Today we did four main activities: Peter Paul Fortress (Lenny says “where’s Mary?”), St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the Hermitage and the Kirov ballet. Because I’m ready for bed, I’ll only give you a short overview, with hopefully more details later.
Peter Paul Fortress is the place where St. Petersburg was founded, and there is a chapel there which is the final resting place of all the Romanov’s (the czars). Tanya told us great stories about their history, full of palace intrigue, suspected murders, international matchmaking and disputed succession. It was hard to keep following the lines of succession … we needed a cheat sheet! It seemed as long as you called someone Peter, Catherine, Elisabeth, Anna, or Nicholas, you were all set.
St. Isaac’s Cathedral was yet another spectacular, enormous, domed building (I can see already we may reach our limit on palaces and cathedrals). Joan promised to write a description of the difference between the Russian Orthodox and the Catholic customs, so I’ll leave that to her.
The Hermitage is one of the world’s biggest art museums, located in the spectacular Winter Palace and adjoining buildings. Room after room was filled with famous artists (“here’s our Raphael … here’s our Titians … here’s our Michelangelo”, and so on). The rooms themselves were ornate beyond belief. One starts to understand the basis of the Russian revolution, with all this excess!
Our evening entertainment was to attend the ballet in one of the magnificent old theatres. Seating was tiered like an old-fashioned opera house. The ballet was called La Bayadere, a Russian classic with a French name set in India (huh?). The dancing was sensational, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Afterwards, we went to a restaurant called the Caviar Bar for a late dinner, finally getting our little taste of that black gold, along with some quite nice Russian sparkling wine. (Guy will be amused to hear that we ate dinner at about 11:00pm!!).
It’s now after midnight and it's just starting to get dark!
-- Donna.
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