Day 12: St. Petersburg part 2 - Let's drive to Moscow

We started the day with a drive through the city in rush hour traffic, while learning more history and facts, then we did a short canal ride through a couple canals and down a part of the main river. It was very pretty, especially since the day turned out warm and sunny.

 After the canal ride we went to the metro and rode one stop -- the whole point of this was simply to see the metro, which is a sight to itself. First, the escalators are the longest I've ever seen, and Elena told us that in some parts, where the system runs under the river, it takes 4 minutes to ride the escalator down, and these are steep, fast escalators. Then there is the decorated underground area. The walls and floors are marble, with pretty colors, there are large decorated lamps, and it really is a pretty area.

Still, crowded, and the trains themselves were not ornate in any way. As Mia put it, the trains were quite out of place in the metro.

After that we saw a local farmer's market, with excellent-looking fruits and veggies but it was an ugly, dirty area. Elena said she does not shop there because it is too expensive, she prefers the supermarket.

The next site was Peter and Paul's Fortress, the building with the most history... I don't really remember any of it. The church was designed in the Classic style since Peter the Great was influenced by European buildings, and he built it for his patron saint, Peter. By the way, St. Petersburg is named for the saint, not the tsar. Instead of onion domes, it has a spire.

The inside:

Insides the church are many tombs for the various Romanov rulers of Russia: Peter the Great, his wife Catherine, their daughter Elizabeth, etc.

Also buried there are Nicholas ll and his family, whom you may know were murdered as the Bolsheviks wiped out the entire Romanov line (save for his mother). Wanting to keep the murders secret, they poured acid on the bodies and hid the remains. Later, the remains were recovered, but two children were missing, Alexi and one of the girls. Thus sprung the stories of Anastasia. About two years ago, the other two remains were found and identified as those of Alexi and the missing girl (our guide said it was not Anastasia but Maria).

The next stop was the Hermitage museum, located in the Winter Palace and surrounding buildings. The art collection was impressive, a lot of French Impressionist. There were works by Da Vinci, Rembrandt, etc. However, better than the art were the buildings themselves. The ceilings especially were gorgeous.

We visited a tiny part of the museum, and since it had been closed the day before, and there were 4 cruise ships in port, it was very crowded in those frequently-toured areas. It took us close to 2 hours. It is said that to see the entire collection and spend 3 minutes at each display, it would take 3 years.

Throne with the crest of Russia (the 2-headed eagle):

Mechanical peacock:

A door:

Finally, now at 2:00, we got lunch. Our hunger may have contributed some to our disinterest in the art. This time the restaurant was more modern-looking, but we got a traditional meal, kind of. A potato salad (yum), beet soup (very traditional), and chicken and rice -- very bland, but we concluded that in itself must be the tradition. Then we went on to the best thing of the day and our favorite building of all:

The Church of Our Savior On Spilled Blood was built on the site of Alexander ll's assassination, where his blood spilled (they even kept a small portion of the cobblestone street).

Alexander ll was much loved by the people, having abolished serfdom among other things. The church is built in the traditional Russian Orthodox style with the onion domes,

and it went through some hard times. In the Soviet time it was going to be destroyed (the government destroyed over 200 churches) but it wasn't. During the Siege of Leningrad it was used to store corpses because 500,000 people died and they had nowhere and no strength to bury the bodies. Later it was bombed by the Nazi's, and eventually restoration began. Our guide said when it was unveiled in 1993 the city was pleasantly shocked, because of it's beautiful architecture and colors that contrasted so much with the grayness of Soviet times.

The inside, if you can believe it, was even better than the outside. Walls and ceiling were covered in mosaics depicting bible scenes. 12,000 shades of colored glass were used. Each mosaic took about two years to restore after the damage.

Close up on one of the mosaics:

The marbled floor:

It is a tradition for people at weddings to go to the bridge near the church, we saw three bridal parties in total. The couple puts a lock on the bridge for something like a wish for a successful marriage. Also, seeing a bride here is good luck.

More of 'em Russians:

When we finished with the church we had an extra half hour, so we had to decide on something to fill it, someone suggested driving to Moscow :) but in the end we did a little shopping, then it was time for the tour to come to an end.

On the ship there was a Russian performance, but it was out on the deck in the hot sun and the players could not compare to what we had seen the night before, so instead we made it to evening trivia! That was a good day, and now the time changes will be in the right direction.

-Myra