A luxurious start to the day: pick up at 9 am today. We headed over to the tow large towers in the harbor – they used to serve as lighthouses and follow the ancient tradition of putting your defeated enemy’s boat prow on a tower to advertise their defeat. Did you know that when Peter the Great founded St. P, he started the country’s first navy and naval academy? He hated Moscow, so he eventually moved the whole capital up north. Battles with Sweden resulted in the independence of Finland, which had always been part of one or another other country.
One nickname for the town is the “Venice of the North”, due to the 63 canals that wind through the city; some filled with actual rivers and others just canals. Our next stop is a boat tour through these waterways – an hour of history and maritime events, and lots of fresh brisk air.
Once we emerge from this, it’s time for our entrance to the Hermitage, the former winter palace and Russia’s answer to the Louvre.
We make sure to review the formidable impressionist collection (so many Cezanne’s, Michael), much of which was confiscated from the Nazi’s after the Great Patriotic War. We spend a couple of hours inside, and that’s enough for me.
Lots of photo snapping – it seems almost every building in the city used to be a palace, having housed a Tsar or some lesser royalty or nobility – and lovingly restored. Even the Hotel Astoria used One nickname for the town is the “Venice of the North”, due to the 63 canals that wind through the city; some filled with actual rivers and others just canals. Our next stop is a boat tour through these waterways – an hour of history and maritime events, and lots of fresh brisk air. Once we emerge from this, it’s time for our entrance to the Hermitage, the former winter palace and Russia’s answer to the Louvre. We make sure to review the formidable impressionist collection (so many Cezanne’s, Michael), much of which was confiscated from the Nazi’s after the Great Patriotic War. We spend a couple of hours inside, and that’s enough for me. Lots of photo snapping – it seems almost every building used to be a palace, having housed a Tsar or some lesser royalty or nobility – and lovingly restored. Even the Hotel Astoria used to be owned by those scions of wealth and Boston blue-bloods, the Astors.
After museum time, it’s off to the Church on the Spilled Blood, built to commemorate the spot of river bank where Alexander II was assassinated, and quite beautiful with the colorful onion-tops.
After museum time, it’s off to the Church on the Spilled Blood, built to commemorate the spot of river bank where Alexander II was assassinated, and quite beautiful with the colorful onion-tops. A drive back across the Neva river and we walk through the Peter and Paul fortress, and the interior church, where most of the Romanov dynasty is buried (Peter the Great on down. Even Princess Anastasia was finally located and is buried here). The fortress was first built by Peter to defend the city, but the city outgrew the ramparts so quickly that it was never really used for defense.
We zip back over to the other side of the river so we can make the 4 pm English tour of the Faberge collection (now owned by a private collector), and stay only for the first 20 minutes to see the eggs (Nellie, our driver, is off at 4:30) and then get left off (and say goodbye to Elena and Nellie) at St. Issac’s Cathedral. Lance heads inside and I sit with my face in the sun. All that running around and touring and it’s really nice to sit and enjoy the fresh air. There are tons of people in the square out front – musicians and Sunday strollers – and we head back to the room at a leisurely pace.
We pack up, hang, and walk out to dinner at 7. It’s on the next block over, an amusing spot called Teplo. I say amusing because it seems they specialize in families with children. There’s actually a fairly sophisticated play room, coloring books for adults, children’s books everywhere, and several very cozy rooms made up with tables and chairs, low sofas and easy chairs, for very comfortable arrangements of families, couples, and younger folk. The food is fresh and delicious and the menus some of the most clever I’ve ever seen. Each is kind of a felt-bound photo album, with old black-and-white photos, handwritten captions, and a list of foods on each page, with white vellum and black old-school pages between all. So creative!
After dinner, I find a coloring book for adults and our server brings me a small bucket filled with colored pencils. I color for about 30 minutes while we chat and pay the bill. We walk back to the room, quite satisfied, and prepare for a 5:15 am wake-up call and the Sapsan high-speed train to Moscow.