Thursday, June 14, 2012

Russia

St. Petersburg, Russia June 10-15, 2012

Day 1

Don Fraser drove us to the Helsinki Airport at 7:30 am. Finnair took us to St. Petersburg at 9:10. With another hour change and a 40 minute flight we arrived 11:50am. We passed very quickly through customs and then met our friend, Sergie who had a nice sign welcoming us.

Sergie had hired a taxi to take us back to his condo on the 9th floor of a 14 floor high rise. Numerous high rises were in the area along with shops that flanked each side of the road. From the airplane we had seen a city of many high rises. We unloaded our baggage into our room.


                                                                    Sergie's Kitchen
                                        Second of  three locks to get into Sergie's apartment

What a host! Sergie offered us lunch which we declined, but we did accept a delicious hot tea. We sat and talked about what we wanted to see. I broke out my list that I had researched while on the cruise ship. Our conversations were difficult at times, but with much patience and a little help from the computer translator websight, we managed to figure out what we each were trying to get across.

After tea we headed for the subway. Sergie pointed out a large supermarket on the way. We rode the blue line of the train six stops and disembarked to catch the red line to the city center. Here we went into the train station to purchase our tickets for Moscow. There were 25 ticket office lines with about ten people deep...So busy ...Mass numbers of people. It took a bit of time to purchase. We felt lucky to get two tickets even though they were not sitting together.
                                             Passing canals and tourist canal boat rides,

                                                          European style buildings,
                                                                 numerous statues,
                                                                 gorgeous fountains,

                                                  and a tremendous amount of people....

On we went walking to Mikhailovsky Castle...the pictures tell everything. Absolutely grand...walking down the street into it...passing through the open archway of this grand pale orange structure, and into a courtyard that was huge.

                                                          Mikhailovsky Castle

                                                        Entrance into the Courtyard
                                                               Inside the Courtyard

Inside a beautiful statue of King Paul I, owner who lived here only a month before he was suffocated in his bed. The castle became a military engineering school.
                                                                        King Paul I


On we walked to the Summer Garden, an island between Mars Field and the Fontanka River. We passed through an ornate cast iron fence with granite posts, built between 1771 and 1784. This grand park just opened this week after three years of refurbishing. Huge tall trees flank the cobblestone walkways. Today being Sunday, many, many people were enjoying the awesome sunshine and strolling through this gorgeous park of green, green grass, fountains and sculptures. This is one of the oldest parks in the city. The Summer Garden was a private retreat for Peter the Great and then became a stolling place for St. Peterburg's leisured class during the 19th century. Commoners like us were admitted only in the 20th century.
                                                           Walking through Summer Garden
                                                                Many, many statues
                                                                 Many, many fountains
We passed St. Petersburg's first palace, a small modest two story Summer Palace built in 1710-1714 in the Summer Garden's northeast corner.
                                                                Dvotsovy Bridge


We walked to Dvotsovy Bridge and enjoyed a quick break sitting and watching the people and the boats coming and going. One man was attempting to swim across the wide, wide river. We had a hard time figuring our why....there was so much boat traffic and it looked like a very dangerous thing to do.
We walked through a large park....
                                            Lilacs were just beginning to bust open.....

and caught the blue line subway back to Moskovskaya to our apartment. What a day! Flight from Helsinki to St. Petersburg, a one hour time change, 40 minute ride into the city center, walking among all the site and sounds of the city, and then a subway ride back to our home away from home....11 stops along the way. Larry and I were both in overload after having three full siteseeing days prior to arriving in St. Petersburg. We slept in a restful coma our first night not even noticing the White Nights of St. Petersburg. It was all so exciting and exhilerating.

Day 2

We decided to take a slower pace today. Having a leisure breakfast and settling in, we walked about a mile to the larger supermarket that he pointed out to us the day before. We passed several small groceries and other shops along the way. This was another great experience. We bought water, chicken, ground beef, eggs, more water, fruit, juice, cheese, bread , jam and more water. HA! We had brought our rolling back pack and a shoulder bag to transport things back to the apartment... Thankful we had the rolling backpack. You can imagine how carrying all that water would have felt like. We had an interesting time finding bullion, especially since there is no canned soup, fresh broccolli, or asparagus here. It was all very interesting and we enjoyed the thrill of reading the packages trying to figure out which package was oatmeal. Visa was accepted as long as you had a passport for identification.

