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.