HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS I WENT TO RUSSIA!!!!!
Seriously. This has been a dream of mine since I was a kid. When I was young, my number one travel destination was always Russia. As I grew older and Russia got weirder (sorry Russia), I wanted to go to Israel (and I've done that, too!) But Russia was still always on my radar. The history there is so fascinating to me.
We met up with Alexandra, our tour guide from TJ Travel once we got off the ship and were outside of passport control. Our first views of St. Petersburg included some apartment complexes and - if you can spot it between the buildings, the Lakhta Center, which is the tallest building in all of Russia at 87 stories tall (but not the tallest structure as that is in Moscow!) It's also currently the 13th tallest building in the world. When the foundation was poured, it was the largest continuous concrete pour, certified by Guinness (superlative, check!)
The Rostral Column was our first stop in the city - because it's located at the confluence of the Neva River and it's tributary, the Little Neva River - and it has excellent views of some of St. Petersburg's most famous landmarks. These columns were built in the first decade of the 1800s and have served as lighthouses for the shipping industry.
Right next to this particular column was a ... what the what? Is that a mobile WC? It is! Of course, all I could envision when I saw this was some rapist taking advantage of someone's urgency to use the facilities. ("Please, come use the toilet in my creepmobile!")
From our brief stop at the Rostral Column, we could see the beautiful Winter Palace of Peter the Great. Swoon! Today it houses the Hermitage Museum, the SECOND LARGEST art museum in the WHOLE WORLD! (Superlative, check!)
Me and my hubby in front of the Winter Palace/Hermitage Museum.
We drove across the Palace Bridge to the other side of the Neva River and we could see the very pretty St. Petersburg State University (in green) and the pink building is (wait for it...) the Paleontological and Stratigraphic Museum at St. Petersburg State University.
St. Isaac's Cathedral was our next out-of-the-van stop for a few photos. This "church" took 40 years to build and was completed in 1858. However, under the Soviet Communist regime, all churches ceased to exist as churches and this one became a museum. The city has offered to give it back to the Russian Orthodox church, but they haven't taken them up on that offer yet.
The kiddos and Daddy taking a windy picture along the Neva, across the street from St. Isaac's (and across the river from St. Petersburg State University.)
Somewhat in front of St. Issac's is the famous statue The Bronze Horseman - one of Peter the Great on a horse. It was made collectively by Étienne Maurice Falconet who did the entire statue except the face and an 18-year-old student of Falconet named Marie-Anne Collot who made Peter the Great's face and was able to bring Catherine the Great's vision to life.
Todd to me as I was getting ready to take this picture: "Take a picture of the street sign!" We both really like street signs that look nothing like the ones we grew up with.
Back on the bus and on our way to one of St. Petersburg's most famous landmarks (oooo don't you want to know what it is!), we got a close up shot of St. Isaac's.
As we drove along the waterfront, we saw the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul. The church that is within the fortress holds the remains of many of the Tsars and Tsarinas of Russia, from Peter the Great to the notoriously murdered Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alexandra. Also buried there: Catherine the Great! This is definitely a place I would love to visit in the future on another visit! I also like that super funky looking boat (hydrofoil?) speeding along the Neva River!
OH MY GOSH. I can't even. I've been to a lot of countries, and there aren't many places that can still literally leave me breathless. The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood is the most iconic site in all of St. Petersburg.
We didn't get to go inside because the Wednesday TJ Travel tours don't visit this church (instead we go to the Catherine Palace, which was actually OK with me, as long as I still got to see the outside of this one!). You must know a little history about this church though. It was built on the site where Tsar Alexander II was murdered in 1881. Alexander II was a reformist - one who ended slavery in Russia even before we did in the United States. Some people didn't like that, so much like his American counterpart Lincoln, he was assassinated for it when a man threw a bomb in his carriage as he rode past this spot. Construction was completed in 1907.
