After getting settled in our apartment, we headed out into the neighbourhood for a walk around. We walked by the University which was where the periodic table was first developed and where Pavlov did work. We also walked to the park at the tip of the island and looked across the water to Peter and Paul Fortress and the Hermitage.
On our way back we stopped at a grocery store and I learned where all the non-conforming vegatables that never show up in Switzerland end. Not that there is a problem with the vegetables, they just don't look perfect.
On our second day we took the hydrofoil boat to the Peterhof palace outside of town.
Here in the picture you can see the sea canal Peter had built so he could sail up to his palace.
Unfortunately, we didn't realize the inside of the palace was closed and we could only see the gardens outside. However it was the gardens that were our main interest anyway. Unlike Versailles, all the fountains were running.
When we arrived we got there just before the crowds and found a great spot to watch them turn on the main fountains.
We wandered around the entire grounds which took us several hours. We saw the outbuildings and the many fountains that were running. I took this picture just as a pigeon walked into frame.
Even in September there were lots of tourists around.
We stopped at an Orthodox church which was near by but I didn't have a scarf for my head. I didn't see anything in guides I had written about covering your head which was strange since I had read lots of info about covering legs and shoulders for churches in Italy. Anyway, I put the hood of my coat over my head and that seemed good enough.
We decided to travel by public transit on the way back and took a very long local city bus into town. It was very crowded and we got to enjoy the experience of Russian driving a second time. There was an intersection where the traffic lights had gone out and it was a total mess! Honking and cars muscling into spaces, old people trying to cross the street between the cars. One lady walked in front of our bus who jumped the bus forward to threaten her and they yelled and swore at each other for a bit.
On our third day we walked and walked and walked around the city. A lot of the museums we wanted to go to were closed (for cleaning they say).
First we visited the Church On Spilled Blood, where they even had the paving stones preserved where the blood was spilled.
The interior was filled with fantastic mosaics (and tourists)
Then we visited St. Isaac's Cathedral and climbed around the dome.
You can definitely see that this is a city with a port!
On our fourth day we wandered around the Hermitage for 9.5 hours! Lots of paintings, lots of historical artifacts.
I even got to see an ancient carving of a female which were always described in Jean Auel's books.
We took a special tour called the diamond tour with one of the worst tour guides ever. He rushed through and talked whether anyone was around him or not. However, unlike the Louvre we saw a whole lot of precious gems and diamond encrusted jewellery, statues and boxes. I have never seen that much collected together in my life!
This was also my chance to see the second version of Cupid and Psyche (the first version is in the Louvre, and in NYC is the plaster version of the second one where Psyche has her butterfly wings).
The next day we started at the zoological museum near where we were staying. The displays were so old they refered to Russia as CCCP, however there were lots of stuffed birds and animals to see and even a skeleton of a killer whale. Those teeth!!
The big attraction at this museum were the multiple preserved mammoths! I never thought they would just be sitting out on display, but there were large mammoths and several calves.
That was amazing to see! They also had some pieces of ancient horse and several extinct animals (stuffed). Too bad it had a terrible display format though!
Next we walked to Peter and Paul Fortress. This was ok to see, but not a lot there apart from the cathedral which housed the remains of all the previous Tsar's and family members.
At every palace and monument we visited there were brides brides brides!
Apparently fall is the time to get married (any day of the week) in Saint Petersberg. Apparently they don't have big wedding parties, just best man and maid of honor and we saw the marriage couples everywhere being photographed. Multiple couples a day, every day.
In the evening we went to the Milkailovsky theatre to watch Romeo and Juliet ballet.
The following day was another of museums. One that I really enjoyed was the Russian National museum, it had Russian art that wasn't in the Hermitage, including this painting of the clouds which I loved.
We also visited the museum about the seige of Lenningrad. Wow. It was another fairly neglected museum, there was lots of stuff in Saint Petersberg about the Tsars and the founding of the city, but very little after the first and second world wars. The most moving part of the museum wasn't in the museum, it was actually the wikipedia article about it.
That night was the opera La Boheme. It was an Italian opera with only Russian surtitles (at least at La Scala in Milan there were screens at each seat with options). It was good that we had downloaded the libretto onto our phones and were able to read between the acts so we knew what was going on!!
The week ended with another Palace trip, this one was Catherine palace and park, and finally the weather turned out nice! We had to take the train to get to the palace which was quite tricky since it was so difficult to read the Cyrillic. It was good that we had some instructions and city names written out because I would go up to little old ladies travelling and point to the name to get instructions about which train to catch. Once in the town of Pushkin we took a private transit bus to the palace. Unlike all the museums and shows which had a Russian price, and a tourist price that was almost double, there was very cheap public transit available. Probably the cheapest in any big town I've ever been in. We rarely waited long for a bus, and if we didn't take public transit, there were tons of private minivan's which were another common form of transportation.
The Catherine palace (which had been almost totally destroyed during WWII) had been partly restored and the insides were beautiful.
We also had fantastic fall weather and all the trees were changing colour. The park grounds were huge and many people were walking around (including many brides).
All in all, a great trip. We got around with English, French, German and a lot of sign language. Too bad the weather wasn't very pretty for most of the trip, but at least it wasn't raining!
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