AT home and all is well

Well, we were up and about at 3:00 AM for an early flight out of St. Petersburg, and arrived in our home at 7:00 PM the same day.  Doesn't sound too bad, does it?

In fact 7:00 PM our time translates to 3:00 AM Saturday, so we were literally on the road for 24 hours. I did get a good night's rest, but it always takes a few days for the body to get back to local time.  

Here you see a statue that we spotted in Alexandrovsky Park  on our last evening in St. Petersburg.  I have no idea who the man is, but he does appear to be thinking about something.  Perhaps he's wondering where he put his keys?

In this park there is an area that features miniature St. Petersburg scale models of city landmarks.  The idea came from Alexei Miller, the President of Gazprom, the state gas and oil company, who is from St. Petersburg.  

I wanted to share a couple of the miniatures with you: 

The Church of our Savior of the Spilled Blood:

SS. Peter & Paul Church at the Fortress

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

The admiralty

The Hermitage:

Mikailhovsky Palace:

If they sound familiar, it's because I was lucky to be able to see everyone of these and, if you kept up with my blogs, then you read about them during my adventures.

I certainly think that I made the most of the experience because I don't think I could have done much more in four days!  

There was one damper on the trip, though.  We were tricked by a "sly dog" as the hotel concierge called him in an e-mail that she returned to me.

We were leaving at 4:00 am via taxi that we had set up and paid for at the hotel the day prior to our leaving.  We asked the concierge if our taxi was outside, and he peeked out the window and nodded his head.

So, we headed out the door where a man in a white taxi popped out and asked if we were going to the airport.  I do have to admit that we were skeptical, because the man who had picked us up from the airport had been driving an unmarked car and this one was marked with a Taxi sign on the roof.

The driver wanted to take us to the International airport Petrograd #1, but Marty thought it was Petrograd #2.  The driver insisted that we needed to go to #1.  We asked him if the hotel had set up the ride with him and he said yes.  We asked him if he had been paid by the hotel  and he said yes.

He drove us to the Petrograd #1 airport, and when Marty went to give him a tip, he began to yell in a loud voice that we owed him 1500 Rubles. (what we had already paid the hotel).  He was making a commotion that was really quite upsetting.  I told the man that we had paid the hotel.  He told us that he was a city taxi, not the hotel taxi.  I reminded him that he told us that the hotel had paid him.  He, once again, told us that he was a city taxi, not a hotel taxi.  So, we gave him the rest of the rubles that we had, plus a $20.00 bill, which brought the amount to 1500, as he had requested.

We entered the airport, went to information, and were told that we were at the wrong airport.  We needed to take a taxi to the other airport.  So, we headed out to find a taxi when a man came up to us and asked if we needed to go to the other airport.  We said yes, but told him we had no Russian Rubles.  He was happy to take $20.00.  (which, by the way, I read that was illegal for anyone to take dollars or euros in Russia, so that should tell you something.)

In any event, we ended up at the right airport for our departure, but you can imagine how upsetting this whole experience was.  I e-mailed the reception desk at the hotel to tell them what had happened because I wanted them to prevent this in the future.  (plus....I didn't want that guy to dupe anyone else at that hotel.....let's just say I felt the need to get even).  The young lady was mortified by what had happened, and took total responsibility.  She appreciated the e-mail, and said that in the future, they will handle the matter differently.

So, we didn't escape the country without incident.   But what's more important is that we did get to the airport, and didn't have any issues going through security.  They appeared to be far more concerned about our arrival than they did about our leaving.

And, I'm very grateful that we didn't fly on Lufthansa, as they decided to go on strike on Thursday, and our visa distinctly stated that we needed to be out of the country on Friday!  I don't even want to think about what that hassle would have entailed!

So, for now, I'll be having a rest from gallivanting......hope you enjoyed the travels. 

Final Day in St. Petersburg

Well, I'd say that it has definitely been a whirlwind week, at least for me! Although Marty tells me that his conference was extremely informative. But let's face it, I'd say that I saw a whole lot more of St. Petersburg than he did. What a great trip!  Here you see Marty with the statue of Mars in the background..

While Marty attended the last sessions of the conference,  another excursion was planned for me, this time to Pushkin. Only four other people had signed up besides myself which made the whole experience so enlightening, as Yolanda could explain more information to us and take the time to answer any questions.

Before the bus left the city of St. Petersburg, we traveled down Moscow Blvd south through the city.  Along the way, we passed many historical sites, but one that really surprised me was a statue of Mendelev right outside the meteorology building. The bus was moving at a quick pace, preventing me from capturing a photo of the statue, but I did manage to get this picture of a periodic table of elements on the side of the building behind his statue.

Isn't that great? It was calling my name.

Speaking of Mendelev, did you know that he was responsible for trying to find the best recipe for Vodka. Apparently the best Vodka in the world to buy has the signature Mendelev printed on it. It is 40% proof. Wow! Wonder why we didn't learn this when we studied chemistry?

