New Year's novel: Petersburg and Karelia. Bus tour from Moscow

Happy New Year!

Late breakfast at the hotel (buffet).

Bus tour "Winter holidays".

Getting to know the festive city, the central squares decorated with New Year's beauties-Christmas trees.

A retrospective of the traditions of New Year and Christmas celebrations in St. Petersburg from past eras.

Free time.

Breakfast at the hotel (buffet).

Today we are going to Ladoga Karelia, as Alexander Dumas did.

In the summer of 1858, Alexandre Dumas, a classic of French literature, author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, visited Karelia. In the company of friends, he visited Valaam, Serdobol (now Sortavala) and visited the Ruskeala Canyon. Moreover, he celebrated his 55th birthday on this trip!

Stop in Priozersk.

External inspection of the Korela Fortress.

The Korela Fortress, built in 1310 by the Novgorodians, has been the northernmost outpost of the Novgorod lands for many centuries. The enemy besieged her more than forty times, she burned down eight times, was reborn again, and changed her name more than once: Korela, Kexholm. It was only in 1710 that Peter the Great's troops finally returned it to the Russian state. From the middle of the 17th century, the Kexholm fortress became a political prison.

Important state criminals were held here: Emperor Ivan V Antonovich, deposed in infancy, the family of rebel Yemelyan Pugachev, Decembrist officers and Petrashevites.

The fortress was visited by emperors Peter I, Alexander I, and commanders A. V. Suvorov and M. I. Kutuzov. Transfer to Sortavala.

Sortavala city tour.

Karelia is a land that attracts with the beauty of northern nature, and Sortavala is a unique city where three eras and two cultures are intertwined. Only here the flavor of the Russian North harmoniously coexists with Scandinavian Art Nouveau, merging into a single whole.

You will learn how the history of three countries — Russia, Sweden, and Finland — influenced the formation and development of Sortavala. Sortavala is called the capital of the Northern Ladoga region.

We will see the preserved layout and buildings of a European city, and in the city center we will consider buildings in the style of Northern Art Nouveau, neoclassicism and functionalism, which were designed by the most famous Finnish architects — Ulberg, Saarinen, Arenberg.

Lunch at a cafe.

Stop at the Akhvenkoski waterfalls.

Waterfalls Park is one of the most unusual and picturesque places in Karelia.

Karelian waterfalls are located on the Tohmajoki River in the Sortavala district.

Visit to the Ruskeala Mountain Park.

Dumas wrote: "I was destined to see the quarries of Ruskeala, because it was from here that the stone for St. Isaac's Cathedral was mainly mined."

The Ruskeala marble deposit originated as a result of complex tectonic processes 12 thousand years ago. With the coming to power of Catherine II, large-scale searches for natural stone for the construction of St. Petersburg began in Russia, and it was found in Ruskale.

Ruskeala is a tourist park in Karelia, based on the site of an abandoned marble deposit.

It covers an area of several tens of kilometers. In the 18th century, marble was mined here for St. Isaac's Cathedral, Kazan Cathedral, Mikhailovsky Castle, Marble Palace, and triumphal columns in Tsarskoye Selo and Gatchina.

And the main highlight of this trip: in the Ruskeala Mountain Park, bright lights come on in the evening, turning the Marble Canyon into a fairy tale. Many people come specially to see this beauty, comparing the spectacle with the northern lights.

At the end of the program, return to St. Petersburg.

Arrival in St. Petersburg at approximately 22:30-23:00.

Breakfast at the hotel is a buffet.

Check out of the hotel with your belongings.

Departure to Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin).

Excursion to the Alexander Palace.

In the northern part of the picturesque Alexander Park stands a magnificent building with a two—century history — the New Tsarskoye Selo (later Alexander) Palace. It was laid out in 1792 by order of Catherine II and was built for the wedding of her beloved grandson, Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich (the future Emperor Alexander I), with Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alekseevna.

The architectural design of the Alexander Palace belongs to the famous Italian architect D. Quarenghi.

Since 1904, the Alexander Palace became the permanent residence of Emperor Nicholas II, who was born here in 1868 and treated Tsarskoye Selo with special warmth. The last 13 years of the reign of the Russian emperor passed here; from here, on the morning of August 1, 1917, the imperial family was sent into exile to Tobolsk.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Alexander Palace hosted almost all the important events related to Russian state life: receptions for ambassadors and foreign figures, celebrations of anniversaries — the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov and the 200th anniversary of Tsarskoye Selo.

In September 2015, the Alexander Palace Museum was closed to visitors during the restoration work. And now guests of the palace can see a reception room, a study, a Moorish, a valet's room and a state study (half of Emperor Nicholas II), a suite, a bedroom, a Lilac study, a Rosewood and maple living room (half of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna), as well as a corner living room and library rooms.

The rest of the palace is still undergoing restoration.

A walk through the Catherine Park.

Along with the palace complex, parks are an integral part of the Tsarskoye Selo imperial residence, primarily the main ones — Catherine and Alexander, which received these names from the palaces located in them.

Catherine Park consists of two parts: regular Old Garden and English landscape Park. Old (Dutch) The garden was founded, according to legend, by Peter I. himself.

Visit to the Fedorovsky Cathedral.

The Feodorovsky Sovereign's Cathedral stands majestically above the Fedorovsky town, the barracks for the imperial family's guard regiments. It was built in 1909-1912.

14:00 Lunch at a cafe.

15:00 Departure to Moscow along the M-11 highway.

The approximate time of return to Moscow is 23:30 — 24:00 to the VDNKh metro station.