St. Petersburg

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Jet Lag and Rain slow our progress but it gets better

After being met at the airport, we were bused to the boat where we received a traditional Russian welcome of bread and salt. You break off a piece of bread and dip in the salt. Since bread was plentiful but salt was historically very expensive, it was an honor for a guest to be welcomed this way.

After some needed sleep, we were ready to attack things the next day starting with a bus tour of St. Petersburg, followed by the afternoon in the Hermitage Museum, then Russian ballet after dinner. I'm not going to go into the history and details on this blog so breathe a sigh of relief, but I will say that St. Petersburg, built in the early 1700's by Peter the Great, remains very much as he built it, even if many buildings are restored. It is a very grand, beautiful city with many canals and mansions of the wealthy nobles (pre-revolution) on every block. There are 65 canals and 40 bridges which all draw up each night between 1 am and 5 am so you have to sure not to get stuck. Peter wanted to emulate European grandeur and did a good job, thanks also to his daughter and granddaughter-in-law.

The Hermitage Museum is actually 5 buildings but the most prominent is the Winter Palace, built by Peter's daughter Elizabeth, with more than 1000 rooms, each gilded with gold (about $1 million each room). Words can't really describe how incredible these rooms are, and that's before you get to the priceless works of art that Catherine the Great collected.

After dinner, we went to see Swan Lake performed at the Imperial Theater, where the Czars saw ballet. It was a relatively small theater for what we would expect today, so there were no bad seats. I admit I'm not a ballet person, but when in Russia....

As always, Ernest is the photographer and as good as he is, he could not really capture the actual magnitude of the opulence, but hopefully it will give some idea.

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Photos

Welcome
Receiving bread and salt welcome

Hermitage
Winter Palace as seen from across river

Comments

[gretchen]

beautiful
wow. all of it is lovely and opulent -- i would have liked to see you at a ballet... ;o)

[traveler1215]

Ballet
only went cause I could go in my jeans!

[Deb]

They let you go in jeans
That cannot be. I like Ernest's pictures of everything but the people, but then again, the people are not that interesting, are they -- except for the the one that counts who looks lovely as always. It's amazing the revolution did not occur sooner. I guess all of this opulence was hidden away. Thanks for doing all of the blogging. Fascinating stuff.