Catherine's Palace

The Russians, especially Peter the Great, who planned and built not only the city but a palace in Pushkin for his wife Catherine.  This palace was added on to throughout the years by his heirs, some parts more impressive that what Peter built.

Five more cruise ships joined our ship in the docking sometime last night meaning the city will be very, very crowded! Luckily we arrived at Catherine's palace early enough to miss a big part of the masses. Our guide gave us some more history during our drive to Pushkin.  Most of it was related to WWII and the destruction of parts of Russia by the Germans and the occupation or seige that St. Petersburg endured for three years during the war.  So many people died from starvation and cold, so many places were bombed and so much of their history was stolen.

As we drove through St. Petersburg again, I realized it is becoming more westernized and urbanized.  I saw KFC, Mc Donald's, Subway and Pizza Hut.  They have modern trains, buses and subways along side ancient trolleys and trams.  The Russian airforce was practicing formation flying over our heads. Most Russins live in highrise apartments, some new, lots of them old.

Catherine's Palace was started near a small church and then added on to many times.  It has several small ponds and gardens, a small lake with several pavilions, a gallery, servants and ladies in waiting residences, and many other side buildings. It was bombed extensively so all we see today is the restored building and room with restoration efforts on going in many of the rooms.  The exterior was completely restored in 1960 and the Amber Room was just completed 3 years ago.

Peter's wives loved the Baroque designes with lots of high ceilings, gold and mirrors, huge paintings and ornate parque floors.  Later residents liked a more simple style so we get to see some of both. The Amber room had three walls completerly covered in amber stones with designs of crowns, picture frames, curlicues etc. No photographs were allowedin that one room. There are more than 100 rooms and we saw 18 of them.  It was a very nice tour actually.

Peter the Great

Last night we attended a Russian Song and Dance performance at a Military Theatre. It once was used by Russian military as a meeting place/beer hall where they would sing love songs. Tonight the all men's military chorus and orchestra again sang love songs in Russian so we understood nothing except the lovely music.  One song had a familiar tune but I could not place it or remember why I knew it.  Between songs we were thorough entertained by Russian Folk dancers.  It was fabulous! They had very colorful costumes and very lifely dances, performing moves one expects in Russia. You will have to use your imagination as no photography was allowed during the performance.

Today was our tour of Peterhof, the summer palace of Peter the Great and later of Catherine the Great (they were never married as Peter ruled at the beginning of the 18th century and Catherine was as the end of that epoch). With access to the Baltic Sea won from Sweden, Peter began building. By 1723 a palace had been built and the gardens laid out and started with the fountains working.  There is an Upper Garden and a Lower Garden built around 62 fountains that are all fed by gravity with the water running to the sea.  Of course succeeding rulers added on to the palace and grounds.

During WWII, Nazi Germany occupied much of the St. Petersburg area, called Leningrad. The city was bombed, placed under seige and looted.  A huge part of the palace was bombed out, the Germans tried to take everything they could but the Russians hid most of the chandeliers, some of the paintings, silk wall coverings, some furniture, china and porcelain. Due to detailed plans, photos, and records the palace has been restored to its original condition. Absolutely no photographs could be taken inside the palace.

We have had a very quiet afternoon on board the ship making use of the golf practice area, walking track and pool. I will be attending a Dancing with the Stars performance later tonight.

Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

We are in Russia!  St. Petersburg, to be exact.  This is about as far into the country as we want to go.  One would think that arriving on a cruise ship, they would have all the customs work taken care of but with Russia that is not the case.  Russian officials must examine each passport and stamp our books both coming into and leaving the city even thought we are only going to the cruise ship.

St. Petersburg is the 2nd largest city in Russia but it is also the youngest city having been built in the early 1700's.  Peter the Great saw the importance of Russia having a city on the Baltic Sea, a port for the Navy and for trade with the rest of Europe.  St. Petersburg is built on islands with 60 canals and 400 bridges, earning the nickname of "Venice of the North".  We will be here for three days.

Our tour today is of the Hermitage Museum.  Two issues were pointed out to us on the bus ride to town.  One, it is Sunday so the museum will be very, very crowded and two, there is an international marathon being run today in front of the museum so streets may be blocked and we will have further to walk.  But the sun is shining and it feels good to be outside so nobody complains.

Catherine the Great had a summer palace built in St. Petersburg where she could get away or have private parties as was the custom in the rest of Europe. Catherine loved art and it is mostly her art collections that reside in this palace. The Hermitage is made up of 5 buildings and holds over 3 million pieces of art work.  It is comparable to the Louvre in Paris. Peter the Great wanted this city to be impressive, a show piece, a place of power, so everything we see here reflects that perception, from the inside to the outside of buildings, from the canals and bridges and from churches and government buildings.