We unpacked our groceries. Sergie also shared a DVD that he had purchased for us on St. Petersburg that was in English. We watched a little of this during the afternoon and each evening to capture some Russian history. Still recouperating from all our activities from the past few days....we decided to take a short nap. I fixed dinner for Sergie, Larry and I that evening. We had a chicken, tomato, potato dish with a fresh salad.
Sergie shared his favorite Russian drink, calling it Russian Cola. It really was nonalcoholic beer.
Sergie also shared some old photos of his family with us after dinner.
                                                      His grandfather and grandmother
                                                             His grandfather
About dinner we caught a bus to the Memorial of the Leningrad Blockade...a tremendous monument in the center of a four lane circle of traffic. We walked underground to pass under the road of four lanes of traffic to reach the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad. Grand statues and numerous burning flames all commemorated a horrendous time in history in St. Petersburg.
                                                       Monument of Heroic Defenders





During World War II, the German Nazi's blockaded the city, then called Leningrad renamed after their past leader, Lenin. Around a million people died from shelling, starvation, and disease in what is often called the "900 Days" seige. By comparison, the UK and USA suffered about 700,000 dead between them in all of World War II. Nazis had planned to totally wipe out the city. Food practically became nonexistent. At one point rations of 175g sawdust laden bread were given a day. People ate their pets, rats, and birds. Paste from behind wallpaper was scraped off and eaten. Leather was cooked until it was chewable, and eventually the most desperate souls turned to cannibalism. The only lifeline to the city was across the frozen Lake Ladoga which was also heavily bombed. Despite the 150,000 shells and bombs that rained down on the city, life went on. This momument commemorates those who perished during such a horrendous time.

Passing back through the underground tunnel to the side streets we walked further. We came to a large square of spouting water fountains....much like the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Here we saw the statue of Lenin with a tremendous modern building behind him.


Statue of Lenin

 We backtracked through a park seeing the bunkers that the Germans had built to keep the citizens contained in the city during the 900 Days.
                                                                 German Bunker

Further through the park we came across a beautiful blue painted church that had the awesome Russian architecture. What a picturesque moment!


People in the park were picnicing and barbecueing their dinners. Blankets were spread amongst the tall grasses (grass seems to not be mowed much) and little campfires were burning with delightful smells. We arrived back to the apartment around 9:00pm to have Russian Cake and tea with Sergie. What a great evening! We watched a little bit of television before turning in....BBC and Discovery ...the only ones in English. Today our mind and bodies got rested and we were ready to start out on a new adventure to Peterhof the next day.

Day 3

This morning we woke to cloudy skies. We had planned to ride a boat to Peterhof and then tour the Palace, but because of the rain, Sergie said that it would not be a good trip to take in the rain. So we switched gears and caught the blue subway riding it 7 stops, close to the city center and then boarded the purple line to get off at the first stop.

                                                                     Metro
Ceiling in the Metro
Art honoring  war heros in the Metro


                                        Metro stations in the city have beautiful art works.
Mosaics

Deepest escalator in the city...two of these take you down. 
             We walked through a part of the city that had absolutely beautiful architecture....
as well as the Golden Arches in Russia
                                                   Gorgeous canals were all over the city.
Larry could not stop taking pictures of the European style buildings...they went on and on beside the canal that we walked. Very scenic. The rain was mostly a mist here and there ...We lucked out again.
                                           Sergie guided us to The Yusupov Palace.
                   
                  A beautiful marble staircase was in the entrance with a tremenous chandelier.
                                            Elaborate decor and candlelabras were everywhere.
Red room, blue room, green room...reminded me of going in the White House. Very exquisite furnishings of gold and very valuable paintings displayed on all the walls. Old porcelin vases and ornate mirrors .The rooms were monitored by ladies that would not allow photos...speaking Russian harshly if your camera was in sight. Everything was lavish and over the top for the 1700's time period. Like this was for the very, very rich!
                      How about having your own little theater that would seat 180 guests...
                               with private viewing compartments for extra special guests.
We had a great sandwich and apple for lunch. Passed by several beautiful pieces of architecture, statues and numerous buildings, we walked through a nice park.