It's definitely St. Petersburg's equivalent of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow! Of course, because it's a church, it was closed by the Soviet's in 1932. It was used as a morgue during WWII, and later, a place to store vegetables (yes, you read that right!) Meanwhile, much like St. Issac's, it still is not used as a full-time, functioning church.
But that detail, man! Gimme a rainbow colored church with a ton of shiny gold on it ANY DAY!
Honestly, I'll definitely just throw this right on up to the top as the most beautiful church I've ever seen (on the outside). I think I need my own superlative list. Matthias Church in Budapest would be right up there, too.
I DO want to show you a picture of what the church looks like without it's highest spire under construction though. I get one shot in my life to see this beauty and it's under construction!
By Je-str - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58112585
One of the main stops of the day was The Hermitage Museum. The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg is SO large that if you spent one minute on every piece in the museum, it would take you 11 years to see the whole thing!
Some of our fellow tour folks had to use the restroom before we got started, so I took this picture of Natalie in a bunch of warped mirrors. You know, cause she's super cute.
Oh boy! I'm already in love! The Jordan Staircase (or the Main Staircase) was destroyed by the famous fire of 1837 (in fact, much of the palace was destroyed) and now the staircase extends the entire height of the palace. It was named the Jordan Staircase because the Tsar came down these stairs on the Feast of the Epiphany (when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River.)
The gilded bronze chandeliers in the next room, the Field Marshall's Hall were really beautiful. This room was dedicated to important Russian Field Marshall's, which is the second highest rank in the Russian military. It was in this room in 1837 that the great fire broke out.
The ceiling of the Small Throne Room is mind blowing with it's many double headed eagles and gold. Lots of gold.
The Armorial Hall is one of the largest in the palace. Alexandra told us that there were secret passage ways up above in the second floor behind some of the doors. She said that workers would move through these passage ways so as not to be seen. Also seen roaming these halls back in the day were lots of cats! The Empress Elizabeth brought them to the palace to control the mice and to this day, there are still 60 or so cats residing at the Winter Palace, keeping all of the mice at bay. Even during the Siege of Leningrad from 1941-1944, the only living animal that survived were... rats! And there were so, so many of them. When it was all over, the Russians repopulated the city with cats to deal with the rat problem. Nowadays, the cats of the Winter Palace even have their own Instagram page! (So does this guy, although he doesn't really use it!)
The Armorial Room is the second largest in the palace at over 100 square meters. Vasily Stasov designed most of the rooms, including this one, after the great fire of 1837. In the middle is a large decorative vase made of aventurine at the Ekaterinburg Lapidary Works in 1842. Aventurine is a form of quartz which is normally green, but a more orange form is found in Russia.
The War of 1812 Gallery was an homage to the victories that occurred in the Napoleonic Wars.
In 1812, the Battle of Maloyaroslavets was won under Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov, who is featured here in this painting. It was his battle plan (one that others were against) that sent Napoleon's French army packing out of Moscow. Alexandra said he was one of the most famous military leaders in Russian history.
Here's my family with the throne of the Russian Empire. The important thing about this room was that Nicholas II was forced to create a State Duma which was a legislative branch representing ALL the people, not just the wealthy ones. When it was opened in 1906, the Tsar invited (reluctantly) regular, everyday folks to this room for the opening. He spoke to the lower house (the State Duma) and the upper house (the State Council of Imperial Russia.) This was the first time a group of everyday citizens of Russia had been allowed in the palace. I wonder what the Tsar would think about these clowns being in the Large Throne Room?
Probably my favorite room in the Winter Palace (I mean really though... it's very hard to choose) was the Pavilion Room, which was located inside of the Small Hermitage. Inside, it had the most fabulous Peacock Clock! This life sized mechanical clock was commissioned by Catherine the Great in the 1770s and it STILL WORKS!
There are 28 crystal chandeliers in the Pavilion Room!
