September 18
Canals, a Russian Good Samaritan, and Best Art Museum
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The next day we have a wonderful breakfast that comes as
part of our room fee. We ask the hotel
manager about getting tickets for a canal boat tour that has English
translation. She tells us it is unlikely
we can have a translator. While doing this a lovely young Russian woman named
Maria who overhears us and speaks very good English interrupts to say that she
can get us a boat canal trip at a good price. She immediately calls from her
cell phone and sets up a 1 pm time for a tour. John asks her if she can get any
black market tickets for the Opera. She laughs and says she doesn’t deal with
black market tickets but can help with white market tickets. To our absolute amazement she tells us that
for 100 rubles each for a ticket ($1.45) she will book us. She gives us her
card and instructs us to go to the Opera administrator’s office and show this
card. The deal is that for this
unbelievable price you can wait at the door to see if people don’t show up and
then are given any empty seats. If there are no empty seats available they will
give you a chair in the aisle. It turns
out this helpful person is a tour guide and interpreter who arranges tours for
students from London. Another incredible
experience with a friendly Russian. I wonder if we would have done the same for
a Russian tourist in United States.
Canal Tour
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| Add caption |
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| John sends emails |
Seated on a small canal low level flat boat with 4 other
people we are provided with audio guides with English translation. This low
lying motorized boat proceeds down the canals and under bridges until it pops out onto the
Neva River that offers an amazing panoramic view of the Hermitage, Peter and
Paul Fortress, palaces and churches.
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| Pushkin Home |
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| The Hermitage From Neva River |
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| Peter and Paul Fortress |
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| Coming from Canal to Neva River |
This 1-hour tour with very good translation is a wonderful way to get
our first look at St. Petersburg. What a beautiful city.
After walking around
for a bit we head back to Alexander House for another nap so we will be awake
for the Opera.
Mikhailovsky Theatre
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| Mikhailovsky Theatre |
But before the Opera we have dinner at the Grand Hotel in
the lobby. For the first time John does not order stroganoff but instead orders
Hungarian goulash while I have a salad. We head for the theatre wondering if we
will get a seat.
Well not only do we get a seat it is in the middle of the 2nd
row in front of the symphony and the stage. We can see both the musicians and
the actors up close.
We are watching the Queen
of Spades composed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky 1889 (and written by Pushkin). This
time the theme is a poor officer, Herman, who is desperately in love with Lisa,
an heiress to the rich Countess. He is obsessed with marrying her but loses
hope when he frightens the Countess to death. The loss of hope drives Herman
mad and his only solution is death as was also Lisa’s solution. Not exactly
Romeo and Juliet but nevertheless another play about unfulfilled love ending in
a dual suicide. Just like Swan Lake, a morbid ending to a beautiful
spectacle. It is a 3-hour opera with 2
intermissions and in a classic opera house with world-class music, singing and
amazing sumptuous sets. Who says Russians
don’t have a lot of emotion? Now we have
seen two Russian plays all about emotional trauma, loss and the search for
ideal love. I think about Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina which both John and I read a
few years ago ~ “if you look for
perfection, you’ll never be content” Or, “Is it really possible to tell someone
else what one feels?”
“Everyone thinks about
changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” Tolstoy
September 19
Overdosing at The Hermitage
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| Czar's Winter Palace ~ The Hermitage |
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| Above the Palace |
John an art lover has been excited about going to the
Hermitage ever since we decided to come to St Petersburg. It’s one of 5 art
museums listed as the best in the world and since John likes numbers and we
have been to the other four museums (Prada in Spain, Art Institute of Chicago, Louvre
in Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York), he wants to complete the set.
John is outraged that in our Rick Steve’s travel guide, Rick says that if you
have limited time and want a “wider range experience” you can skip the
Hermitage. Instead Steve recommends his self-guided walking tour down Nevsky Prospekt, St Petersburg’s main
street which is a 6-8 lane thorough fare.
This amazing street is at least 2 miles long and is interspersed with
cathedrals such as Kazan cathedral, churches such as Church on Spilled Blood,
Peter and Paul’s Fortress, museums, opulent palaces, department stores, viewpoints
and walkways over canals and rivers. Furthermore,
Steve argues that the Hermitage doesn’t have Russian art. Nonetheless John has
bought us 2-day tickets for the Hermitage so we will have plenty of time to
view it. I am afraid to admit that I find Steve’s comments somewhat persuasive
as I love people watching and the energy of street life. In any case, we have plenty of time so we can
enjoy the Hermitage as well as many of the other amazing Russian things there
are to see.
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| Tile Floor |
The Hermitage was built by Peter the Great’s daughter,
Elizabeth, and later filled with the art collection of Catherine the Great. As
we walk into this place I am awestruck by the immensity of the palace ~ this is
so much more than an art collection as it is housed in an amazing imperial
residence. Room after room you slide through the most opulent and amazing
ballrooms, throne rooms, and dining rooms I have ever seen. I believe it is the
most beautiful museum I have ever been in and find I am more entranced by the
building itself than the art. On this first day here we first focus on the
Historical rooms in the Czar’s Winter Palace ~ interestingly the architects of
this palace were Italian using Baroque style.
In Field Marshall’s
Hall we see portraits of all of Russian’s military generals lined up.
Another hall is dedicated to Peter the Great and a third
gallery to over 300 portraits of generals who helped to expel Napoleon from
Russia in 1812. This ended Napoleon’s plans for European dominance. In the Pavilion room we see a Peacock Clock
made by a British goldsmith.
After 3-4 hours wandering in this enormous palace where
every room seems better than the last one, we decide to take a break and go to
a building across the square which houses the moderns masters.
Here we see an impressive collection of Impressionist
artists including Pissarro (see photo below), Degas, Monet (see photo), Renoir,
Vincent van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne and Matisse.
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| Gaughin |
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| Monet |
In this building each room is
dedicated to one of these artists so you get to see how these artists living in
France influenced one another’s style. I find in this simple building it is
easier to focus on the art and you are less distracted by the opulence of the
marble and palace design. We have been doing this for almost 5 hours and I am
overdosed with so much to see and I know we have barely touched the surface of
what there is to see but can’t digest anything more.
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| Gaughan |
Outside the Hermitage John looks at the famous Russian
nesting dolls or is he looking all the beautiful Russian women with high heels? Amazing how they walk on these cobbled streets.
Rather than the peasant women in traditional dress, he buys one
that includes the Russian heads of state. In his version we find Lenin on the
outside, then Stalin, Brezhnev (1985),
Gorbachev (1991), Yelstin (1993), Putin (1999), Medvedev (2008) and then
Putin again (2012).
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