More of SPB

Wednesday, May 28, 2014
St. Petersburg, North-West Russia, Russian Federation
SPB, May 28, day twoWe overnight here on the ship. By now I have no idea what day of the week or month it is without looking. Our tour starts later today at 9. We meet our group and proceed off. Immigration is quicker since they only need to see the stamp issued in the passport yesterday and our tour ticket. Today's weather is worse than yesterday. Colder and more rain. The windows fog up in the van and the defroster is freezing us out. We are headed to The Czars village, also called Puskin to Catherine's Summer Palace. I was hoping it was in a different direction but have to travel back through SBP with all the traffic. It is a 45 minute or so ride south. We were supposed to have a hydrofoil ride to one of these places but they are not yet available this season. This appears to be an area that many nobles had summer houses. They are mostly wooden and brightly painted. We have to wait outside the ornate iron and gold gate for our tickets. The computer is down so it takes longer. In this palace we get in line by group and follow each other. Much less confusion. We do have to check the coats and wear our headphones. This is the summer palace where Catherine II spent most of her time. She was quite a character. It seemed she had some 11,000 dresses. She never wore the same one twice. They fabrics were saved and remade into other dresses. She announced what she was wearing and no one else wore that color. If she liked your hair she would mess it up. If your dress was too good she would some how mess that up. This palace was looted and burned by the nazis. Lucky it started to snow after they left and helped put out the fire. There are photos of the bombs they left to destroy the place. That has been a common theme along our travels. Only 30+ rooms have been restored. What is now on display is quite cleverly done. In the corners of room are huge floor to nearly ceiling heaters of what looks like delft tile. They are now painted plaster, not the original tiles. The original tiles were made in Germany. These were a sort of central heat for these huge rooms. When it was being originally built they had to tear down the room repeatedly because they were not large enough to suit the czars and czarina. There was a view to the Sea of Finland as well out the window. As we pass through the rooms we can take pictures, be never with a flash. They have ladies stationed about to watch. When we get to the amber room there is no photographs. This room was stolen by the nazis and never found. They decided to rebuild the amber room. When it was reconstructed they used mirrored panels to fill in some of the wall spaces. The walls are covered with Amber. The pictures on the walls, with a few painted inserts, are of mosaic style scenes that have amber frames. We did sneak a photo, but it was not good quality.There is more major gold leaf here as well. We had to wear booties to protect the floors and cut down on dust. Catherine's dress on display is made of paper. What appears to be priceless wall covers are now painted replicas. There are rooms with strips of inlay that is actually colored aluminum foil. That was new at the time. We did get to walk through some rooms that were used by the families. We also walked through servants hallways and areas used in the restoration. After walking through the available rooms we walk through some of the classic gardens. We head back to the city for lunch. The city views are obstructed by the fogged up windows. Lunch was at Romeos . We had great service. The menu was cucumber and tomato salad that only had sour cream for a dressing. Borsch soup was excellent. There was sliced loaf bread on the table. I heard later that it is always rye bread. Our entree was chicken Kiev and rice with apple cake for dessert. The cake looked more like a tart. The owner decided to treat Susan to ice cream. She was thrilled and called it her birthday sundae. Remember this trip is about her 40th birthday in a few months. We were scheduled to take a canal tour but due to the weather we changed to another church and a market. The Russian orthodox church was holding a service. It was beautiful. The ladies all wore scarves and the men were bear headed. They were standing! The priests were coming and going through beautiful doors that represent entering paradise. No photos allowed in an active church. This was a relatively small church but filled with icons, gold and paintings. Back to the van we head to the subway. Here the subway stations are works of art. I hoped to see an old one, but we were taken to one only two years old. The soviets decorated the subways with art to make the workers feel better. The one we saw was decorated with large murals made with semiprecious stones. These subways are the very deep. The one we saw was the deepest in Russia. The only way into it was escalators. The first was so long you could not see the bottom from the top. There was only one piece of trash that I saw and almost no graffiti. The people coming and going were well dressed. Elena said they now have access to fashion, but most comes from china. Susan hates escalators so she choose to stay on the bus.Next we are taken to a market. It looked like a flea market with booths, but on the other side was a grocery. We did not investigate, but there were lots of photos from those that did. We are now taken to the office to pay for our two day tour. They are very smart. The office is surrounded by rooms of souvenirs. Actually the prices were good and the selection was huge. The traffic is so tied up due an accident about 150 people are late getting to the ship. The winds are very strong so we do some special maneuvers to get away from the dock. We are so tired we skip the show. Walking on cobblestones and climbing in and out of the bus is tiring as well. We have made it another day of this intense trip. It really is a walk through of sites! The weather rained off and on all day, but not so much to keep us from our appointed rounds. We wore our cuddle duds and jackets with rain ponchos over the top. I would not say we were toasty, but we made it work.
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Comments

dwlp.travelkids
2014-05-31

Glad Miss Susan got her ice cream! Also bet you were glad the last few days that you had your colder weather gear that was too much in Stockholm!!

2025-02-18

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