Last Wandering in St Petersburg

Now that we've seen most of the things that we wanted to see here, we've just been wandering up and down the streets and canals, in and out of shops and just relaxing, (my 2 companions like the relaxing part).

We tried to see the cruiser Aurora today, which is a cruiser that served in the Russo-Japan war in 1903 and it was also place where a shot was fired in 1917 to signal the attack on the Winter Palace at the start of the Russian Revolution. It's now a museum ship, but it must be under maintenance, because it wasn't there. (There was a notice in Russian, but that wasn't much help), so we just kept walking.

Some of the sights we saw were:

The Marble Palace

The Admiralty

St isaac's Church

The Bronze Horseman Statue

And lots of fantastic buildings and views that we have no idea what they are, but they look good.

One more day of wandering around here and then it's off to Stockholm. (I even went shopping down the Main Street by myself for an hour here today. Maybe tomorrow, I can find some better shops.)

Peter and Paul Fortress

With wind gusts of 36km per hour, we walked across the bridge to the Peter and Paul Fortress, established by Peter the Great in order to protect the capital from attacks by the Swiss. It never actually saw any military fighting, but was used as a prison. Lenin's older brother, Alexander, was amongst it's well known prisoners.

The wind was freezing, so we were quite glad to get to the island where the fortress was. We had just got inside when there was this huge noise, which made me duck quite fast. Cam and Matt were killing themselves laughing, as it was the noonday canon, which I had been saying I wanted to see. We went up the stairs to the fort wall, where we walked along, admiring the view. I also discovered how to do panorama shots on my phone.

We went down the alley way to the Trubetskoy Bastion (the main prison block), where many of the political prisoners were held. What amazed us was because there were so many people being arrested in the revolution, they were either held for a month or so and released or taken from the cells in the middle of the night and executed. 

Not quite like this, but couldn't resist. 

Our next stop was the Peter and Paul Cathedral where most of the past Tsars and their families are buried. Another magnificent church.

Then it was a brisk walk back across the bridge for a break from the wind in our hotel room, whilst we decided what to do next.

Faberge Museum

Upon leaving the Winter Palace, we had lunch and then wandered down the street to see the sights. Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan is a Russian Orthodox Church

And the Church of Spilled Blood, built on the spot where Alexander II was assassinated in 1881.

The sky was getting very grey, so we called in at our hotel for coffee and a bit of a rest before venturing out again at 5.30 to the Faberge Museum, which you can see during the day with a tour group, but if you want to see it on your own, you are not allowed in before 6pm. 

The Faberge Museum is located in the renovated Shuvalov Palace, a beautifully renovated palace on the Fontaka River Embankment. It houses the biggest collection of Faberge Eggs in the world, featuring 9 of the Imperial eggs, which Alexander III and Nicholas II gave to their wives or mothers as Easter gifts, and 5 that were made for other wealthy clients. 

The whole museum is utterly breathtaking, and with the audio guide to accompany us, Cam and I spent nearly 2 hours looking at all the exhibits. (Matt had a look through, but came back after he'd finished and we were still in the fourth room. Like me in the Mercedes Benz and Porsche museums in Germany). No photos are allowed in the museum, but there is a virtual tour on the web. 

Fabergemuseum.ru/

After this, we walked back along Nevsky Prospekt to the Pushka hotel and had dinner in the restaurant next door. 

Tomorrow the Peter and Paul Fortress.

The Winter Palace

We caught the Red Arrow express train from Moscow to St Petersburg Friday lunchtime, arriving here at 6.15pm, Rush hour. An amazing experience. It took our taxi driver (Lingo Taxis again, who met us at the station and navigated through the crowds) half an hour to go 3.2kms. (The prime minister was opening a new theatre, so some of the roads were blocked), but also watching how the traffic merges and turns was an experience in itself, especially as people were loading furniture into a truck on the road, whilst traffic just moved around it!

After settling into the hotel room, we went next door to the hotel restaurant for dinner, where I finally got my beef stroganoff and to top it off had cherry crepes for dessert. Delicious. 

 Whereas Cam and Matt had ham and cheese omelettes for entree and then Cam had chicken Kiev, while Matt stuck to his spaghetti bog.

After 2 glasses of wine, I rolled into bed, happy to have a sleep in, in the morning due to breakfast not opening until 8 due to a public holiday. 

After breakfast, it was off walking again, down to the State Hermitage Museum in the Winter Palace. 

