We got on our ship, the AMA Katarina on Sunday afternoon. On Monday we had a full day of sightseeing. We started out on buses. We were divided into different groups by colors. We took in several churches and palaces. We went to the cathedral of St. Peter and Paul where most all of the tzars are buried. We heard a magnificent choir of five men in a little chapel. After lunch, we went by hydrofoil to the Peterhof or the "Versailles of Russia" the workman were taking down all the scaffolding from the laser show for the G20 conference. Peter the Great built a small get a way house, but his daughter Elizabeth liked everything to be very big and build another beside it. Peter the Great was a very tall man and it is said that he slept sitting up because he thought it was healthier. Empress Elizabeth like parties and clothing. It is said she never wore the same dress twice and when she died she had 18,000 dresses. Peterhof is a ways from St. Petersburg in the bay of Finland. Several wars have been fought for this section of land.
On Tuesday we went to Pushkin where Catherine the first had her palace and park. This palace has huge amounts of gold gilding all over the interior and a park with a lot of water features surrounding the palace. There is also a room that is done in Amber. Milky white, honey, red and a couple of other kinds.The older the Amber is, the more valuable it is. This palace had a lot of destruction by the Nazis in World War II. In the afternoon we went to a museum on the siege of Leningrad (the name was changed to Leningrad after the revolution.) It is a grim reminder of how devastating war is. During the war they wrapped their statues in wood and put grey cloth over domes so they were not as easy to spot. Now during the winter, they put wood over the statues or bury them to protect them from the snow and wind.
They also store the plants in buildings over the winter months. After dinner we took the hydrofoil to see the ballet Swan Lake in the Winter Place opera house.
Today was the trip to the Hermitage again by hydrofoil. Miles and miles of painting and anything else that they considered art.
This evening we leave St.Petersburg for Moscow, six days away.
Statue of Catherine the great and her men
- Marilyn and Bill
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