Picture Perfect Day

The weather today was Fabulous!  And I spent most of the day inside......looking at fabulous pictures....or should I say paintings?

Today was my one opportunity to see the Hermitage, also known as the Winter Castle. The place was unbelievable.

In fact, it literally took me an hour to get to the exit because I kept getting lost. Once again, the floor layout numbers would change randomly, and I'd find myself in yet another fascinating room worth investigating.

The state rooms were definitely the largest and most ornate that I've ever seen.

As if the rooms weren't enough in of themselves, the place is filled with original paintings of the Masters: Picasso, Monet, Matisse, Ruben, just to name a few.

I spotted many of my favorites.

And some with unfamiliar names that caught my eye.

I was a bit confused to see Murillo's Assumption in this museum, supposedly from 1779, since I'm pretty sure I saw it in the Prado in Madrid several years ago. If you figure that one out, I'd be interested in knowing.

I spent nearly 6 hours exploring the rooms in the Hermitage and am fairly certain that there were many that I missed. But with my tour book, I'm sure that I saw most of the higlights, and I really did have my fill of paintings and glitz and my feet were screaming when I walked out the door.

This evening found us in Peter Paul fortress for a banquet. It really was a very nice affair, which featured a lot of Russian specialities: salmon, pike, herring, caviar and vodka, none of which I felt the need to partake. Actually, I tried the caviar but didn't care for it.

I was a bit surprised to see some tables finish off an entire bottle of vodka as if it were water. Come to think of it, there were quite a few happy people when we left the place.

I captured a photo of the cathedral lit up at night with the moon just above the horizon.

 A perfect evening to a lovely day.

Touring St. Petersburg

There is a shuttle bus that runs from our hotel to the St. Petersburg hotel, where the conference is being held.

So, Marty and I decided that I would ride along with him to the conference then I would check to see if there was someone on site who could direct me to the best way to tour the area. Marty was fearful of me just walking around as the company he works with in Scotland gave them warnings to stay in groups.

The hotels are set up with special staff to aid you in getting around, and while I was waiting in the lobby to speak with the concierge responsible for touring, I overhead a Japanese woman mention that her husband was at the conference and she was looking for things to do during the day. I walked over and mentioned that I was in the same situation, and the next thing you know, I had a new friend and we were off, by foot, on an adventure. Safety in numbers, you know.

We had a map in hand and a route planned, but the hotel exterior is under construction, and so we decided to detour around the back of the hotel and head to the nearest bridge. Did you know that St. Petersburg is known as the Venice of the north? It is laid out on small islands, very much like Stockholm. So, there are bridges and waterways everywhere.

Let me just say, that despite our best intentions, we never did find the bridge entrance due to construction vehicles and road blocks, and we soon found ourselves quite far from our original plan, but eventually headed in the right direction.

Two bridges later, and we were walking through the beautiful summer gardens. 

There were a lot of beautiful fountains and some unusual statues.

These were designed for Peter I and laid out near the Summer Castle in St. Petersburg.

The gardens also border Mikhailovsky Castle, which once had a complete moat around it.  This castle was built by Paul I, son of Peter III and Catherine the Great.  Paul had built Mikhailovsky Castle with such safety features because he feared for his life.  Despite his efforts, he was assassinated in the castle by one of his guardsman and his son, Alexander I succeeded to the throne.

We decided to go through the castle, and upon entrance, we found that there was a special deal where you could pay double the entrance fee but see 4 buildings over a 3 day period. We decided that we could probably get through 3 of them and make it back to the hotel in time for me to grab dinner with Marty prior to the scheduled bus tour.

