The Oxymoron that is Russia Part 2

Day Two was another busy day with many of things to see and do.  Fortunately, getting through Customs was far easier thanks to all the Russian stamps in our passports from the previous day.  

Our first activity was to tour St. Petersburg from a canal boat. This could have been more interesting but it was raining and the tour guide just kept repeating all the information we had learnt the day before.  Did you know Peter the Great designed St. Petersburg to be the Venice of the North with canals linking the city?  At this point in the tour I was starting to see a trend: Russia took all the good stuff from the rest of the world and copied it (this will become more evident later in this post with a bit of a rant). 

A Venetian style bridge with a Romanesque building.

This is St. Isaac's Cathedral.  Only three other Cathedrals are larger: St. Peter's (Rome), St. Paul's (London), and the Duomo (Florence).  All were built before St. Isaac's.

 After our damp boat ride, we were off to the Hermitage which is supposed to be one of the largest museums in the world. I had read up a lot about the collection before arriving in St. Petersburg.  I knew that the Hermitage had the largest art collection in the world.  Unfortunately, they don't tell you that most of it is in storage. And the stuff that is out, it not considered the best art in the world. They had a few Rembrandt pieces, one of which was vandalised in 1985. The collection also consisted of one Leonardo Da Vinci and some early Raphael works. Apparently, I have been a bit spoiled with all the art I have access to in London.

One of the coolest pieces they did have was a Peacock Clock from the eighteenth century. It was this intricate piece with all these moving parts.  The clock part was quite small. I guess the rulers of Russia did not care to know the time.

This is a poor picture of the Peacock Clock. If you would like to see the clock working, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q0FAYE0_1Y

 Another area of the Hermitage was the Raphael Loggias, a copy of the Gallery in the Papal Palace in Vatican City. All the art in this hall are copies of Raphael's sketches made by a group of artists and shipped to the Hermitage. Again, another great work from Rome, copied and used in Russia.

The Raphael Loggias.

 There was one sculpture called "Boy on a Dolphin" which was both creepy and sad.  The sculpture depicts the story of a boy and a dolphin who were best friends. While playing together in the ocean, the boy died.  Grieving, the dolphin brought the boy's body back to land and then dies as well.  It is supposed to depict ultimate friendship and love.  It is kind of creepy because the dolphin has scales and a strange face.

Boy on a Dolphin.

 After wondering the Hermitage for a few hours, it became very apparent that things in Russia do not appear as they seem.  For example, many parts of the building were deteriorating. Some cracks in the walls were being held together with mastic tape (not even duct tape!). The Russians are very proud of the Hermitage collection. However, most of the collection is by unknown artists and they only have small, insignificant pieces by the famous ones. I was very disappointed with the Hermitage and would not recommend being there for more than two hours.  It is just not worth the time to see this mediocre collection.

The next stop for the day was to the Church of our Savior of the Spilled Blood.  Interesting to note, that this church is not dedicated to Jesus Christ or any other religious saviour.  It was built and dedicated to Emperor Alexander II who was assassinated in 1881 when a bomb was thrown into his carriage.

This is what I was expecting to see in Russia: A Russian Church in all it's glory!

We had time to take a selfie before our tour started.

This marks the exact spot where the Emperor was assassinated. 

Yusupov Palace was the next attraction for us to see.  I don't think I could have been that impressed with it because I did not take one picture.  However, I do remember that this is the palace where Rasputin was murdered.  The tale the tour guide told would make for a great Russian Disney film because it included Rasputin having magical powers, invincibility to poison, and ultimately, the main character was killed by a British soldier.

The final sight in St. Petersburg was St. Isaac's Cathedral, a smaller version of St. Paul's, or St. Peter's, or Florence's Duomo.  It was very impressive inside, maybe because it took the best ideas from these other churches and threw them all together.

A replica door at St. Isaac's after the door of the Duomo in Florence.

The dome which is the fourth largest in the world (our tour guide could not state this fact enough).

Yep, looks like a European church.

Overall, I think St. Petersburg was a disappointing destination because I came to see Russia, not Russia's adoption of Italian or French or British building and decor styles.  I did enjoy my time there but I was expecting more Russia, less Western Europe.

