Leningrad siege memorial

John remembered this specifically from his last visit to St. Petersburg and was very moved by it.  So, the little van stopped us there and lo and behold not the one that John was talking about.  This was a huge memorial to the siege of Leningrad as it was known then

 when they were surrounded by German forces for 900 days and bombed, starved, and never broke.  It is a horrifying story if you ever want to delve into it and I’m pretty sure there is some new documentary out in English about it.  Anyway this memorial is not the one that John had gone  to which was the site of the mass graves and eternal flame, but was a monumental memorial none the less.  There was soaring music playing at all times and a 

  huge circle in the middle of the road.  We were most likely the only one on all 6 of the cruise ships docked here to see it.  That’s another thing, this is the busiest port that we have ever been in with the exception of Cozumel.  Since boats spend two days here, we watched some

  leave our first night and others arrive on our second day and you know that our berth and the other two ships leaving with us were being taken by someone else.  Our “little” tour company had a fleet of buses, drivers, and guides operating at all times.

We returned to the ship and got to dinner to find out that our

 table mates had done an excursion through the ship and no one in their group could understand their guide.  They said that their whole excursion was a fiasco and this made us feel a lot better about paying less and getting the quality that we were getting.  I wanted to go out after dinner to see the white night and we were able to take a shot of it being 10:30 at night with the ability to still play golf it was so light.  The sun was down, but it doesn’t dip very far below the horizon before rising again.  So, actual dusk was around 11pm and the sunrise is set for 3:30am.  So, it’s not really white nights, it’s white mornings.  Our evening vodka cruise on the Neva river was cancelled because of low participation, but I was exhausted anyway and not inclined to argue.  But how does a river cruise during white nights with vodka in Russia not make?!?! With 3 cruise ships in port!?!?!?!?  Madness….