Finsatsea: St. Petersburg in a day!

June 21

Because our visit here was cut by two thirds we knew today would be a forced march to see as much as possible. It was rainy, cold and windy when we disembarked. Going through the Russian border control was not as awful as some of our fellow passengers had said it would be. The agent who checked my passport smiled and wished me a good visit.

As soon as we were through we were met by Olga, our guide for the day. She hustled us out to the car where our driver Oleag was waiting. Since we had changed our schedule the ship wasn’t docked downtown on the Neva River as originally planned but was instead out at the new cruise port. The area is very unattractive with s relatively new city of institutional looking high-rises.

After a short drive we were in old St. Petersburg. The city was founded by Peter the Great in 1703. He wanted to bring Russia into a more modern European age and thus built a new capital city by the Baltic Sea and along the banks of the Neva River. The old part of the city seems relatively small to us and is filled with large and grandiose buildings in various baroque and rococo styles. At one time they were the homes of aristocracy and wealthy merchants. Now many are occupied with universities and museums.

Before I get to the things we saw, a few interesting facts we learned. The city has approximately 5 million residents. During WWII the city was under siege by the Germans for more than 2 years. During that time much of the city was destroyed and an unknown number of people died of starvation but estimates are more than 1 million. The only way for the city to be supplied was via the frozen Lake Ladoga. Naturally, that route didn’t work in the summer. One other fact, there are still more than 100,000 communal houses in St. Petersburg. Large pre-Revolution homes were appropriated by the Bolsheviks and divided into apartments. Each family got one room and all the families share a kitchen and toilet. Now 750,000 people still live in those “apartments.”

So on to what we saw. Our first stop was the Hermitage Museum. This is a huge complex along Palace Embankment on the Neva River. The Museum was started by Catherine the Great and it now encompasses the Winter Palace, the former home of the Russian Tsars, and several other palaces. The museum has a huge collection of art ranging from pre-historic to modern. Of course, with only limited time we were able to see just a tiny fraction. Olga, our guide, concentrated on Renaissance and 16^th century art. They have two paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, quite a feat since there are only about 14 known to exist, and a large collection of Rembrandts. One of the most unique things we saw was a large mechanical clock which chimes only on Wednesday evenings. There are a peacock, rooster, owl, and trees which all move as the clock chimes.

Throne Room

Chapel

The beautiful clock with all the moving figures

In addition to the exhibits, we could get a glimpse of how splendid the palaces must have been in the days of the Tsars. The gilding, splendid moldings and massive crystal chandeliers helped us imagine what the place was like when it was a home to the royal family.

After leaving the Hermitage we stopped in a Russian “café” (that’s a pretty generous name for it) for a quick bite of lunch. The décor was non-existent and the menu was limited to meat pies and soups. You ordered at a counter and brought everything but the soup to your table. The pie was edible. We tried hot borscht as our soup and it was pretty good.

Then we were off for a ride out to the country to Tsarskoye Selo, the location of the Catherine Palace and the place where the Tsars spent their summers. By the time we got there the sun had come out and one could see why the royals liked it out there. The countryside was pretty and the air was fresh and clean. An interesting fact (to me at least) is that Tsarkoye Selo is where Nicholas II and his family were held captive after the Revolution until they were moved to Siberia and executed. He and his family were imprisoned in the Alexander Palace which is currently under renovation.

Our destination was the Catherine Palace which was begun by Catherine the Great as a summer residence. Initially it was a small and intimate place. Empress Elizabeth, Catherine’s daughter, thought her mother’s place was too small and out-dated so she commissioned what we saw today. The palace is more than 1000 feet long! It’s in a very flamboyant style with the walls painted blue, trimmed in white and at one time with gold gilt figures all along the façade. Now those figures are painted kind of a dull brownish gold.

The facade of Catherine's Palace

An intimate dining room

Gardens of Catherine's Palace

Once again we were throngs of people. This palace was completely gutted by the Nazis during WWII; they intentionally blew it up and burned it. In fact, 11 unexploded bombs were found in the basements. What we see now is a reproduction. Fortunately there were extensive photographs and descriptions of the rooms. Only a small portion has been restored at this point.

The highlight of the Palace is the Amber Room. This room has walls covered in panels of amber mosaics and designs. The panels are nearly 600 sq.ft. in size and comprise more than 6 tons of amber. The original panels were created in Germany by the King of Prussia. He presented them to Peter the Great who had admired them on a visit to Prussia. Empress Elizabeth decided to have them installed in the Catherine Palace. There is an interesting story about them. During WWII the Russians wanted to remove the amber panels and transport them away from the invading Germans. The Russians found the amber was too brittle and were unsuccessful. Instead they tried hiding under wallpaper. That ruse failed and after the Germans occupied the palace under the supervision of two experts, the room was disassembled in 36 hours and transported to Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad). In January, 1945, as the Russians were advancing toward Germany, Hitler gave orders that the art works being stored in the Konigsberg Castle were to be moved deeper into Germany. Unfortunately, before the amber room could be moved, administration collapsed there and eventually the castle was bombed. The amber panels haven’t been seen again and their fate is really unknown. Over the years there have been various reports that people have seen parts of it, but nothing has ever been verified. What we saw was a faithful copy. The room is absolutely splendid with the walls giving the warm honey glow of amber in intricate mosaics and carved designs. Unfortunately no photos are allowed in the room but you can see some on line at https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=amber+room&qpvt=amber+room&qpvt=amber+room&qpvt=amber+room&FORM=IGRE

After walking through the Palace we walked through some of the extensive gardens and then headed back to St. Petersburg. We were supposed to go to Peterhof, another palace, to have a brief look at its gardens which are supposed to be the most magnificent of all of them. Unfortunately by that time, the skies were getting black again and we had walked close to 14,000 steps (more than 6 miles) and done the equivalent of 17 flights of steps. We’d seen enough for one day. The next time we come here we’ll pick up where we left off.

On the way back we stopped at a very large gift shop where we met the representative of the tour company to settle up. That’s where I saw the two matryoshkas in the photos below. A matryoshka is a Russian nesting doll. I just had to get some pictures of us with these guys.