Tallin, Estonia

When we awoke this morning we were in the harbour of Tallin (prounced tal-in) Estonia.  Estonis is between Latvia and Russia, south of Helsinki, Finland and an easy boat ride from Stockholm and St. Petersburg, Russia.  During most of Estonia's history they have been occupied by Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Russia.  In 1991 they became their own republic, seperate from the USSR and in 2004 they joined the European Union.

Our tour this morning took us to the old town of Tallin which historically was seperated into Upper and Lower town.  The upper town was the ruling class and the lower town was the money class as that is where the harbour and markets were located.  Much of the city wall that surrounded and divided Tallin is still visible and in some cases incorporated into modern buildings.

The entry gate was called Fat Margaret Tower for its thick walls. We visited the market place which was busy on Saturday morning. Church of the Holy Ghost has an outdoor clock that dates from 1633 and is still very accurate. Several other churches, city hall and quaint building caught our eye.  We enjoyed walking down the cobbled streets and looking in the low doors and windows at local craft shops. McDonalds has a huge presence here so we took advantage of its restrooms, just like home!

The second half of our tour took us to their open-air museum. Much like Skansen in Stockholm, they have moved homes, barns and other building from outlying areas and placed them here as if one community. We rode bikes all through the area and enjoyed their signage about native customs and celebrations.

Back on the ship we had a late lunch and long nap so that we were ready for a lovely evening.   One has to be dressed properly for dinner, no jeans or shorts allowed.  We had cocktails at the observation lounge before our Italian dinner.  A Broadway show in the theater was my entertainment for the evening while John played blackjack in the casino.  Once we arrive in St. Petersburg, the ship is required to close the casino by Russian law.

Loving all this attention and entertainment!

Another New Adventure

Today was a travel day so after packing we took a leasurly walk around the hotel's neighborhood, checking out the stores, shopping malls and dining establishments.  We should have done this earlier because now I don't have any time to actually shop!

Our cab took us to the wrong terminal for the cruise ship but he stuck around and was still there when we realized we were not where we should be.  Check-in to the cruise ship was supposed to start at 2 pm, we got there at 1pm and many more people had already checked-in and were boarded.  It's a beautiful ship but much larger than we expected.  Our suite is very nice with a couch, two chairs and a table, king size bed, walk in closet and large bathroom (bigger than the hotel we just checked out of).  We also have a balcony on the port side just behind and below the pilot house. We have all the amenities of a resort at our service.  There is a pool, of course, golf range into a net, exercise classes, spa, two elegant dining rooms, several other dining options, theater, bars, casino and more.  I love being pampered like this!

We set sail at 6 PM, dined in a dining room with elegant service and then went to the theatre for a so-so show.  John's playing blackjack and I'm going to crash.

More Sightseeing

We had to slow down today, this sightseeing business is hard work! 

Since the clouds were not too low we opted to try to see the city from up high.  Our first stop was the top of a 'rock quarry' or high rocky hill overlooking the Malaren Lake and parts of the city north and west of there. This hill was located in a very nice, quite park where the sounds of the city faded off and we could hear the birds singing in the trees.

A short subway ride away on Sodermalm Island we went to the arena complex with the Ericsson Arena, two other small arenas and the Globe Arena. The top of the Globe is 130 meters (340 feet) tall and is considered the largest hemispherical building in the world. It is the home of Sweden's hocky team, The Kronor. The unique feature we took advantage of was the ride to the top of the dome in our own small globe that rode up the outside of the big globe. The views of the whole city were amazing.  Its too bad that our camera could not capture that span.

We strolled along the main shopping center of Sodemalm and found a very nice place to eat lunch before exploring the Fotografiska or Photograph Museum. The exhibit we enjoyed the most was by Nick Brandt and his pictures of East Africa's endangered natural world. He does not use a zoom lens so the pictures of lions and elephants were amazing given that he was really that close to them.

One last museum and we were done for the day. We did a really fast walk through the Moderna Museet or Museum of Modern Art. This is really not our cup of tea - in and out in 45 minutes!

The best part of the day was a front row seat at a bar along the waterfront, basking in the sunshine (finally got some sun!) and drinking wine. Thousands of people walked past making for some fun people watching!

Sweden bade us farewell with this rainbow late in the evening after one more rain shower.

Gamla Stan and Vasa

Gamla Stan is the island on which Stockholm settled first and is now the home of The Royal Palace, Stockholm Cathederal; many small shops, cafes, & restaurants; narrow streets, cobble stones and alleys. It is very quaint and old but unfortunately it is a huge tourist attraction so as the day wears on it gets super crowded. We arrived early so got to see most of the town before the crowds and it was raining so that kept people away too.  