We somehow managed to buy the tickets despite much confusion since the staff did not speak English. Let me just say that the people who staff the rooms in these places, mostly woman, are not the happiest looking creatures. They would be stiff competition to my mean visa photo, for sure.We walked in, handed the woman our ticket, and she tore off the part for that building. She said something in Russian to us, and we realized that we needed to check our coats into the coat room. That done, we headed down the hall to another room where I quite mistakingly said good day in Russian to the attendant. This woman was rather friendly, and she began to converse with me and she seemed a bit flustered when I told her that I did not speak Russian and asked her if she spoke English.(all said in Russian)  She continued to speak in Russian and I told her that I did not understand (in Russian). At this point, she just shook her head as if really annoyed, and pointed us back to where we had come from.

So, we went back down the hall and grumpy gills at the door sort of glared at us as we made our way into the special exhibition room. There was all kind of Russian art in the building and we enjoyed looking at the paintings and I soon found myself explaining a lot of the religious meaning behind many of the paintings in the room. Masako is Buddhist, but was quite interested in hearing about the subjects represented in the photos. Many were quite obvious being icons of Mary, but some were the life of Christ, Abraham and Isaac, St. George, St. Michael the archangel. None of this was written in English, but it was quite obvious what story was being told.

Others were not clear, but I'm fairly certain that SS Cyril and Methodius were in several of the paintings.

After completing this room, we walked down the hall to the woman whom I had spoken with previously, and she began, once again, to tell us something in Russian. We walked through the doorway, only to find ourselves exiting the building. So, quite sheepishly, we headed back inside and found ourselves once again face to face with the original grumpy lady. This time, she just sort of put her hands up in frustration but let us back in, where, upon walking down the hall and turning left instead of right, we found a turret stairway which led upstairs to some lovely decorated rooms. Some were filled with art and some were decorated in period. The rooms were quite elegant.

I did not take interior photos because I just could not figure out if it was permitted, and my luck with the language wasn't going well.

Got a few photos outside, though.

Makaso and I managed to tour the Russian Museum after we finally located the entrance. The floor plans are confusing and I found myself reliving my Slovakia experience where so many things just didn't make sense. We were looking for Room 39, but rather than come right after room 38, we finally found it in an entirely different hall next to room 20. Go figure.

I can't tell you how many times that I told Makaso that I was so thrilled to have her for company, and she felt the same way. Between the two of us, we managed to figure out where we needed to go, even if it meant getting lost a few times.

By this time, we were pretty tired from walking,  so we decided to head down to one more palace, the Stroganoff palace. Once again, we found ourselves in the Cloak room as one is not permitted to wear coats inside the buildings. The man behind the counter was quite annoyed that I didn't have a tab on the inside neckline in order to hold up the coat on a hook. I merely took the coat, held it up by the hood, and showed him that he could hang it that way. He grunted and followed suit. Then, Makaso handed him her coat which had neither a hood nor a tab. Well, that didn't go over well, but he took the coat nonetheless. I suppose they find tourists to be exhausting!

Since Makaso had traveled on the Metro with her husband, I let her lead the way, and soon found myself on one of the longest escalators I have ever seen. I have no idea how far undergound this metro system is, but when we were coming back up, the people opposite who were going down, all looked like they were leaning backwards while going down. I'm sure that it was an optical illusion and that the people were standing vertically, but each one literally looked like they were trying to lean into the person behind them. I couldn't help but laugh.

Finally, we made it back to the St. Petersburg hotel, where I met Marty. We headed out on a bus tour sponsored by the organization. The group was given the opportunity to get out and walk around for 10 to 15 minutes at a couple different vantage points. True to form, there was always someone late and we were kept waiting past the designated time. The last time being someone buying a hot dog from a vendor!   

We saw some lovely sites.  The hermitage with the sunset in the background.

The Church of the Spilled Blood

 St. Isaac's the 4th largest church in the world.

Peter's fortress in the distance.

But, the best find of the evening was spotting Nikolay stopping during a personal tour.  I recognized him immediately and we began chatting.  And I asked him if he would drive me to the Hermitage today, to save myself the worry and the walk. He agreed!

He'll be here soon to pick me up. So, I've gotta run!