Across the room from the Peacock Clock is a mosaic tile floor of Medusa (kind of looks like my hair on a really humid day) and various creatures and scenes from Greek mythology.
The Hanging Garden of the Small Hermitage sits right outside of the Pavilion Room. I think if I was Catherine the Great, I never would have left this part of the palace. Small Hermitage, indeed.
The Malachite Medici Vase in the Council Staircase was also created at the Imperial Yekaterinburg Lapidary Works in the early 1840s. I love this color!
At this point, we started to move into more of the art galleries. With TJ Travel, you get to see the highlights. With BaileyPlanet travel (ie: two kids), this is much appreciated. Someday, Todd and I will be able to peruse art galleries at our leisure. Madonna and Child (or The Litta Madonna) by Leonardo da Vinci was painted around 1490. Tsar Alexander II obtained this painting from Count Litta in 1865 and it's been in Russia ever since.
OH MY GOODNESS THIS ROOM. This is a top 3 Winter Palace room for me. This room is the foyer to the Hermitage Theater. French Rococo might be one of my favorite styles. The actual Theater is beyond those doors, and there is no real entrance from the street below. Catherine the Great wanted a theater that she and her friends could enjoy.
I wonder if Todd would be mad if we painted our living room ceiling like this. 3D and all, Wedgwood Jasperware style. (Speaking of that... I used to have a Wedgwood trinket box when I was a kid and I have no idea where it went!)
The Raphael Loggias (or gallery) is an exact replica of the Vatican Loggias in Vatican City. Raphael didn't actually paint any of this, as he did the one in the Vatican in 1519 (cause you know, he was dead by the time this was completed in the late 1780s) but they did a great job making it look identical.
The beautiful ceiling of the Majolica Room. This room housed all of the Raphael works that the Hermitage has, which is only two, but it also contains other Italian artist's works from the 15th and 16th centuries.
Raphael also had a "Madonna and Child" painting (much like the Da Vinci one I mentioned earlier) in the Hermitage. This one was one of his early works from 1504.
Crouching Boy is a semi unfinished (or at least unpolished) work by Michaelangelo. Did you know his full name was Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni? Cause I really didn't.
It is thought that the boy represented here is tending to an injured foot. Some believe he is trying to remove a thorn.
The Small Italian Skylight room is also in my top 3 favorite rooms at the Winter Palace!
The Knights Hall displayed some very realistic horses and their armor. They also happen to have one of the largest collections of armor in the world.
The Gallery of the History of Ancient Painting was one of our last stops in the Hermitage. My only disappointment about this incredible palace was that we didn't get to see the 19th and 20th century European art... because you know I love me some Impressionism! Next time, right?
The funny thing about TJ Travel is that they have an itinerary, but you don't necessarily know where you're going and when because I honestly swear they have spies at all locations calling the HQ and letting them know if there are lines/crowds or not. At this point, Alexandra wanted to show us the famous St. Petersburg metro, so we stopped at the Pushkinskaya metro station. It's notorious for being one of the most beautiful in the world - and due to the city's proximity to water, it's also one of the deepest. Alexandra got our group the necessary coins for the subway - but isn't this the most lovely subway token purchase point you've ever seen?
Got me a metro token. Gonna see me a metro.
When I asked Alexandra if this was (seriously) the longest escalator in a metro station - she literally brushed me off. "Oh it's long but there are longer." But what? Where? Oh wait... nearby Ploshchad Lenina has a depth of 67 meters (220 feet). At the rate this escalator was traveling, I was pretty sure it was 6 miles under the ground. Alas, no. It was only 51 meters (167 feet) underground.
Metro line stops shown on the wall of the Pushkinskaya metro station.
The Pushkinskaya metro station has one of the only monuments inside of an underground metro station in the world. It's dedicated to the famous Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Todd had the camera at that point and took a picture but he only took one and it came out blurry. Instead, I show you the really cool subway train that pulled into the Pushkinskaya station while we were admiring the monument. It's so old tyme and the fact that there are chandeliers above it is amazing.
