June 7, by Joan

We spent the first full day of our visit to Russia touring the palace of Catherine in Pushkin and seeing the Church of the Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg. Both are amazingly ornate and elaborate; things you do not expect in post soviet Russia. They began renovation on both when Russia was in the full swing of communism, and, as we have come to learn, when Russian citizens barely had enough to eat. However, the monuments to society had to be restored!

The palace in Pushkin is quite amazing; it looks a lot like Versailles, but on steroids. It is like an ice cream cake, painted in turquoise with gold gilding everywhere. It was occupied by the Germans during WWII and so totally destroyed. The Russians began renovations immediately after the end of the war.  It is obviously one of the key monuments in Russia; very crowded. The piece de resistance is the amber room, comprised of amber panels. Quite beautiful. During WW II, the citizens took everything out of the palace, including the amber, since they knew it would be stolen or destroyed. Those panels have never been found, so they built exact replicas. Karl, Missy and I bought a small box made by the workshop that made the panels as a memento.

The church of the spilled blood, our afternoon stop, is really homage to an assassinated czar, Alexander. It was built around the spot where he was murdered. Interesting use of religion and politics; definitely not something we in the US believe in. It was only used as a church for a short period of time; after the revolution in 1917 they turned it into a museum.  Like the palace, it had to be restored after WW II. The mosaics are fabulous; every piece of wall space is covered.

The one stream of constant in the history we are learning about Russia is that it is filled with blood and intrigue; murders of husbands, murders by terrorists, starvation. It does not seem like they are a happy go lucky lot. They do persevere however.