Safe in St. Petersburg

Marty and I arrived without incident to St. Petersburg airport.  I was a bit nervous going into passport control, because I didn't know what to expect.

Only one person is permitted in the "cube" at a time.  Once inside, there was a woman behind a wall with a glass window, sort of like a bank teller, but the window was high so that you could only see her from the nose up. Sort of like "Kilroy was here", but her nose wasn't nearly as large, and she had hair.

When we had received the visa I had been surprised to find that the "mean" photo that I had taken was not in the Visa.  I thought that perhaps it had just been too scary to print, I mean, it scared me when I looked at.  But I soon realized that there was a purpose behind the photo not being printed.

It was quite obvious to me that my photo and information were available electronically, because the young woman scrutinized me carefully, looked over at what I think was a computer screen, looked back at me, and back again at the screen. Then, she finally stamped my passport and slid it back through the slit in the window. Not a single word passed between us. I thought about saying "thank you" in Russian, but figured that I shouldn't push my luck.

We picked up our luggage and walked through customs and quickly found our driver holding up a sign with my name printed in English.  He introduced himself Nikolay. What a great guy! On the way to our hotel, he highlighted many of the hisotrical buildings and monuments of St. Petersburg. 

At one point, he asked us if it was difficult for us to obtain a Russian visa, because he had heard stories from people indicating that the process was complicated. See!  I wasn't exaggerating!

I am so glad that I decided to arrange the ride through the hotel. The group of men from Scotland had also missed the reservation deadline for the shuttle, but decided that they would just pick up a taxi at the airport. (My husband was guilty of the same line of thinking until I decided otherwise.) Well, the Scots found themselves dropped off on some random street with luggage in hand, when one of them mentioned that they weren't at the hotel, and the driver loaded them back up into the van and finally got them to their destination. They admitted that they were a bit worried for a few minutes.

Did I need that kind of stress? I think not!   

Off on another adventure

If you could choose between visiting Cleveland, Ohio and St. Petersburg, Russia, which city would entice you more?

Why do I ask and what's the connection?

Last September, Marty attended a conference in Cleveland. He invited me to tag along (as a joke, I'm certain) but I passed on the offer.

This year, the very same conference is being held in St. Petersburg, Russia. So, what do you suppose I said when Marty asked me if I wanted to tag along on this trip? Remember, I'm the gallivanting blogger.....

Just for the record, traveling to Russia is a bit complicated, , requiring a special visa for entrance, listing exact dates of travel which one must strictly adhere to. The process requires relinquishing your passport to the Russian Consulate for insertion of the visa. So, after we returned from Europe, we headed to Washington DC with our passports in hand, along with pages of paper work detailing events in our lives, and the required photo that even scared me when I looked at it!

The whole procedure reminded me of my recent trip to Slovakia... quite unorganized and very confusing. But we managed to submit everything correctly on the first trip (Other people in the place were not so lucky), handed over the required “cash only”, and were told that the visa's would be ready the following week, on Thursday between 2:00 and 4:00. Lucky for me, Marty was able to pick up both passports with the visas attached, and he didn't mind making another 6 hour round trip!

This past Monday, Marty headed off to Scotland and I spent the week attempting to frantically learn some Russian, (which, by the way, is quite similar to Slovak except that the alphabet is Cyrillic), and taking care of all the necessary arrangements: boarding the dog, stopping the mail and newspaper, arranging a ride to the airport, ordering Russian currency and arranging a ride from the airport in St. Petersburg to the hotel.

So, Saturday morning, I took the dog to the kennel only to find that someone forgot to write his reservation in the book. Luckily, there was room for him.

I returned home to find the newspaperman shoving a paper that I had canceled into the box.

While I was taking out the trash, I spotted the mail lady delivering my mail. Luckily, I managed to stop her and mention that I had stopped the mail for the week. She said that she had no notice of any holds for the week, despite my physically going into the post office and filling out the card, but she was happy to complete my request for the rest of the week.