I also could not wonder why so much construction was happening in St. Petersburg. For example, there were huge condo complexes and major roads being constructed yet the city is so empty.  When we ventured out in the evening, there were very few people about. Roads were never congested. You rarely saw "locals' carrying their groceries or going to work.  I would say that St. Petersburg is far under populated than Berlin yet, they are building so much stuff.  And why are they not using this money to fix these old, crumbling buildings?

Some of the condos being built near the port.

A major road being constructed over the river.

More condos near the port.

Shea suspects they may be "make work" projects by the government to create jobs. I am a bit more of a conspiracy theorist and think that they are building up areas the tourists travel through to see central St. Petersburg in an attempt by Putin to show the world how great Russia is doing even with all the sanctions placed against the country.  This would also fit in line with the fact that they are also building a new football arena in the area for World Cup 2018.

I worked very hard for two days to get this last picture. There were a few of them still driving around and still in decent shape.  For those who don't know, this is a Lada, a Russian made vehicle that was very popular while the Soviet Union was in power.

the Lada.

The Oxymoron that is Russia Part 1

I learnt while in Russia that I am a bit of a conspiracy theorist (which will probably come out in this post eventually as I express my feelings about Motherland).  I have never been keen to go to Russia, partly because I like to spend my money in places that promote equal human rights and democracy. I went to Russia anyways. It was an experience and I had fun but I probably won't go back on account of how difficult it is to get into the country. You can't just show up at Russia's borders without some planning. There are two ways to successfully (legally) enter the country: 1. apply and receive a visa from the Russian government, or, 2. get on a cruise ship, prebook a tour with an authorised tour operator and go on said tour. We did option 2. I had planned for option 1 but by the time we got around to actually booking the cruise, it was too late. Lesson learnt: the Russian government works at a slower pace than the New Horizons spacecraft arriving at Pluto (for those who don't know it was sent in January 2006, just arrive this month). 

Our two day tour was jam-packed with seeing basically all of St. Petersburg in a very short time. We also opted to have a personal guide in the evening for a few hours so we could go for dinner and see the city at night. 

Our first stop was to the Russian subway.  Apparently, people are amazed that the subway is 86 meters underground. London's deepest station is 58.5 meters. Two jaded "Londoners' like ourselves realize that this means a long escalator ride with broken wifi connection.  

Riding the long escalator down. At least in London, you have ads to look at.

The view from the bottom of the escalator. So far, not that impressed Russia!

Our next stop was to Peter and Paul's fortress and cathedral.  What is that you ask?  Well, I didn't really know either till we got there. We learnt that it is the first citadel in St. Petersburg, built by Peter the Great in 1703.  For those who don't know Peter the Great is kind of a big deal to Russia. He ruled Russia and expanded the country. He also had a vision for St. Petersburg and hired people to build it.

Here we are at the fortress.

This would be the Cathedral.

 The cathedral is what made this place.  It was not much to see from the outside. The inside, however, was spectacular. It is the oldest structure in St. Petersburg (1712). It also holds the imperial tombs of the most Russian emperors and empresses.

The interior of the cathedral.

A wall of icons and religious paintings. This is the vocal point of the church.

The tombs of Tsar Nicolas II and his family. This is the Tsar that was arrested and executed along with his wife, son and four daughters. 

 The Cathedral was quite impressive. It was interesting to see a cathedral with nothing religious in it (hence the wall of icons).  Good ol' Russia!

Our third stop for the day was to the Peterhof, the royal summer residence/island.  After a dull and kind of scary ride on a hydrofoil that looked like it was almost ready to head to Russia's boat graveyard, we arrive at the "Versailles of the North." The island consists of various buildings, fountains and gardens designed by Peter the Great. The fountains were interesting because they operate without pumps. Water is supplied by natural springs and collected in reservoirs in the Upper Gardens area. Because of the elevation, pressure is created to drive the fountains in the Lower Gardens.

I could have spent far more time here.  We never even went into the palace which apparently looks larger than what it actually is.  There are only 30 rooms and the building is quite narrow. Also, most of the original buildings were destroyed in WWII.

The main palace and the Lower Gardens. The Upper Gardens are on the other side of the palace.

