Before I get started on St. Petersburg, I want to mention our PVP with Carnival, Jorge. Jorge always keeps us straight during our many cruises and the last time I talked with him he mentioned that he reads the blog and even sends some of his other customers pictures that I have taken so they can see places they want to go to. Thanks Jorge for all your help.
Now, St. Petersburg...
The second day in St. Petersburg, Russia started early once again. Not only did Rexie decide the second day was too much, my daughter-in-law and both grand-kids decided to stay on the ship. It would be me and my son that day,
Since Rexie was not with me, I grabbed a bite to eat and decided to go ahead and go out to the terminal early. When I got to customs, there was no sign indicating which of the 20 or so custom stations were open. I finally found a person in one of them and gave her my passport and ticket. After she reviewed a list of names, she went ahead and let me through. I quickly found out that I was only the third person off the ship that morning. I went outside and sat on a bench waiting for the buses to arrive. It was peaceful, but a little unnerving as the more I looked at my surroundings, the more I realized how secure the area actually was. There were many, many fences with barbed wire on them rand probably 10-15 cameras overlooking the area. Without trying to be to obvious, I soon realized that several of the cameras seemed to move and were being pointed directly at me (probably my imagination). I am not sure if all of this was to keep me in, or to keep everyday Russians from getting to a ship and getting out of the country.
Finally the buses roll-up, more people arrive from the ship, and soon we are on our way for another day in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Our first stop is the Mariskiy Palace. The palace had been commissioned by Emperor Nicholas I as a wedding present for his daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna. While we did not tour the palace, the monument out front was of interest for a quick photo stop.
In front of the building is the equestrian monument to Nicholas I at St. Isaac's Square.
Here you can see St. Issac's Cathedral in the background.
A couple of shots as we head over the Neva river towards the old fort.
AS we stop on the other side of the river, we get our first glimpse of the Cathedral off SS Peter and Paul.
As I walked down the slope to the river, I saw this interesting tie-up.
This is one of the Rostral Columns on the Strelka ("spit" of Vasilyevsky Island. On holidays, I understand they light the torches on top of the columns.
This is one of the buildings of the State University in St. Petersburg which was near the bridge on Vasilyevsky Island.
Next, we go to the Island of St. Petersburg and the Cathedral of SS Peter and Paul, which is the center of the Peter and Paul fortress.
Over the years, the fortress has been used for a variety of purposes including that of the political prison of St. Petersburg during the Soviet years. As we head through the gate in the thick walls, we see our first building which was the residence of the person that was in charge of the political prison.
Our entrance opens up to a large courtyard with the cathedral being the centerpiece.
As we are waiting for the cathedral to open, I notice two SUVS and three large trucks in a convoy enter the courtyard and park. Military looking men with guns exit the vehicles and I begin looking for places to hide.
:-)
I asked our guide what the writing on the trucks was and he said that it was the Bank of Russia and they were there to get more money from the vaults that are currently being housed within the fort. What a relief.
As we enter the cathedral, the decor is quite amazing like all churches and cathedrals are in Europe. The original church was wooden and consecrated on April 1, 1704. In 1712, the current stone church was started. It took over 20 years to build.
One of the major attractions of the cathedral is that the graves of most of the Romanov rulers of Russia from Peter the Great onward is housed within the cathedral. Additionally, both Catherines, Elizabeth all three Alexanders, Paul, Peter III, Anne, both Nicholases are here. Nicholas II and his family were re-interred in the small Chapel of St. Catherine on July 17, 1998. Here are a couple of the graves, which are all above ground.
As we leave the fort and wait on our bus, I notice a cold war rocket launcher across the water. Both the radar unit and the command center were there. This was apparently the war museum which we would not have time to tour.
As we head back towards the city center and the Hermitage Museum I was able to take a picture of the primary building of the Hermitage, which was originally a palace.
The State Hermitage Museum is several buildings throughout St. Petersburg similar to the Smithsonian in Washington DC. As we enter the Hermitage, we are told that if you spent only 2 minutes looking at any given item, it would take over 18 months, 24 hours a day just to see the exhibits in just the Winter Palace and Main Museum Complex. This complex is actually four connected buildings and the first three buildings were all palaces for the ruling royalty. Only the fourth building in this complex was designed as a museum building.
Our entry brings us to the main staircase. Just from this view we could see that it was going to be an amazing place.
There are over 350 rooms and 2.5 million visitors a year. Here are some of the amazing items that I was able to capture on film.
Several of the floors were quite amazing. Many of these were roped off, so we did not have to wear booties over our shoes this time.
This table top was a solid piece of quartz.
This was a solid wood door.
When you see it from a distance, you can get the enormous size of it.
This bowl was carved out of a solid piece of quartz and is about 10 feet across. Actually, this was placed in the room and the room was then built around it.
Here are some of the ceilings in the 350 rooms. Many of them were quite amazing.
To go along with the amazing ceilings, you have to have some amazing chandeliers.
To go along with the ceilings and chandeliers, you have to have paintings. the Hermitage has a wide collection of art from Oriental art, 13th to 19th Century Western European Art, and Modern European Art. Here are some photos of just a very, very few of the hundreds (maybe thousands) pieces of paintings they have on display.
What amazed me is that the Hermitage has no air conditioning. It was extremely hot inside and the hottest day in years did not help it. I would think that kind of heat would not be good for artwork and paintings. But, what do I know.
After viewing all the paintings,I have decided that I a not really an old painting person. Here are several of the paintings our guide mentioned, but for some reason I either didn't hear who painted these or didn't care. Maybe the later is more accurate.
I am glad that Rexie did not join us because the stairs and miles (at least it seemed like miles) of walking would have really done her in.
We go out the back door of the hermitage and cross the Winter Palace Square and head to a restaurant for lunch.
Our typical Russian lunch was in a night club during the evening with a band and dance floor. This place is also a micro brewery and made their own beer. This is one of their old beer barrels.
I mentioned in the last blog that we visited the Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood. After looking at my pictures for the second day, I was obviously wrong. It was the last thing we did on the second day in St. Petersburg.
As we walked to our bus, we walked over one of the canals we were on yesterday.
Shots of some of the buildings finishes the second day in St. Petersburg, Russia.
I must be off!
1 comment:
I believe the cathedral we visited the first day was St. Isaac's. I wish we had visited the Church of the Spilled Blood the first day. That was my only regret of not going the 2nd day.
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