ThreeCats

Day 20 This morning’s outing was to Pushkin and Catherine’s Palace. The palace was built by Peter the Great for his wife Catherine, although it was significantly enlarged by Catherine the Great. The opulence is like Versailles, but the scale is larger because everything in Russia is larger than Europe. The highlight is supposed to be the Amber Room, but I found the most interesting part an exhibit showing the reconstruction after WWII. After the war broke out and it became obvious, that the Nazi’s were going to get close to St Petersburg, Russian women (all the men were fighting) buried a large number of statues and artifacts. The Nazi’s never made in into St Petersburg, but they did capture and destroy several of the summer homes, palaces, including Peterhof and Catherine’s Palace. All that was ... read more

Day 18 We started the day at the Hermitage which truly is one of the worlds greatest museum. The building is splendid and the art collection is one of the greatest in the world. It doesn’t make sense to talk about the Hermitage because so much is already on line and I’d have nothing insightful to add. At 2:15 we met our guide for a Jewish tour of St. Petersburg. Our guide, Elena, recommended we focus on the Ethnology Museum and the Choral Synagogue. At the museum it was interesting to see some of the dress worn by Jews in parts of Russia. Given how much we already knew there wasn’t much to learn. Next we went to the Choral Synagogue which is where our tour guide belongs. She explained that the synagogue is Chabbad, but ... read more

Day 16 We started the day with a tour of some of the subway stations. In the 1950’s the government constructed magnificent subway stations as a way of showing the people what their country would be like at the end of the Revolution when the new world was ready. The stations are decorated with marble, chandeliers, statues, stained glass and mosaics and immaculate. 8 of the 15 million residents use the system on any work day. The comparison to our subways is unavoidable and our subways are dirty and unreliable. All the stations are immaculate. On one of the train rides, we were approached by a young Russian man. He said he really liked the USA because of the NRA and our ability to buy guns. In Russia he said it was hard to even buy ... read more

Day 13 Jack went out to photography before breakfast and I relaxed with Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich. Breakfast consisted of a plate with bread, ham cheese and vegetables, a bowl of rice porridge, a large square of something that looked like noodle kugel, two fried eggs with sausages and a bit of fruit. It was almost comical to see all the dishes laid out on the table. It turns out that Suzdal is the best preserved of all the Golden Ring cities near Moscow. It was once extremely prosperous, but in the middle of the 1800’s the business people did not want to contribute to the construction of a rail line. The rail line bypassed Suzdal and that was the end of its economic boom. Buildings didn’t change and there was only very limited new ... read more

Day 11 We must head to the airport for our flight to Moscow at 3, which means we only have time for 2 museums. I picked the Kunstgewerbemuseum Museum of Decorative Arts, and Jack picked the Museum of Photography that also houses the Helmet Newton foundation. At the Kunstgewerbemuseum once again, the architecture was the most exciting part of the visit. In fact many of the buildings in Potsdam Square and the Kulturforum were innovative and exciting. The Decorative Arts Museum had some gorgeous carved furniture from the 15th Century. Unfortunately, I got terribly hungry to we headed out to our next stop via Ben-Gurion Strasse. It was strange to see that a street was named after Ben Gurion. I’m reading When they come for us we’ll be gone which is a history of the freeing ... read more