The Royal Palace is palatial!  It is one of the largest and most living palaces in Europe.  Built in 1754 it used to house the king and his family but they now live elsewhere but the palace is used for official functions and entertainment. The princess was married in 2010 and they held the wedding and reception here. We visited the chapel, some of the apartments where the king holds audiences, the Royal Armoury and the Royal Coin Cabinet.  We skipped the Guest Apartments, the medieval history museum and the treasury.  Due to the huge crowds we missed the changing of the guard.

I love visiting cathedrals and Svenska Kyrkan or Stockholm Cathedral was no exception.  A small church was built on this spot in 1279 with additions in the 14th and 15th centuries.  Most of the adornments were added at the end of the 17th century.  The exterior was rebuilt in mid 1700 in Italian Baroque style more appropriate to the Royal Palace. The alter is black ebony and silver, the pipe organ has 53 stops and is played regularly.  

Our best museum of the day was Vasa Museum.  In 1620's the King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus of the house of Vasa, was at war with his cousin, the king of Poland.  He wanted a powerful warship built so he could win the Baltic regions.  And he wanted it NOW!  The ship was built in two years (normally it took 5 years) and he brought in Dutch ship builders to build it for him.  He wanted it tall with lots of guns to show all how mighty he was.  It had two gun decks with 72 guns, could carry 240 soldiers and was 172 feet tall but only 16 feet wide.  In August, 1628, the Vasa set sail on her maiden voyage.  She had traveled only about 20 minutes and 1000 meters when a big wind caught the sails and tipped her to one side, she righted and then went to the other side with another gust of wind and the gun portals went under water and she sank.  She did not have a full compliment of sailors nor of canons.  Only 30 of the 140 on board died.  

The canons were retreived but they could not raised the ship.  Vasa sat on the sea floor for 333 years when she was found in 1956 and raised in 1961.  It took over 17 years to clean her up and soak all the wood with a specail preservative that replaced the water in the wood.  Three canons were found and 15 bodies were uncovered from the muck that coated the whole of the ship.  98% of the vessel on display is original.  They even found some of the sails, much rope, and some clothing.  The very cold sea water had preserved her well, the world's only preserved 17th century ship.  It was adorned with over 700 carved sculptures.

Stockholm - The Old and the New

After some research and lots of consternation, we found the visitor information center and purchased a city pass that should allow us to use all public transportation and get into most museums at no additional charge or at a reduced rate.  Today we used the card on a tram and a boat and got into an open air museum.

Stockholm is built on 14 islands and the islands are connected by 50 bridges. St. Eric is the patron saint of Stockholm even though he is not an ordained saint, he is beloved and deserving of the title.  ABBA is the famous band of Sweden and even though they disbanded in 1982 they are the third best selling music behind the Beattles and Elvis. There are over 9 million people in Sweden with most of them in the Stockholm region. The canals freeze in the winter so people can walk or skate on them and in the summer the 8000 km of shoreline is lined with 1 million boats.

The tour boat took us on an historic canal tour around Kungsholmen Island or Kings Island which was first occupied in 1672 by the king of the time. The City Hall of Stockholm is not only a place of business but also where Noble Prize winners are honored, banquets are held and is a huge tourist attraction. It was built in 1923 and is undergong renovations now. The tower holds the symbol of the the city - three gold crowns.

Other sites on the island were an old hospital that is now apartments, a sports palace, Alfred Nobel's home, and the place where ABBA was born. There were 'alotments' or garden plots, a prison where prisoners would spin wool to make army uniforms and is now a youth hostell, and the original distillery for Absolute Vodka. Across from the island is a palace that is now a military acadamy and a brewery that is now offices.

During the afternoon we took a tram out to the Djurgarden Island to take in the Skansen, an open air living museum that shows what Sweden was like in the 1700's and 1800's. Homes and buildings have been moved to this island and set up in a community with people dressed in period clothing to tell you or show you how things were done in those years. I found the homes to be quite interesting. The earliest ones had no furniture except for benches and beds attached to the walls, they had floor to ceiling, tile covered, wood burning fireplaces to heat the homes. During the winters every family, servants and animals lived in one building. The church ceiling was hand painted as were the walls in many of the homes. The church also had a working pipe organ.

We had a traditional Swedish dinner tonight.  See if you can guess what we had: rimmad oxbringa and stekt agg.  Give up?  Beef brisket hash and fried meat hash.  Good comfort food for a rainy evening.  Yes it is raining but at least we were done sightseeing for the day.