A day and a half to describe a days activities, sigh

Tuesday, June 4

We woke up to a bright sunny day and had breakfast with Sergey, Nicholas and Irina while planning for the day.  Irina is leading a tour group from a church in Switzerland.  They are going to tour the Hermitage today and we will join them. 

We left with Irina at 9:15am to take the Metro to meet the Swiss group of 16 folks close to our age.  We descended down a long escalator to a crowded platform. Irina said to count 5 stops to where we would get off.  The St. Petersburg Metro has double sets of doors on the platforms in its busiest stations. There is a barrier wall between the platform and the tracks so people don’t get pushed off the platform.  After changing trains we went 3 more stops and Irina showed us a place to wait.  She was going to bring the Swiss group down to meet us and to take another ride.  After changing trains one more time, we walked several blocks to the Hermitage.

The Hermitage is a collection of very large buildings largely influenced by Catherine the Great.  Great Kate used many tricks, including murdering her husband, to become empress of Russia in the mid to late 1700s.  She also amassed a huge collection of art.  The core building, the Winter Palace, was built by Peter the Great, and expanded by Tsar Peter II. Catherine built the Large Hermitage, completed in 1787, to house her art collection. Nicholas I opened it as a public museum in 1852. 

We are going here with Irina and the Swiss folks because it often takes a long time for people not associated with tours to get tickets, then they wait in a long separate line to enter.   Irina had us wait in the large courtyard of the Winter Palace while she worked through the group ticket bureaucracy.  Jim took a 360° panorama from the center of the courtyard, but the stitching software he used added interesting distortions in its automatic setting.  That took over an hour, so he didn’t try other options.

He also watched a repairman working near a statue along the roof edge.  Jim decided that he was giving the statue a pedicure.

We spent the day walking through hundreds of state palace rooms and galleries, each with exquisite architectural details. 

We frequently got disoriented because the map in our tour book was inadequate and the place is a super maze on 3 levels. At one point, we were looking for stairs to get from the 1^st (2^nd) floor to the ground (1^st) floor – different maps gave the floors different names – and we encountered 2 American women who had already been in more than a complete circle and who continued on after we went down a flight of stairs.  They were looking for a different one.  The “guards” gave contradictory answers as to the location of the stairs.  I think they took sport in seeing the same people multiple times.  One of the “guards” seemed to be in a trance as she sat in her space, but she had great shoes – perhaps the object of her meditation.

We were both very thirsty about noon and eventually found our way to the cafe area.  The regular cafe was closed, but there was a snack bar called the Internet Cafe.  All its signs were in Russian and there was a throng of people attacking (oh, waiting for) the 3 attendants.  They had sold out of all American-brand sodas, but people kept asking for them.  At one point, the 3 of them shouted in unison “No Coke!”.  We ended up with bottles of a Russian malt beverage and a piece of strudel after 15 minutes in line.

The art was magnificent.  The collection was continued well into the 20^th century and included numerous works by Picasso and Matisse.

Ardith recognized 2 paintings featuring the same dress that we saw more than a half hour apart.  They were both by the same artist – Francois Fleming, but with different models and painted 2 years apart – 1894 and 1896.

Ardith and Jim were quite impressed with works by Maurice Denis from the late 1890s that used extremely pale colors throughout.

Almost hidden away was an unattributed (on the walls) very large tile work.  The individual tiles were painted as though there were mosaics.

In addition to things we traditionally consider art there were numerous pieces of furniture that made our eyes pop.

For the most part, photography was permitted, but some rooms had restrictions.  Jim had a guard dash over to him and put her hand in front of his camera as he was photographing a piece of ceramic.  The sign showing No Photos wasn’t visible from the way we entered that room.  He got a good picture anyway – she was too late. Hah!

There were so many great objects that you would be bored to tears with too many in the blog, so we will just stop here.

We left the museum at 4pm. In the Palace Square – the one in front of the Hermitage – several people in costumes were earning their living by posing for pictures with tourists.

Sergey had recommended 2 places somewhat near the Hermitage for a light meal. We couldn’t find the closer one (perhaps out of business?), but found a nice cafe near where that was supposed to be located.  Jim had a skillet dish with pork medallions, red peppers, onions and carrots with cheese melted on top.  Ardith had mushrooms and beef cooked with herbs in a small ramekin style dish.  We both enjoyed our meals and love the interior, but Ardith didn’t love having her picture taken.

After finishing our meal, we walked slowly toward our next destination. We enjoyed our walk along canals and streets with beautiful buildings. Some of the locals find solace in the "landings" along the canals. 

 Due to low energy, we stopped to rest at a park across the street from St. Isaac’s Cathedral.

 Jim bought a Diet Coke from a street vendor.  That was what he needed to revive himself from jet lag.  For him, it was like turning a switch on.  About 20 minutes after he consumed it, he had his normal high energy level back.  Ardith was a bit disappointed because for the 24 hour preceding, he was going at about her pace, now she would need to regularly remind him that she can’t walk as fast as he does.  His extra energy restored his craziness.  Poor Ardith!

After our rest, we went to meet the Swiss group at a 7pm Russian cultural show at the Nicolayevski Palace Art Center.  The show was designed to introduce tourists to some of the music, dancing and costumes of Russia.  The male vocal quartet who started each half of the program included a guy who had toured with Irina and who had performed at the Swiss folks’ church.

There was a huge variety of dancing ranging from slow formal ...

to very high energy ...

to comedic.

The cute percussionist had a special talent.  She did a variety of bird whistles.

It was a delightful show and we enjoyed it very much.  During the break they had champagne and little hors d’oeuvres. After the show it was back on the Metro after a tram ride, and a return to Sergey’s home.  We were very excited to see that both pieces of our luggage had been delivered.  At last we would be able to change outfits for the next day! 

Falling asleep was easier tonight because we were tired and less sensitive to the city sounds and the long lasting daylight.