We flagged a bus down and had a great ride through the city back to Sergie's apartment. Another fantastic day of sight seeing!


Sergie fixed us dinner tonight....Chicken and pasta with a homemade tomato sauce and a garlic cream sauce. Very tasty!

We enjoyed watching an English DVD. About 8:30, we had cake and tea with Sergie. It is nice to have a short time to talk together in the evening. I feel our English does wear him out at times, even when we try to talk slowly. It reminds me of our visit to Costa Rica and trying to speak with all of Tatiana's Spanish speaking friends. We could catch a phrase now and then. It was very exhausting on the brain to try to figure each conversation out. I know this must be happening to Sergie as well.

Day 4

What a beautiful day! The sun has returned and it is simply gorgeous!

Larry and I have the day all to ourselves. Sergie is working today. We had a nice walk in the neighborhood, did some window shopping in a mall, and got a few more groceries to get us through the rest of the week.

Larry and I have enjoyed watching the ways of the natives. They have about the same habits as we have. The women are very fashion concious wearing stelletos, nice dresses, painted nails, makeup, colored hair. Many of the people are plump just as in America. Families enjoy pushing their babies in strollers and taking their children to the park to play. They sleep on the subway always.They enjoy bringing home fresh flowers. Flower markets frequent many corners and flowers are everywhere in St. Petersburg.






Day 5
Today we rode the Metro into St. Petersburg to go to the Winter Palace and the Hermitage, the most famous state museum in the city. While walking on the way we passed three beautiful churches.
Church of the Saviour of Spilled Blood is dazzling. Built between 1883 and 1907 on the spot where Alexander II was assasinated; hence its gruesome name.This church is known for taking 24  years to build and 27 years to restore and refurbish, reopening in 1997.


                                                           German Lutheran Church
On we walked to a beautiful archway....


The Winter Palace and Hermitage are so large that you can not get a complete picture of the whole building. To get to the  Hermitage, you pass through the monumental  Dvortsovaya pl, (the Red Square of St. Petersburg) . The center has a statue called Alexanders Column named after Alexander I for his victory of the battle of 1812 over Napolean.
Alexander's Column
The top of Alexander's Column


Magnificent Winter Palace
Gates to the Winter Palace
Inside the gates...a beautiful garden



Beautiful marble statues
The grand marble staircase
                                                                Elaborate  decor
                                                                 A seat for my King


                                                              What a doorway!
Room of Rembrant original paintings
                                                        Davinci's Madonna and Child
So many beautiful paintings!
Fabulous Faberge Eggs...made by the St. Petersburg jewellers and traditionally exchanged by the tsars and tsarina as gifts each year at Easter.
One of the many grand hallways
What an elaborate hallway!

Egyptian Exhibit

Park outside the Hermitage


One of the exciting things to experience are the St. Petersburg White Nights that occur during June.The  nights are light well after midnight and the daybreaks begin around 3:00am. 
Midnight

3:00 AM

4:00AM

Moscow, Russia             June 15- 27, 2012
Off we went in a taxi around 12:30pm to catch the superfast bullet train from St. Petersburg to Moscow. The taxi we rode in did not have a ticking charging mechanism. The amount for the ride was decided before we entered the cab. Sergie went with us, just to make sure the driver took us all the way to the train station.  Traffic, trams,amd buses were all over the place and the further we went, the  more the back up became. Our half an hour trip turned into about a 50 minute trip....after making a mad dash of it out of the taxi, we made it to the Sapsan Train with about 10 minutes to spare...whew!