By the way, we also passed the home of Tolstoy in the town of St. Petersburg, but, unfortunately, I have no photos to share.

Pushkin is south of St. Petersburg and it took us about 45 minutes to get there. We drove along the countryside through the so-called hills of Russia, but Yolanda's definition of a hill is much different than mine. 

Pushkin is a favorite Russian poet.  He had been exiled in the time of Nicholas I due to his political beliefs, and he died in a duel at the age of 37.  But this town has fond remembrances of him, and there are statues devoted to him throughout the town.  

The arrival in Pushkin was extremely entertaining. We stepped off the bus and there was a quartet of older gentlemen dressed in uniform playing a lively tune on brass instruments. We all found ourselves walking to the beat to the front of the palace. Once there, we found ourselves being entertained by yet another group of musicians, this time playing the Viennese waltz followed by the tune whose name escapes me....”Where the Volga flows.....a sweet Russian rose......set my heart aflame....Olga was her name.”, always one of my favorites. I found myself singing the words and felt fortunate that I didn't have my kids around to tell me that I was embarrassing them. Actually, the Polish man on the trip was enjoying singing along with me. What a great time!

This palace was amazing. I do believe that it is referred to as the Little Palace, but believe you me, there is nothing little about it.

 I just loved the color.

I had never seen anything like it.

The place was jam packed with tour groups, and apparently that is the only way one can actually see the interior, so I was very fortunate that this trip had been planned for us.

Catherine's Palace, as it is called, was a victim of the same looting and destruction as Peterhof. And, actually, a lot less of the original was preserved because the German occupation came so fast that there was little time to send off items to Siberia for safe keeping.

There was so much to see and learn inside the palace. I particularly liked this dining room. The table is actually shaped in the form of a letter “E” for Elizabeth. The colors on the tables signify different saints, with blue representing St. Andrew, St. Vladimer, and Orange and black for St. George, the favored saint.

The cabinet in the back holds a set of the original Russian dinnerware made in St. Petersburg..

One room of particular interest was the Amber Room. A friend of mine had just sent me some info regarding this room the other day. The original room had been installed just prior to the German occupation. All of the walls were covered in Amber. Sometime during the occupation the entire room disappeared. No on seems to know what happened to the original. The Russians believe that it is in Germany somewhere, but there is no proof.

A new room has been recreated, but that was the one room that we could not photograph, so I can't even share the grandeur with you. It was pretty amazing to see so many colors of amber adorning the walls.

After walking through the Palace we headed out to the grounds. 

 We admired the beautiful English and French Gardens as we walked to one of the Garden buildings near a pond. We entered and found ourselves in a round room with a cupola. As we stood around the perimeter of the room, 5 men began to sing a lovely melody a cappella.  It was like a dream. The sound resonated around us and I couldn't help but just close my eyes and listen to the lovely tones.. Really, would you have expected such a treat? It was superb.

After we returned from our trip, the conference was pretty much complete, so Marty and I decided to walk into the town to see the Church of the Spilled Blood. We had taken photos the other evening, but did not have the time to actually look very long.

The name of the church comes from the story that Alexander I was assassinated in the area of the church, and so the church was extended over the spot where his murder occurred. Another translation to the Russian name is the Church on the Spilled Blood. Russians use the same word for on and of, which may describe the different names for this beautiful church.

We decided to buy a ticket to see the interior, and were thrilled that we did. The entire inside is covered with mosaics. There is not spot on the walls that is devoid of tile. An amazing amount of work went into the original, and to the restoration afterward.

Looking up always offered a different, interesting site.

After admiring the interior and taking way too many photos, but it was hard to resist such beauty, we opted to have dinner at a nearby restaurant. Since it was after the lunch hour but prior to dinnertime, we had the place nearly to ourselves. We sat on the top floor just beneath a skylight window that showed the beautiful top of the cathedral peeking through the trees.

Not only was the view appealing, the food was fabulous and the chairs were so comfy that I actually nodded off for a few minutes. All I know is when I opened my eyes, my pumpkin zucchini fritters with Marscapone cheese was sitting in front of me...smelling and looking very enticing. 

 Delicious!

Marty and I were enjoying our dinner, 

listening to the background music, when we clearly recognized Andy Williams singing Happy Holidays. We looked at each other and couldn't help but laugh out loud. This confirms my theory that people in other countries play American music and have no idea what they are listening to! Either that, or I missed something and have been stuck in Russia for longer than I had anticipated!

When dinner was complete, Marty and I walked through some gardens and headed to our hotel. The weather was lovely with a brisk chill in the air. The walk home was extremely easy, since we finally figured out the easiest way to get to our hotel.

When we got to our floor in the hotel, we stopped and peeked out the window next to the elevator and admired the view for the last time. How lovely the rooftops looked with the reflection of the sun setting.

