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.