touched on the Russians’ animosity toward their own, earlier occupiers: the Nazis.
Restorers were the behind-the-scenes stars at two palaces we visited outside the city’s perimeter: the Catherine Palace from 1717, with a spectacular ‘Amber Room’ decorated with the precious substance, and Peterhof from 1721, with terrace after terrace of glorious fountains.
Both had been all but destroyed during the Siege of Leningrad and palace displays featured shocking before-and-after photographs of the ruin at the hands of the Germans.
We devoted a whole day to St. Petersburg’s Hermitage, the height of Russian opulence.
It sustained little damage during the long German siege, through which Soviet defenders kept the enemy from breaking through at the city’s outskirts.
As for attack from the air, our guide, Anna, proudly recounted how camouflaging the Hermitage had fooled German bombers — an almost unbelievable achievement given its enormous frontage.
As we strolled the expansive galleries, we felt as if we were wandering through a cross between the Smithsonian and the National Gallery — several times over. The dazzling gold trim adorning the walls and high arched ceilings of the Hermitage amazed us.