The Russian train was super modern and smooth. It left at precisely 1:30 pm and had stewards just like an airplane who came through to give you something to drink and eat. It was all included in our trip. Although there was Russian television to watch, we enjoyed just watching the countryside and Larry found two English speaking  passengers to have a nice conversation with. The Train made about four stops along the way and went as fast as 126 mph.The four and half hour ride went by too quickly with us arriving at 6:00pm. We enjoyed it  extremely.
Upon getting into the station, Inna, Alean's sister (our exchange friend) was late picking us up. We were very happy to see her coming with a "Welcome Larry and Kay"  sign. She had gone to another railway station and realized that we were at this one. Oh well...just a little ripple in our travel.
We loaded her BMW car with our luggage and managed to creep out of the mountain of traffic towards Alena's apartment. Rush hour  runs in Moscow from around 4:00 through 7:00 pm. We passed the The Arch of Triumph ...looks very much like the one that is in Paris.
                                                          Our neighborhood
We finally arrived in a section where 25 or  more high rises were lining the streets. Most were at least 25 floors.  Inna pointed out several places to eat out, the Metro station, and the grocery store.  She gave Larry directions for driving Alena's car and took us to the 11th floor of a 12 floor high rise. Alean's apartment was a combination living room-bedroom,and eat in kitchen, and a bath....all we would need to get a good night's sleep after a day of sightseeing. She showed us how to work the television...hello CNN, BBC, European News and a bunch of Russian channels. She also got us plugged into the internet where we have learned to enjoy "You Tube" for the evening.
                                                          View off our balcony
  
So what have we been doing in Moscow? Walked the river front here by the apartment. Many Russians enjoy this with a beverage in hand. We have seen many having a little picnic here and just enjoying being outside on the benches that are  along the walkway. Lots of fancy strollers and baby carriages are out and about here. The area is dotted with playground and equipment for children. We think the high rise occupants use this a lot to just get out of their apartments for some fresh air. It appears to be a popular spot on both Saturdays and Sundays.

Each day of touring Moscow we have to ride a bus from the apartment to the  Metro station. It is about a 10 minute ride costing 28 rubbles on the big bus or 20 rubles on the small vans.  This is about a dollar or less per ride each. We have ridden to the local Metro (Kili) and walked around the modern seven floor mall. Lots to look at and see here. Escaltors take you to the various floors of very nice shops for clothing, sportswear, shoes, etc. Internet cafe, Ice cream shop and Restaurants....just like shopping at home in the US except things appear to be very expensive. We have also found the post office in the area....always a long line there.
Around 25-30 rubles equal a US dollar.
Outside the modern mall, Russian fast food.

  After walking by here severals times during the week, we begin to wonder if these baked goods are ever bought by the locals...it looks the same.
                                        
Wish one of these had English!
Our local supermarket

Our fruit and vegetable vendor

The first time into the City Center on  the Metro we managed to get lost going in and then found our way to a beautiful park called Alexander's Garden next to the Kermlin's western Wall....fountains, flower gardens, statues, another great shopping mall. This is Moscow's first public park.... so beautiful and a very relaxing area to enjoy the day...a favorite of  Moscovites as well as for Larry and I.
Alexander's Garden



Part of the original limestone wall of the Kremlin



We also visited Red Square. Here they are setting up stage scaffolding for a concert...we researched it to find it  will be the first annual music festival to celebrate this year's high school and college graduates...10,000 people are suppose to be there on Sunday.
Leaving Alexander's Garden and going into Red Square

Red Square
We visited St. Basil's Cathedral, the ultimate symbol of Russia. What a landmark! I said to Larry, "This is like the pyramids in Egypt except it is the famous landmark of Russia....OMG so cool." It was built between 1555 and 1561 replacing  an existing church on the site. It was built to celebrate the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible. It's architectural  design is truely the Russian style  that had been built in the past with wooden onion shaped domes....this, however was built in red brick with the onion domes being wooden.
                                                    What an awesome sight!



 We paid 250 rubbles  each to go inside and were really surprised to find it to not be like the traditional churches with benches for the masses to sit. It was divided into many, many little rooms displaying relics and old antiques from its past...lots of nooks and crannies to explore.  The inside was designed with nine chapels...some with the original alters. The walls were  beautiful painted frescoed designs. From inside it was fascinating to see the workmanship of the brick design. We were fortunate to hear five tenors singing inside. The echo of their voices to the top of the structure was amazing.