It's been a great trip. Here's hoping that we get home tomorrow without incident. I'll keep you posted.

Russian History

There's nothing better than immersing yourself in the Russian culture and learning history from a different perspective. Today I traveled to Peterhof, the grand palace of Peter the Great that was originally built in the 1700's. A special tour was set up for those who were interested, and I signed up to go while Marty attended the conference. Wonder who had more fun?

We left promptly at 1:30 for the 20 mile ride via tourist van with a personal tour guide. She was marvelous and kept us entertained for the one hour 35 minute trip due to heavy city traffic. The driver was obviously upset by the slow pace and the high concentration of gridlocked cars on the road. But our guide, Yolanda, had plenty of information to share with us as we made our way out of the city.

We passed a very interesting church that had a bell tower with an unusual shape. Yolanda described it as in the shape of a Champagne bottle. Apparently the church is named, “The church next to the Champagne bottle bell tower” in Russian. She went on to tell us that there is a very special icon in the church. And that people go there to pray for family members who have a problem with alcohol. Apparently alcoholism a a huge problem in Russia. (Considering that many tables of 10 finished off an entire bottle of vodka at the dinner last night, I didn't find that fact too hard to figure out!)

Don't you find it rather interesting that the church with the special icon devoted to curing alcoholism has a bell tower shaped like a champagne bottle? Well, I suppose that's better than being shaped like a vodka bottle.

As we drove along, we learned some very sad facts about St. Petersburg's recent history. Prior to World War II, the city had over 800 churches. During the German occupation, they dwindled to 19, 15 being Russian Orthodox. Now they have about 250 churches of various types, including a Buddhist temple and a Mosque which we saw on our drive today.

Many religious items were shipped off to Siberia for safe keeping during the occupation, but the rest were looted or destroyed. I had marveled at the icons in the museums, and wondered how they had managed to be saved. We learned that the Soviets turned the churches into factories and markets. Any religious items in them were lost forever.

In fact, a million of the items in the Hermitage had been shipped to Siberia for safekeeping as well, for fear of losing them to the Germans.

During the Soviet era, people could only live in rented flats, concrete building erected by the Soviets. These still stand along the highways just on the outskirts of the city.

One of the exciting highlights of the day was driving on the new toll road, the first toll road in all of Russia.

Yolanda mentioned that the Russian government explored the toll road system in European countries to determine the best way of implementing such a system. Yolanda was all smiles when the driver paid the toll and we started our drive on the highway. Couldn't help but chuckle at that!

Yolanda explained to us, that within the city limits, many of the palaces were damaged during the war, but outside the limits, most of the beautiful palaces were destroyed by the Germans.

Today's trip to Peterhof highlighted the recreation of a magnificent palace that had originally been built by Peter the Great. When you enter the grounds, huge posters show the destruction that was done by the Germans. We saw photos of the original that showed burning ruins.

Somehow, many of the items and silk wall hangings had been removed for safe keeping prior to the German occupation.

Stalin make it a priority to rebuild this palace as an exact replica of the original, or at least as close as possible. So, today we toured this magnificent building. There were originally 55 rooms, but only 23 have been completed.

The outside gardens have been recreated in the early grandeur. One thing that is truly remarkable is the cascading fountains in the back of the palace. They flow strictly as a result of gravity. There is enough drop in elevation to accommodate the flow of water from the fountains without any external interference. They are truly spectacular to see, and it is amazing to think that someone could design such a phenomenon in the mid 1700's.

When Marty and I left the hotel for the conference venue, the skies were gray and rain seemed imminent. You can see by the photos that the weather changed for the best, providing an awesome background for this beautiful palace and surroundings.

Our guide was absolutely delightful! With each room that we entered, she would say in such an excited voice, “And now I want to show you the lovely......” as if each room were her own and she was showing them off. No photos were permitted but you can take my word when I tell you that they rooms were very elaborate. Rooms were filled with gilded gold items on the wood. We were told that all of the gold in the room was actually limetree wood covered with gold dust and that only 1.5 kilograms of gold was used in just one huge room. Amazing!

The palace grounds are located on the Gulf of Finland. Looking out over the water, one can see St. Petersburg in the distance, and right smack in the middle of the gulf you can see a huge cooling tower for a Nuclear Power plant. Something I'm pretty sure Peter the Great would never have predicted.

The gardens were spectacular and we needed to “move in a hurry” as Yolanda stated so that we could see the featured fountains prior them turning off at 5:00 p.m.

Our trip home was much quicker....less than an hour, because the driver decided to take the longer road around the city rather than try to crawl through the city. So, most of the road featured forests with birch trees lining the road. It really was quite beautiful and calm.

Did I mention that everyone drives crazy here? Definitely the most aggressive driving that I have ever seen. No wonder they like to drink so much vodka! Calms the nerves, so I hear.

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!