Days 10 & 11, SPb: Palatial and majestic

Kim and I left two of the biggies for these two days. On Tuesday (July 17) we took the boat to Peterhof. Peterhof is a palace built by Peter the Great and further expanded and renovated by his successors, in particular by Catherine the Great. It is often called the Versailles of Russia. Peterhof is best known for the gardens and fountains. Kim and I hit a meteorological sweet spot on this excursion; the normally rainy SPb was actually sunny! We had a lovely stroll through the grounds. There were many interesting fountains and amazing views of the Neva River. (These are apparently "gravity fountains", yet another backwards idea if you ask me...how can gravity make water go up?) A little history about Peterhof: during WWII, Hitler was planning on having a party and had fancy invitations made. Rather than allowing his enemy to celebrate at this historic Russian site, Stalin had Peterhof bombed...and there was no party. Hmmm...the things we do to thwart our enemies' plans. We took the hydrofoil boat back to the city; it was a little pricier than the bus but more enjoyable.

Next we headed to the Peter and Paul Fortress. We decided we needed to pack in as much of the outdoor stuff as possible while the weather was working in our favour. The fortress was built in the 1700s by, of course, Peter the Great. It was the city's main fortress or citadel (no Kremlin here, folks!) and later served as a prison for really bad high-ranking and political prisoners (including Peter's son who died in prison while his father was hesitating to sign the execution papers). We walked along the top of the wall and enjoyed the amazing view of the city across the river. We made the long walked home and lazed in front of the TV. Unfortunately there were no English channels, but we did find the Euro Sports channel which was showing a track and field event. That we could understand without the commentary! I was fast asleep before my head hit the pillow.

We were up and at it early the next day as the Hermitage was the main event. The gates didn't open until 10 and the cashiers until 10:30 so we had to wait in line for about an hour and a half. Kim and I walked practically every inch of this amazing art museum. We had a map of the 300+ rooms and we diligently crossed each room off as we went. (I will admit we blew through some of the "ancient" stuff, except for my long glance at a 1000 year old corpse.) We saw paintings by da Vinci, Matisse, Raphael, Kandinsky, Manet, Monet, and van Gogh. We were getting a little silly by the end. (See the photo of Kim and a lion and the two of us imitating the "Head of the Dead Patroclus" sculpture. We couldn't stop laughing long enough to pretend to be decapitated heads.) In addition to the artwork we also saw the rooms of the Winter Palace, the official residence of the Russian monarchs from the early 1700s until the revolution in 1917. These interiors were mind-blowingly ornate. I kept imagining myself throwing grand parties here with men in fancy suits and women in beautiful gowns. (Kim just rolled her eyes at me about this idea. I think it brought back memories about me torturing her when we were young by making her play 'modeling agency'...). I really wanted to step back in time and be a rich duchess or countess. So determined were Kim and I to complete the rounds in the Hermitage that we practically shut the place down. We spent a solid 8 hours enjoying this famous sight. Whew.

And because we hadn't had enough for one day, we headed to the tip of a nearby island to watch a "dancing fountain" described in the guide book. (Kim was quite excited about said fountain.) It was apparently midway between two islands (in the river I guess?), and the fountains did their thing set to classical music. The show was to start at 8. Kim and I were early, and of course it was raining. We wandered around looking for where this fountain could actually be located, trying to manage our extreme anticipation. Sure enough, at 8 o'clock, nothing happened. We had hung out in the rain for about 45 minutes for no reason. Later Kim found a YouTube video of the fountain. It was in the middle of the river and the show was pretty cool. Guess they scrapped this tourist trap for some reason. Just another unsolved mystery in Russia. We went home to our hotel, watched a little of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in Russian and slept our last night in SPb.

Photos below (which are in no particular order, unfortunately) are:
The outside of the Hermitage
Me at P&P Fortress
Me and Kim at Peterhof
Me and Kim in the Hermitage
The Heads of Dead Patroclus
The outside of the Hermitage
Me at Peterhof
Me imitating a Michelangelo sculpture
Kim and a lion at the Hermitage
The line at the Hermitage
The Grand Cascade at Peterhof

Next post will cover our final day in SPb and some commentary on the abundance of scary Russian museum ladies.
TTFN