In front St. Basil's is a statue of Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky, the butcher and the prince who together raised and  led the army that ejected the occupying Polish from the Kemlin in 1612.
We ate lunch on the steps of Red Square and just enjoyed the beauty of the structure while watching the people meander about the square. We felt fortunate that St. Basil's was not very busy with tourists on the day of our visit so we could really take our time and enjoy every moment there.
Red Square from St. Basil's
Kremlin Wall Tower

We also visited the Place of Skulls. This area was repeatedly used for public executions.  We witnessed many people throwing coins into a circular cemented varied level  blocked area. Coins lay all over the place inside the gate. We threw in a couple of coins too for good measure.
                                              Place of Skulls...looks like a chopping block

We visited the largest mall in Russia called GUM. The outside was a very old traditional European design facing Red Square.  Inside, it was modern,  spacious,  multileveled  with many hallways including a massive structure with  sky lights overhead. A gorgeous fountain centered the middle hall.  A beautiful building inside and out.





We visited the tomb of the Unknown Soldier on the north wall of the Kremlin. Three soldiers stand at attention  near the eternal flame . Changing of the guard  occurs every hour...it was an awesome sight to see!  The tomb contains the remains  of a soldier who died in December of 1941.



One day we took the Metro to Kievskaya and hopped off to take a boat ride on the Moscow River.  It was a gorgeous  day.We sat on the  top deck snapping shots of the bridges and structures along the way. A very relaxing two hour ride took us past Gorky Park, an old ski jump tower left over from the 1980 Olypmics, a massive indoor stadium, many venues of relaxing lounge chairs for sun bathers on the riverfront, the Kremlin Wall, many dome topped churches, and some very modern art buildings.



Kremlin Wall from the Moscow River

The Annunciation Cathedral (1484-89) built as home church for the Moscow Princes and Russian Tsars

We passed by the University of Moscow, which at one time was the tallest building in Moscow.We disembarked for a 20 minute walk to the Metro and rode the green line and brown line to the light blue line to find our way back to Fili ( our station). Along the way we had numerous conversations with the locals, all speaking Russian, about which way to go to get on the right subway. They were all very concerned about us getting to our destination. Oh, how I wish that I had video taped a couple of those conversations. They were quite commical.
Map of the Moscow Metro

Metro Stations close to the city center have incredible art

                                                     Shiny clean tile floors here....

One of the newest stations extended the blue line...ultra modern design.
One station commemorated war heros

This metro station's artwork was dedicated to the 1980 Olympics


                                                    Exquisite golden archways in the Metro


One day we visited the Moscow City Sky Scrapers. There are six sky scrapers here. Three are completed and three are still in the building phase. Very modern and spaceage looking, a unique site against all the older outlying buildings. Moscow has a tremendous amount of tall buildings(6 to 25 floors). These skyscrapers, 65+ floors dwarf  the older buildings. During  Khruchev's reign in office, he started a massive construction of cheaply built and ugly apartment blocks changing the cityscape. At that time most people lived in communal flats. Khruchev's 1960's construction initiave allowed for citizens to have their own private apartment for the first time in their life .

Modern Skycraper


Modern Moscow...Skycraper City

We visited the Park and Museum of 1812 which was  getting ready to celebrate its 200th anniversary in August. Napoleon brought troops from France to take over Moscow in a very bloody battle. Napoleon entered a deserted city of Moscow. Due to lack of provisions and the onset  of winter, Napoleon was forced to retreat. His starving troops were picked off by flanking Russian troops with only one in twenty of his men making it back to Poland. The Russian army pursued him all the way back to Paris.   Statues of heros  of this war and a diarama of the famous battles  made this an interesting place to visit.





We visited Victory Park. A huge venue of fountains, statues, and memorials that were constructed here after World War II under Stalin's rule.  Other  statues and memorials have been added  as late as the 1990's.  It is traditional for married couples to come here on their wedding day to lay flowers on the memorials and near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers  Eternal Flame.  It happened to be a Saturday during our visit and there were  numerous limos lining  the streets that brought couples dressed in wedding attire to get pictures and to lay flowers  on the gravesite. Interesting to watch.






                                        Eternal flame for the Unknown Soldier of World War II

Putting flowers on the Unknown Soldiers Grave

Limos lined the streets for the bridal parties


We also saw lots of roller blade clubs on the backside of the memorial skating through courses and following each other. Here we came upon a touching memorlal that was built   commemorating the Jews who died in concentration camps. The sculpter who made this portrail did an excellent job. It was so moving that the city moved it from the front of the  park to the back of the park because it caused many sad feelings for the visitors. Officials moved it  to the back because they wanted the citizens to feel happy when visiting Victory Park, not saddened.



