St. Petersburg, Russia

We took the early train from Helsinki on Friday, July 24, arriving in St. Petersburg in the early afternoon. Our local guide led us on a tour of the Peter and Paul Fortress which was established with the founding of St. Petersburg by Peter the Great in 1703. The highlight of the fortress is the baroque cathedral and it's ornate interior. The cathedral is also the burial site of several members of the Romanov family—the last of the Russian Tsars.

Later we toured the Church on Spilled Blood which was built as a memorial to Tsar Alexander II who was assassinated on the site. It's exterior is classic Russian Revival style and the interior is covered with over 75,000 square feet of mosaics.

Saturday was spent touring the Hermitage with another local guide. The Hermitage is a group of buildings containing an art collection that could rival the Louvre in Paris. It is said that if a person were to spend one minute studying each piece in the Hermitage's collection, it would take that person over 11 years to see it all. But as extensive and magnificient as the art collection is, it may be over-shadowed by the buildings themselves. The centerpiece of the complex is the opulant Winter Palace, the residence of the tsars, built between 1754 and 1762.

Eventhough our guide gave us a crash course in the Russian alphabet and language, many of the signs are difficult to understand . . .















Others are a bit easier . . .

Saturday evening Mike and Cindy, along with several others from the group, attended a performance of the ballet at the Mariinskiey theatre. Although both enjoyed the performance, Mike said that "the glass of Champagne at half-time was the best part of the evening."

On Sunday, we boarded a bus for a trip to the outskirts of St. Petersburg to tour the palace and gardens of Tsarskoe Selo which was built as a country estate for Catherine I, wife of Peter the Great. The building, which was occupied. by the Nazis and suffered extensive damage during the siege of Lennigrad (St. Petersburg) in WWII, is still undergoing renovation to some parts. The building is the site of many state functions and was the setting for the G-8 summit of world leaders a few years ago. Our guide, Sergie (who teaches art history). had given a personal tour to President Bush during his visit. Most of the rooms were heavily guilded from floor to ceiling. The most opulant is probably The Great Hall which was patterned after the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles outside Paris.

Some of the Soviet monuments to communism were left standing.

On Monday, we took a walking tour of the city that explored lesser known areas. One of the areas our guide, Dimitry, took us into was a courtyard behind the buildings (the "back yards") that aren't visable to most tourists. We ended our walk at St. Isaac's Cathedral which is capped by the third largest dome after St. Peter's in Rome and St. Paul's in London. Under the Soviets, the cathedral was used as a museum of atheism. Today, it is still officially a museum with a collection of 19th century art.