The Lower Gardens.

The roses were in bloom. 

This is the Samson Fountain. It depicts Samson tearing open the jaws of a lion which represents Russia's victory over Sweden in the Great Northern War. The original fountain was stolen during Nazi occupation in WWII. 

The fact that the fountains are all the same height without pumps is impressive!

 While travelling to our next destination, we came across the most Russian church we would see for the rest of our time in St. Petersburg. I wish I could tell you more about it, but we just zipped by.

A very Russian church.

 The next stop on our journey was to Catherine's Palace. Because having an island for your summer residence was not enough, Catherine I had Catherine's Palace constructed for her pleasure in 1717. Like so many things in Russia, it was ransacked by the Nazis during WWII and very little of the original structure actually exists today.  It has been mostly rebuilt to look like it did in 1796 but the original gold decor throughout is now just paint.

The front entrance to the palace.

The columns are made of wood now and painted a gold colour.

Part of the lovely garden that surrounds the palace.

Because you are not allowed in Russia without a visa or an escort tour, we opted for a private tour which would allow us to enjoy St. Petersburg at night.  Basically, we hired a driver to take us to a restaurant and then to Palace Square where various Russian revolution marches and demonstrations were held.

Us on the Square.

Shea really enjoyed seeing the city at "night." Please note, that we were a month too late for White Nights (24 hours of sunlight in St. Petersburg). It was approx. 11 pm at this time and the sun was just starting to set. Nights were never dark there.

Because Russians are strange, they had this for the tourists.  Also note, that we saw many track suits worn by mullet-styled men. And women as well.  It was never  a good look. 

On a bridge. All bridges are raised at 2 am till 4 am to allow boat traffic to travel through the canals.

Did I mention Russians are strange?  They love tacky cars for some reason. 

I would like to say that this was a bank at one point. Now it is a crumbly building designed to reflect Greek architecture. The Russians are all about taking other countries architecture and gardens and building it in the Motherland. 

A selfie on the Neva River with the Hermitage Museum in the background.

This sight made us miss Tie Lake and all the Seadooing we were missing this summer. 

And that was the end of Day One of St. Petersburg.  We acquired four stamps on the back page of our passports to enter and leave and then enter and leave Russia that day. We also learnt that Russia has called the back-page of all passports.  They will only use that one and no other country is allowed to.

Tallinn, Estonia

Estonia is one of those places where you hear about it during the Olympics and the basic reaction around the world is "Where's Estonia?"

I was not exactly thrilled to be spending a day in Tallinn but once I started doing a bit of research, it became one of the more exciting destinations while on our Baltic cruise. Did you know, Estonia is the saddest country in the EU? That's because they have a history of being taken over and ruled by other countries. First it was Sweden and then Russia (1710-1918). Then they got their independence after WWI,  Unfortunately, WWII happened and the Soviets took over again. They gained independence again in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed and have joined the Euro. 

Tallinn is one of the best preserved medieval cities in the world. It is actually made up of two feuding towns that were separated by a wall. Because one town is located on a hill, and the other is below near the Sea, it makes for a great walking city. There were plenty of views to enjoy. The locals were also fabulous and very helpful.

One of the 24 watch towers around Tallinn.  This one is called Fat Margaret.

Going through Fat Margaret.

Some of the pretty sights in town.

For some reason, the Baltics like to have tourist trains that drive through the city. It's a different version of a hop-on, hop-off bus tour. 

For the first time, I brought a travel guide along to help navigate the city. Thank you Rick Steves!

We made some friends on the ship and had a wonderful time in Tallinn together. Meet Griff the pilot and Kate the flight attendant/trainer. Very lovely couple!

Lower Tallinn.

The city of Tallinn as we sailed away. 

I would like to say that Tallinn was a magical city but it did have one drawback: rain:

Thankfully, Shea had the great idea to grab an outdoor lunch complete with beer and enjoy the sounds of the rain hitting the canvas roof!

Back in Berlin

Not much new to report about Berlin, except this time it was not bloody cold! 

Still not a fan of this city. Even on a nice sunny day, Berlin feels cold. 

The remains of the wall are still there.

We were able to venture into the parks this time!

Selfie!

Still busy here with tourists.