Then, the limo driver called to tell me that she was running late. Luckily, I had allowed extra time, and despite her being half an hour past my requested pick up time, she managed to get me to Newark airport in two hours time. Lead foot, for sure!

So, here I sit in Amsterdam airport, which, by the way, is really quite awesome. You'd think I was in a mall, complete with an art museum. Too bad I'm too tired to explore it more!

Marty met me here from Scotland, and now we begin our Russian adventure. I know about 4 words down pat, but I don't think that will get me too far! I'll be sure to keep you posted!

Friday Fun at the Beach

Well, it certainly looked like a wash when we awoke this morning.
Rain coming down by the buckets......winds blowing at high force.

Beach prospects appeared to be quite slim.

So, what do you do on a rainy morning at the beach?  Well the company was certainly entertaining.

 

 And there was help making some cinnamon breakfast muffins.

OK, so it's obvious that someone,(a.k.a. me),  will be needing to start watching calories soon, but what's better than some quality time spent in the kitchen when there are little hands to help?

And after breakfast, there was some snuggling with little friends:

Then there was some fun with baby while the parents went out:

I was having so much fun, I was surprised to see the sun shining just about lunchtime!

What a remarkable change in the weather!

So, of course, we headed on down to the beach for a full afternoon of fun in the sun, once again.

And to finish off the day, a little photo shoot set up by Daddy, but this Gramma snuck in a shot or two for your enjoyment.

Sure hope you enjoyed it!

Making the Most of it

Today was a mixed bag weather wise, but we had some great beach time for awhile this afternoon.

But first, we managed to feed some turtles in the morning when we made a run to the Duck Coffee shop.

One lone turtle was soon joined by six when food was suddenly spotted!

The morning also involved Duck Donuts.....a real delectable delight.  Sorry no photos, but I can tell you that the maple frosted melted in my mouth!  Yumm!!

The afternoon once again involved some fun in the sun, surf and sand.

Yep!  It was a grand day.

A Perfect Day at the Beach

On a scale of 1 to 10, today ranked a 10 in my book.  The beginning wasn't so certain, but in no time the sun came out and we were greeted with bright blue skies, puffy white clouds and sunshine for the rest of the day.

And, we took advantage of it to the fullest.  What a fun time we had building a giant sand castle!

With a special seat for Gramma G to relax in!

Fishies were caught:  Two at a time!

And it was the perfect day for some kite flying as well.

And let's top it off with a beautiful, relaxing evening outside.

 Yep!  I'd definitely give it a 10!

Fifty percent?

Last evening's beautiful weather faded away overnight, and the morning brought cloudy skies once again, with a slight drizzle to start our day.  But it sure is hard to be too upset with the weather when one is greeted with this smiling face early in the morning:

The weather has never been a hindrance to fishermen in this family, so the guys headed out the door early to the beach while this little guy and I had some fun in the kitchen.

The weather prediction was 50% rain with a chance of thunderstorms, but I figured that meant that it could be 50% sun....right?

So rather than dwell on the negative, I convinced the little guy to make a trip down to the beach to check out the fish story.

He was adamant that he was not going off the steps since the tide was high, and I can't blame him since yesterday's giant wave had been quite scary....even for me!  So, we played it safe and checked out the fisherman from the steps.

The excitement started within minutes when Grandpa G caught a fish!

And we just had to go down and take a peek ourselves at the catch!

Believe me when I tell you that the photo makes this fish look much larger than real life!  

But, the tide was creeping up even higher, and we decided to head back to the house for awhile.

Within an hour, the weather changed for the better part of that 50% and the whole crew ended up heading to the beach for the entire afternoon.  We couldn't have asked for a better day!

 The kids had a great time

And so did the adults.  

The only one who seemed a bit anxious about today's activities was this little guy:

But we parted friends.....or let's just say that we didn't become enemies.

Tomorrow's forecast is 50% rain with a possible thunderstorm.  Wonder what that will bring?