Across the street from Pushkinskaya metro station is a McDonald's! I'm loving it! I honestly wouldn't have known it was McDonald's if it wasn't for the golden arches!
Back on the bus, we headed south toward the town of Pushkin (is everything in St. Petersburg named after this guy?) where the Catherine Palace is located. On the way, it's a bit depressing in spots, but there was a cool flower - soccer ball display along the road.
In Pushkin, we ate at a little place called Tavern Hlebnikov (the menu says, "Pub Khlebnikov) and had a nice little meal. We started with some borscht, a beet soup that surprised us all! I'm only slightly disappointed though... it's a meal on my scratch off food map... in the Ukraine!!!!!
Oh my goodness, even Grant ate it!
Me and my babies just having some lunch in Russia.
In the morning we had visited the Winter Palace of the Tsars - which is now used mostly for the Hermitage Museum. In the afternoon, we got to travel 30 miles south of St. Petersburg to the Catherine Palace, which was the Summer Palace of the Tsars.
This was our entrance to the Catherine Palace. I'm only showing you this because you can see a very small number of people waiting to get into those golden gates. Alexandra took us right up to the front and we bypassed all of them. We thought that was cool... at the time. But stay tuned - it's gonna blow your mind when you see what I post at the end of our visit!
The Catherine Palace was built in 1717 for Catherine I, wife of Peter I (or Peter the Great.) She was born Marta Helena Skowrońska, the daughter of a Catholic peasant from Lithuania, and was considered very beautiful, but her parents died when she was about 5 years old, and she was then raised by Johann Gluck, a German Lutheran pastor who was the first person to ever translate the Bible into Latvian. She began as an illiterate maid in his household, but eventually worked her way up the ladder. Think what you will, but this lady had mad skills. She first was involved with a Swedish Dragoon (think infantry in the U.S. Army) and then was the mistress for a Brigadier General, and then was eventually the mistress to Peter the Great's best friend (Prince Aleksander Danilovich Menshikov) when she finally met Peter the Great in 1703 at the age of 19 years old. When she converted to the Orthodox church in 1705, she took the name of Catherine Alexeyevna. They were married in secret in late 1707.
The palace, which was originally known as the Great Tsarkoye Selo Palace, wasn't completed until 1756, and it was really Catherine and Peter's daughter, the Empress Elizabeth who truly made the palace shine. SHE was the one who put 100kg of guilded gold on the palace exteriors, which our guide Alexandra said, "This is just too much. It's too much gold." In my mind, I'm thinking, "IS THERE EVER TOO MUCH GOLD???" Catherine the Great called it "barbaric splendor."
The gilding was removed from the outer walls of the palace by Catherine the Great (Catherine I's granddaughter-in-law.) But as you can see, some of it has been repainted to show you what it might have looked like during the time of Catherine I and her daughter Elizabeth. All of the carvings and architecture you see in the bronze coloring of the casting material was beneath the original gilding. It's just not as impressive.
There was a line when we entered the Catherine Palace to go through security and to get these nifty shoe coverings, but we skipped that line, too.
The dressing room of Catherine the Great is the first room you enter on one of the tours of the Catherine Palace. I say one of the tours because there are actually two tours you can take. This is only the case in the summer time - in winter, you get to see both routes due to fewer people at the palace. Either way, you get to see the famous Amber Room. We took Route 2, which started with the not-quite-finished Dressing Room of Catherine II (Catherine the Great.) It's heartbreaking to hear that the furnishings were all lost during World War II.
The Lyons Hall was really impressive with all of the lapis and golden French silk fabric covered walls. It had recently been renovated (it only took 74 years!) since it had been largely destroyed in World War II. They came up with the idea for the recreation of this room in 1983, but it didn't really get off the ground until 2005. It's no easy task recreating a room with this amount of detail and expense. And... you'll never believe this, but there are 58 halls in the Catherine Palace and since World War II, only 32 have been rebuilt.
