St Petersburg

Well I write this from Estonia - so I'm now out of Russia and in the EU.  I originally thought I would spend about 2 months crossing Russia (and Mongolia) but in the end I spent 89 days out of the 90 days allowed by my visa.

Before leaving my last major stop was Saint Petersburg.  It turned out to be a spectacular city and certainly the most "beautiful" of the big Russian cities I've been - I can see why it is the tourist icon it is.

When you get to St Petersburg you realise how different it is to Moscow - its an "old money" versus "new money feel".  St Petersburg has a continuous array of beautiful old buildings, virtually no new buildings (at least in the centre) and the people seem to have blended in - traffic is less, flash cars are minimal, the whole place whilst very busy seems more relaxed and enjoying itself rather than desperately making and spending money.

The prime Saint Petersburg tourist attraction has to be the Hermitage art gallery located in the Winter Palace.  I knew this place was big - I hadn't realised how big; I spent a full day, opening to closing time in it, and only saw half of the rooms and galleries.  The Tsars (and later the Communist party) were serious art collectors - want to see a Rembrandt, a Titian, a Rubens, a Van Goch, a Da Vinci, a Monet, a Picasso etc etc - they are all there and usually half or dozen or more - also ancient Egyptian mummies, Greek sculpture, Scythian gold, Roman ornaments, the list is endless.  It is dazzling in its enormity with the art works being only half the display because the palace itself is an extravaganza.  You also get a chance to really appreciate it all because the crowds are huge and your allowed to just wander around freely, none of the art works are behind glass and only a few of the most valuable gold and jewel items have any form of intrusive security.  I couldn't imagine any major European museum or palace feeling as open - not feeling you expect to get in Russia.  Any way here are a few of the mandatory photo's to whet your appetite to visit yourselves.

[caption id="attachment_579" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The Hermitage from the outside."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_580" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="and by night. (My  hostel was only a hundred metres from where this was taken - it was like staying next door to Buckingham palace - but it was only $30 night)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_581" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="A random room"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_582" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="And another."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_583" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="And being a palace it had to have a real throne - this is one of several scattered around."][/caption]

Continuing on the cultural theme I also visited a few more churches.

[caption id="attachment_584" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Church of the Spilled Blood (so called because it marks where Alexander II got blown up in the 1870's)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_585" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The interior is a mass of spectacular mosaics - spectacular because they have just spent 27 years restoring them."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_586" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Kazan Cathederal"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_587" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="with a more traditional guilded icon interior ( in St P, unlike the rest of Russia, they seem to be unworried about you taking photo's inside the churches)"][/caption]

And because I am who I am also spent a fair amount of time in a car and bike museum  I found.

[caption id="attachment_588" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="A 350cc Jawa - maybe for the next tour - plenty of luggage room."][/caption]

Also a military engineering museum;

[caption id="attachment_589" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Why we rightly scared in the 70's."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_590" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="and more reasons."][/caption]

And of course a ship;

[caption id="attachment_591" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The cruiser Aurora - which is preserved because the mutiny of the crew in 1917 was one of the important turning points in the October revolution."][/caption]

Another museum was where they did a lot of the original rocket research;

[caption id="attachment_594" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Recognise this? (its a Sputnik satellite for my younger readers - when they launched the first they built a few spares)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_595" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="and what was inside - not a computer chip in sight (and precious few transistors even)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_596" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="And a rocket motor from the manned space program (4 of these were on the first stage of the Vostok rocket)"][/caption]

And finally a few general street scenes.

[caption id="attachment_592" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="St P has a large network of canals which give it real character - and boat trips are a lovely way to see the city."][/caption]

 



 

[caption id="attachment_598" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="I said in an earlier post that Ufa felt like it was closing down for winter. By contrast people in St P seemed to be dertermined to make the most of reasonable weather and celebrate until the snows really started to fall."][/caption]

 

Anyway it was finally time to move on to cross the border and Russia laid on one final present for me:

[caption id="attachment_600" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="On my way to the border this cold white stuff started pouring out of the sky!"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_603" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="and it continued most of the way to the border."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_604" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Not a spetacular photo - but my last shot of Russia as I entered the border post. Farewell."][/caption]