A magnificent building with over 300 beautifully decorated rooms displaying millions of original paintings, sculptures and other artefacts from many different cultures dating back to Roman and Egyptian times. We spent 2-3 hours just walking through room after room. 

Wandering In the City

It's hard to believe our time in Moscow is nearly over. It's now Friday morning and we're sitting in the hotel room waiting for the taxi to take us to the station to catch a train to St Petersburg. We're all a little tired as we had another day of walking around the city yesterday.

We started out fairly early as I wanted to see the inside of St Basil's church before all the tourist groups arrived. I didn't check the time that it opened though and we were too early, and also very cold (about 4C), so we thought we'd see the Bolshoi Theatre. Cameron was navigating with the help of Google maps on the phone and took us on 2km+ walk around the blocks, just so we could end up at the theatre, not 800m from where we were originally standing.

Very cold, and with Matt's hands turning blue, we went back to St Basil's and wandered around inside. The church was very pretty with frescoes and flowery designs covering the walls and ceilings. (I paid for the audio guide which was not worth it, as it only told a little of the history and mainly focused on why the church was designed and painted in the manner that it was).

And great views.

We finished looking and again ventured out into the cold (not far, because we went straight inside GUM and headed up to the cafeteria where Cam and Matt had ham and cheese crepes and I found the baked potatoes. Then it was coffee and cake and back outside to the metro. We decided to go on the Radisson Blu River Cruise where we could see the sights of the city but still stay warm, and enjoy a drink.

The cruise was well and truly worth it. A lovely 2 1/2 hours of relaxation and great scenery.

We left the boat and wandered through Gorky Park

and back down to the Metro so we could go to Arbat St, where Ludmila said had a good assortment of souvenirs. We spent a couple of hours going in and out of many different souvenir shops selling the same items, as Matt decided he'd like something with a bear on it. Finally, he found a magnet and
after reaching the end of the street, the 2 navigators directed us to Mu Mu's for dinner.

With sore feet and very tired, we were going back towards our hotel, when Cam decided he wanted to see what was behind this door that we kept passing (looked like a shoe shop). It was actually a three storey underground shopping centre with a range of stores from Quiksilver and Uggs of Australia to Victoria Secrets and some other high end shops. (Not cheap but entertaining).

We made it back to our hotel around 9.30, and it was straight to bed. Which is why I am so happy just sitting on the bed writing this. (After all my whinging about having a day off, I am really going to appreciate this one. My legs need a rest).

This afternoon, St Petersburg.

Day 3: Moscow Greeters

Today was an exciting day, we were finally going to meet Ludmila, the Moscow Greeter, we had organised to show us around Moscow. Ludmila met us at the hotel just after 9 in the morning. It was raining, so we all had our drizabones on and wandered up the street. Our first stop was a look at some buildings that they actually shifted back to allow another Stalin era building to be built in front, between the buildings and the street.

We then went down to the Metro station and caught the train to the Exhibition of National Economic Achievements, which sounds pretty boring, but is actually an assortment of magnificent pavilions representing different territories of the former Soviet Union. The pavilions are huge and decorated to showcase the produce of that region.

After walking around maybe a third of the park (the whole park is 206 hectares), we found a coffee shop, so went inside for morning tea. Ludmila encouraged us to try some traditional Russian cakes made with curd - fermented milk (maybe that's what I could have done with that milk I bought yesterday), which were delicious with jam. We also had pancakes and chocolate cake, with lattes.
(Lucky we did all that exercise).

We then walked across to the Cosmonaut Museum, a collection of artefacts of the Soviet space programme housed beneath a huge monument to space, where we spent another hour wandering through all the displays.

Next, Ludmila took us for a short tour through some of the Metro stations, telling us the history of the stations and the significance of the murals decorating the stations. During the reign of Stalin, 13 stations were uniquely decorated to "embody Soviet brilliance" and encourage citizens to look up. These stations and their architecture and design look incredible.

After this it was time for lunch and then a walk around Novodevichy Cemetery, where many famous Russians are buried with incredible gravestones, and the Novodevichy Convent

and a walk through Sparrow Hills, where we caught the Metro back to our hotel. 

Where we arrived back just before 6pm. A full day of walking, surely that entitles me to morning tea again tomorrow. 

A truely amazing, informative, exhausting day. Thank you Ludmila.

Now to bed.