The ceiling of the Lyons Hall has been exceptionally recreated with a lapis covered chandelier.
This is what the Lyons Hall looked like in 1945 after the bombings in World War II.
The lapis and golden silk above the doorway that is the same doorway in the photo above this one.
The entire Arabesque Room seemed to be lined with turquoise and gold. Back in Catherine the Great's day, they used to have socials in here, and would play various games like chess and cards.
"Barbaric splendor," pshhhhhh. The Cavaliers Dining Hall is covered in gold!
The number of Delft porcelain fireplaces in this room meant that the room stayed very warm. The servants would stoke the fires from down below.
The Romanov family really wanted Chinese porcelain for these fireplaces, but it was hard to come by. Instead, they imported Delft from the Netherlands, which looked very similar and was much easier to get.
The Great Hall is really just... Great! At over 1,000 square meters, it's the largest hall in any Russian palace. There are 696 lamps in this room alone!
The State Staircase wasn't built until the 1800s, which was after the time of both the Empress Elizabeth and Catherine the Great.
I'm a big fan of the royal family of Great Britain, and Tsar Nicholas was murdered along with his wife Alexandra and their five children 101 years ago next month. Prince Philip, the current Queen Elizabeth's husband is the grand nephew of Alexandra, the last Tsarina of Russia. In fact, when the remains of two of the children thought to be Maria and Alexei Romanov (of Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alexandra) were found in a field in 2007, it was Prince Philip who used his DNA to identify them. Queen Victoria (Queen Elizabeth's great-great grandmother) was also Alexandra's grandmother through her mother Princess Alice. This is starting to sound like a Smith-Swales-Ewbank family tree, so I'm going to stop right here!
But the bigger question is... why didn't George V save his cousin Nicholas? After all, everyone thought they looked so much alike and they were very close. In the end, the unpopularity of the Tsar was a reason why George V thought he couldn't rescue them, for fear of an uprising in England. Can you imagine such a decision? To choose to turn your back on your cousin in favor of your country?
I, as someone who studies geneology for my family, appreciate this Romanov family tree, starting with Michael I, and ending tragically with the death of Nicholas II.
The Picture Room contained more Delft ceramic fireplaces. I LOVE my ceramic fireplace, and wish we had more of these in Massachusetts! Instead we get... wood stoves. Meh. I like to think this room was the precursor to PicStitch! HA!
One of our final rooms was the INCREDIBLE Green Dining Room! It was definitely one of my favorites as I love matching green with pink. Catherine the Great had this room built for her punk son (who had been raised by his grandmother, the Empress Elizabeth) and he used to have state dinners in here. A big fire in 1820 severely damaged this room. Vasily Stasov was hired to complete renovations at the direction of Alexander I who wanted it restored according to his deceased grandmother's wishes. Stasov also did a lot of the restoration work at the Winter Palace after the fire of 1837.
This is the main, general entrance to the Catherine Palace, not the special one that we entered in with Alexandra and TJ Travel. Notice the line extending way out in the distance. Also keep in mind that the Catherine Palace is HUGE at 2,427 feet long. That's almost a half a mile!
To get back to our mini bus, we had to walk down and around the long line of people waiting to get in. At this point, we are all high-fiving each other and saying, "Aren't you so glad we didn't have to wait in this line?"
But the line just kept going. And going. And going. At one point, people in line were getting into a shoving match. And you just seriously can't believe that people would wait THIS long to see the Catherine Palace - the same palace that we just waltzed into like we owned it. As we neared the end of the line (and no, this wasn't even the end of it), we saw this sign: "Waiting time: Over 4 hours." Are. You. Kidding. Me. Friends: If you go to St. Petersburg, do yourself a favor and pay the money for a TJ Travel tour. You won't regret it!