Larry and I spent a day inside the Kremlin. Can you imagine? We had always thought that the Kremlin was a massive Russian government building and that it would not be open to the public. It is actually is a small  fortress that was first built during the 12th century sitting on top of Borovitsky Hill. Surrounded by a wall for protection, the fort contained the earliest settlement of Moscow while ceremonies and celebrations were held on the plaza outside now called Red Square. The first wall was built of wood. The Kremlin grew with the importance of the Moscow Princes by becoming the headquarters of the Russian Church in the 1320s. A white stone Kremlin was built in the 1360s with almost the same boundaries as it has today. At the end of the 15th century Ivan the Great had new walls and towers (most of which still stand) as well as the Kremlin's three great cathedrals built.  The Kremlin wall has 19 distinctive towers...they look almost fairy tale quality.


After purchasing a ticket for 350 Rubbles each, we went through a medal detector and had our bag searched. On we walked up a long bricked walkway called the Trinity Bridge through the Trinity Tower where we passed the Arsenal. Larry had a picture taken with canons and canon balls before the police noticed....another couple who were posing there were not so lucky.

Police were on every corner and would blow their whistles to get your attention if you were in the  wrong area or doing something that was illegal....like crossing the road in the wrong place. Anyway, the Arsenal was not open to the public.
                                                                 The Arsenal
We walked on past a massive building call the State Kremlin Palace also not open to the public.
                                                  To the left is the State Kremlin Palace...
We came to Ivan the Great Bell Tower...a 137 steps up the belfry where you can get to view of  the Kremlin and beyond.

We stopped to take pictures of the infamous Tsar Cannon and the Tsar Bell...both are too big to serve their intended purpose.
                                                            The Tsar Cannon weighs 40 tons.
       The Tsar Bell weighs 200 tons. Do you think they were trying to out do the Liberty Bell?
We had a picnic lunch in the park called the Secret Garden. Glad that we packed a lunch because the only food sold in the Kremlin was ice cream and soda. Nice area with flowers blooming and tall trees....Very Scenic!




                                                                   Rose Garden
Gigantic Snowballs...hydranga

After lunch we followed the Kremlin Wall beside the Moscow River getting some sweeping views of the city. We entered Cathedral Square to see the Patriarch Palace, The Twelve Apostles' Church, The Church of the Deposition of the Robe of the Holy Virgin, The Annunciation Cathedral, The Archangel Cathedral, and The Assumption Cathedral...all having massive fresco paintings throughout...these are the burial sites of the patriarchs, tsars, and tsarinas of the past. Pictures were not allowed inside any of them.  We came to  the Armoury Chamber... a museum with displays of precious metalworks, paintings, jewelry, armour, weapons, gowns, and crowns...again, no pictures were allowed.
Assumption Cathedral, central place of worship where Russian Tsars
and Emperors were crowned
The Patriarch's Palace with the Twelve Apostles Church
built in 1653-55 for Patriarch Nikon

The annunciation Cathedral (1484-89) built as a home church
for the Great Moscow Princes and Russian Tsars

What a day visiting the Kremlin! Something we had never dreamed of being able to do. It was special to us because it was out 35th wedding anniversary...the reason for our trip to Scandanavia and Russia.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
Our knowledge  of Russia has grown tremendously! Larry and I have gotten to know and gained a deeper appreciation for the people.  We  found the Muscovites to be friendly. Many times they went out of their way to help us find our way around the city....even explaining in Russian. Thanks to our new friends Sergie, Daniel, Lola, Aleana, and David for all the information and time that they shared with us.   I learned a lot of Russian history...Larry said it was a refresher course for him....being a social studies major long ago. We had a marvelous time traveling subways....something we were unaccustomed to doing being from Union Hall. HA!  Did we get to see everything that we wanted to see? Russia is a massive country. By airplane it takes over nine hours to fly from the eastern boundaries to the west. With such a vast country there is always one more thing to venture out to see no matter how much you plan. That's why we never leave any place disappointed saying, " Oh we will get around to seeing that the next time we come."