The 14 day Cities of The Baltic sea cruise had numerous highlights for this enrichment speaker: Star filled nights aboard the Saga Sapphire whilst sailing out of Stockholm, canal cruises around St Petersburg, visits to Viking Ships in Norway and much more….. However the highlight for me was the visit to the Winter Palace, situated on the banks of the Neva River in St. Petersburg, Russia.
As a jeweller and Faberge’ Egg fanatic, Crest Cruise Speakers arranged for me to present talks onboard the beautiful ship the Saga Sapphire. My talks whilst in Russia were based on the lavish and ingenious series of Imperial Easter Eggs created by the Egg Man himself, Mr Carl Faberge’.
After viewing 9 Faberge’ Eggs purchased from the Malcomb Forbes Collection by Viktor Veklesburg in 2004 for $100 Million, I merrily skipped my way along side the canal to the Winter Palace.
The Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, was, the official residence of the Russian monarchs from 1732-1917. Known also as the Hermitage Museum, the palace was constructed on a monumental scale intended to reflect the might and power of Imperial Russia.
From the palace, the Tsar ruled over 22,400,000 sq km -8,600,000 sq mi (almost 1/6 of the Earth’s landmass). Nicholas II ruled over 125 million subjects by the end of the 19th century.
Upon visiting this magnificent palace, the universal thought from tourists is “No wonder they had a revolution!”. The grandeur, luxury and sheer size of this palace is beyond anything I had imagined.
The green and white 3 storey palace. is a marvel of baroque architecture and boasts 1,945 windows, 1,786 doors, and 1,057 elegantly and lavishly decorated halls, rooms and staircases.
Housing over 5 million works of art, sculpture, tapestry and of course jewels, the Winter Palace certainly did not disappoint!
If you are interested in exchanging talks for travel, contact Crest Cruise Speakers, they are an amazing boutique cruise ship speaking agency based in London. Thanks to Crest, I can now check off from my bucket list the Winter Palace.