Gettin' Cultured!

Our first full day in St. Petersburg was a blur of activity from departing in the morning for a five hour visit to The Hermitage, one of the world's largest museums, to a short concert of Russian music, to a quick dinner and off to the ballet . .  . one of Russia's national treasures.


Rembrandt's Prodigal Son

  The Hermitage is the largest art gallery in the country.  A magnificent five buildings, the Winter Palace is the centerpiece and was built by 1762 and formerly the residence of Russian Czars.  In 1764, Catherine the Great started the museum with the purchase of 255 paintings from the City of Berlin.  

Today it represents 3 million works of art and artifacts from the world over, including paintings from any painter you an think of (including Michelangelo, Renoir, Monet, Picasso, and all those other amazing guys.   If you were to spend a minute looking at each item on display, it would take 11 years to see them all!  To the left is Rembrandt's "Prodigal Son" which was simply beautiful and moved Cheryl and I greatly.   To think of the level of forgiveness involved and to see it so beautifully dispayed was very powerful.


Russian troops marching
past The Hermitage to cheers

 While waiting for entry to The Hermitage, we saw the Russian military practicing for Thursday's national holiday marking VE (Victory in Europe) day, when the Russians (among others including the Americans, British, and Canadians) defeated the Germans to end World War II.   Large crowds watched them drilling, and while waiting for entry into the Hermitage, we were treated to military vehicles of all types (many belching diesel fumes!) roaring by with proud Russian soldiers smiling and waving to the large crowd.   The impromptu parade ended with Russian army and naval troops "marching" by. .  . I could only think there lack of any coordination in step or seeming discipline was not something you'd see from American troops.   But, I'll tell you that Americans have no corner on pride for their military as the Russians in the crowd cheered long and loud for their young soldiers.

The closing bows of primary dancers of "Sleeping Beauty"

After a quick nondescript dinner, we boarded buses to go to the theater district for "Sleeping Beauty", the famous Tchaikovsky take on the classic fable done not in cinema but in ballet.   The theater, the Conservatory (Theater of Opera and Ballet) was an older but well kept building, and fairly packed with both Russians and tourists alike.   While I'm not particularly highbrow, I enjoyed the athleticism of the men and women involved and laughed along with all the guests at the particularly funny moments.   Cheryl and Mary Lee were "dressed to the nines", making Ray and I proud to accompany them.

The bridge over the Neva River built by George Eiffel lit up at night

On the relatively quiet bus ride home at 11:00 p.m., we got full view of the movement toward "White Nights" where there is only about 2 hours of darkness in a 24 hour day.   The sky was akin to sundown in Ohio about 7:30 p.m. and didn't go fully dark until about midnight.  By summer they get to the 2 hours of darkness and the rest either "white" or sunny.

Tomorrow is more sight-seeing including the town of Pushkin, named for Russia's greatest poet and a suburb of St. Petersburg.  We'll tour its top attraction and oldest structure, the Catherine Palace. The afternoon features a tour of The Peter and Paul Fortress, the original citadel of St. Petersburg and its oldest building and birthplace of the city.

One side observation. . . . the Russian people we've met and interacted with have been lovely.   There's an undercurrent of the emerging capitalist economy (evidenced by a Jaguar dealer just down the street from our docks), but clearly vestiges of the past in evidence as well.   More on this in subsequent posts.