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!