Goodbye Catherine Palace, with your never-too-much-gold architecture!
Next and final stop of the day was the beautiful Peterhof gardens. Honestly, there are so many palaces and gardens here that you would need WEEKS to see them all properly. I would absolutely love to come back and explore more. The Lion Cascade above was built in the 1850s and there are 27 fountain masks of river nymphs. It was unfortunately destroyed during WWII but the restoration was completed in 2000.
As we walked toward the Peterhof, we passed by the Fountain of Eve. On the opposite side of the gardens is a Fountain of Adam. Allegorically, it's believed that Adam and Eve are meant to represent Peter I and Catherine I. This fountain was first turned on in 1726.
Me and my babies in front of the famous Samson fountain at Peterhof Palace.
The Samson fountain was built in 1734 as a monument to the 25th anniversary of Peter the Great's victory over the Swede's in the Battle of Poltava. The result of this battle was a decisive shift in power from Sweden to Russia,
Daddy and Natalie looking cute in front of the beautiful Samson fountain.
Also up on the hill near the Peterhof Palace is the Peterhof Palace church. I didn't go inside but guess what... it's covered in gold!
Bailey family in front of the Samson fountain at Peterhof Palace.
I just loved these fountains. The Nazi's stole the main fountain of Samson tearing the lion's mouth apart so they had to replace it in 1947. (Wow, that was quick!)
The Samson fountain is flanked by two other smaller fountains - the Frantsuzskiy fountain and the (featured here on the left) Ital'yanskiy fountain.
I think they could probably turn this into a pretty cool water park.
The Royal Church Museum at Peterhof Palace used to be a full scaled church, but now is mostly known for it's history. All of Tsar Nicholas II's children were baptized here before the family was murdered.
We were supposed to go to the upper gardens of Peterhof Palace through this gate. But there was a high school graduation party going on here and the gardens were spontaneously closed. I say that because it even surprised Alexandra, who thought we would be able to tour them on our last stop of the day. But alas, this fella on the right told us, "Nope."
At any rate, it was disappointing that we could not visit the gardens, but on our way back to the bus, we got to see ALL this Russian folk architecture. It looks like a dollhouse.
I know a bunch of cities do this in Europe, but I just love when they tell me how much time I have left until the walk signal changes. And... that architecture!!!!
My scope is fairly limited, but I think Russian architecture might be my favorite. I mean, not the Communist block housing stuff... but everything else!
Alas, it was time to head back after an incredible day in St. Petersburg. Back to Terminal 1 to go through passport control (and to turn in my cute little visa that you totally don't get to keep) and get back on the ship. Sniff, sniff.
The tallest building in Russia, the Lahkta Center! It's 462 meters high (1,516 feet.) It's not the tallest structure (that's the Federation Towers in Moscow) but this is the tallest building. It's also the tallest building in Europe! Superlative, check!
Here is the Lahkta Center in the distance with a couple of cruise ships for scale.
Whoa, good thing we got back when we did because this was the line which we saw from the top of the ship. Hello down there!
Todd and Natalie went to get some sushi, which I don't like, and Grant only minimally likes, so he and I grabbed some dinner at the buffet and then he had some ice cream as we waited to ship out from St. Petersburg. Look at these clouds, though!!!! I feel like I'm in an episode of Stranger Things...
Swirly clouds above the ship in St. Petersburg.
We went to our favorite bar area and we saw the pilot boat pulled up along side of us (and attached to us.) Inside, one of the workers was waving to the kids!
Goodbye friendly pilot boat! You know when he unhooks from our ship, it's about time to set sail.
And for the only time on the ship, Grant and I went to the back of the boat to listen to Por Ti Volare as we pulled away from the docks. Ahhhh, what a fabulous day in St. Petersburg!
Making waves as we head back out into the Baltic.
Until next time, St. Petersburg! You are one of my favorite European cities!
Until next time, St. Petersburg! You are one of my favorite European cities!
