mixed bag!

This guy caught us off guard. We had just walked through Alexander's palace and saw these "priceless" pictures hanging on a wall. As we left the same palace, we saw this fella (forever known as Skippy), taking them out and loading them into this vehicle. No guards, no bubble wrap, no machine guns. Just Skippy in his 1995 who knows what brand of van. (We knew he worked for the museum, so at least nothing was getting stolen.) Makes me wonder if they will find the Fabrege egg I found in coat room?

The happy travelers in front of Catherine's palace. Wonder if Hill picked the scarf to match the place?

One stop we wanted to make was to find the exact Apt building where Maria (Jordan's Fiance, not our tour guide!) lived before she and her folks moved from St Petersburg to the U.S. As it turned out, the place was no more than 10 minutes off the beaten path from our road trip to the palace. We were able to take a lot photos for Maria and her family and it was so remarkable that we found it with so much ease. Karma!

This is one of the most photographed sites in all of St. Petersburg. As such, we have 754 pictures of it. It's the Church of Spilled Blood, (formal name might be Church of the Resurrection). It was built to honor one of the fallen Tsars. It is absolutely one of the most unusual and beautiful buildings we have ever seen. Hillary had been dreaming about seeing this church for years. The colored tops are actually made from tile. And the person who created the tile tops, was eventually commissioned to do similar work in new subway stops in Moscow after the revolution. He did so, but was paid little, moved back to St. Petersburg and died of starvation during the infamous Seige of St Petersburg (the city was shut off from the "world" for almost 900 days by Germans during WWII). What a tragic ending, given the beauty, skill and creativity this man left for us all to see. This will go down as one of the most fabulous buildings I will ever see in life.

Alexander's Palace.

On the same property as Catherine's Palace was Alexander's Palace. While the outside looks fancy, this was a VERY understated palace and one that for us held some "emotional" interest. This was the palace that the last Tsar of Russia and his family lived, before he abdicated the crown, was swept away to Siberia and all were executed. The Tsar, of course, was Nicolas II. Consensus was he didn't really want to be Tsar, was perceived as a weak leader, but was in line after his father died. He was more interested in his family, loved his 5 children, yet took over the crown during one of the most turbulent times in Russian history, the Russian Revolution during the early 1900"s. Rather than living in St Petersburg, he moved his family to this "palace" in 1905, and ruled from it.


The palace was so interesting in that we could tour the rooms where they actually lived from 1905-1917 before they were kidnapped. As mentioned, the rooms were very understated. Each showed actual photos of the room, then featured much of their actual furniture. This picture shows a sitting room and how they had it set up.

Yes, its authentic. Not sure who or where it was killed, but it belonged to the Tsar's family in one of their sitting rooms. Frankly, I was kind of creeped out by it. Fear that I would trip over it's head in the middle of the night. Or it might leap onto my bed. And it needed its teeth brushed.

If you look closely, you will see part of a picture of Tsar Nicolas II's family. It's a famous photo that shows them all, to include Alexi, their son, who was the hemopheliac, and Anastasia, the daughter who rumor had it had actually survived the family execution. (Not true...her bones were found). Anyway, these outfits where the originals from the picture. Very interesting moment to see the picture AND the clothes. Wanted to leave this exhibit quickly, though.

Catherine's Palace Continued

Earlier I mentioned that we had the best tour guide in life. Well, meet Maria. She is from St. Petersburg and not only was she kind of adorable to be around, she knew more about Russian History that we ever could have imagined. And every decade, revolution, change, etc. This picture is Lori, Hillary, Maria outside of Catherine's Palace. There's a really great story about that small Turkish mosque behind us, but for the life of me, I do not remember it. At all.

This was an amazing display right in the palace. It was Peter the Great's Chess Set. Yep. Right here, in bold red and white. Don't know what it's made of but if you can zoom in on the pieces, they are all patterned after Chinese figures.

I only put this picture in for one reason. It looks like a mirror reflecting back an image of doorways. And kind of ad infinatum. Actually, we are looking through a door to other doors. And more doors. And then a few more doors. All guilded. This is along just one hall of the palace. Remember, too. This place was used about 2-3 nights per year.

Remember how I mentioned previously that the palace had been virtually destroyed during WWII? In the basement of the palace they had lots of pictures that showed before and after shots of rooms destroyed. The room to the left which held this bomb has already been restored. Remarkable. Of note, for those Dr. Strangelove fans, I did not see Slim Pickens anywhere in the room:)

Catherine the Great's Palace

This was a GREAT day! Father's Day spent with one of finest Russian Tour Guides in one of the more remarkable places in the world, a village called Tsarko Selo. This is where Catherine the Great's palace is located, as well as Alexander's Palace. More on Alexandar's Palace later. These gates are at one of the formal entries into Catherine's Palace. It's a beautiful blue color with Terra Cotta accents. (It used to be gold guilded accents on the outside of the building, but stories suggest that one time, Catherine was entering the palace and thought it was on fire. It was actually the sun setting and reflecting off the gold. It scared her so much that she had the gold changed to terra cotta. The real story....she was running out of money to continue to replace gold. I like the sun story better:)

This is the view as we walked through the gates. What's stunning about this place is this view is only about 1/3 of the palace. If you look carefully, you can see the terra cotta accents (they look brown) on the outside. Again, just like home...

This was the ball room in the palace. If my memory is correct, Empress Elizabeth, who was actually the catalyst in the first creation of the place, wanted this to be the most grand palace in the world. She actually went to Versaille and after seeing their stunning ball room, decided her's should be the same, only 2x's as large. This room is fully guilded, the floor has at least 9 types of wood. What's also interesting is that is was destroyed by the Nazi's in WWII. They took this palace as one of their HQ and were having a Christmas party in the ball room. The allies didn't like it so they attacked. We saw pictures of this room after the bombing. There was no ceiling and few walls. You can also see a HUGE piano at the back. It belongs to Elton John...a 10 ft Steinway. He plays concerts for charity every 3-4 months in this very room. No, I didn't try out the piano, but geez, did I want to.

At first, we weren't going to show this picture, but again, it's the story that makes it relevant. You see 6 plates. I can't remember how old they are, but surely before the Russian Revolution. The average set of dishes for the Palace numbered over 5000. And they obviously had several sets. These 6 are all that's left. Most were broken or stolen either during the revolution or when the Nazi's took over the Palace.

Peterhof Continued

This is a shot of Lori and Hillary in front of what looks like a tree. And a very tall rose bud. Note the woman walking across what appears to be large rocks underneath a tree. The rose bush and tree are actually these gravity fed fountains that shoot out water. As for the woman, who the heck knows what she is doing. Apparently, looking for her socks. Or wait....

Ok, now the story about what they call the trick fountains. The architects (from way back when), designed trick fountains. Here's how they work. When a person steps on a certain rock or series of rocks, water shoots from unexpected places and gets people who least expect it very wet. Imagine the surprise of guests who don't expect the soaking. That obviously wouldn't apply to these youngsters, however, who not only want to get wet, but obviously have read the operating instructions on which rocks to push:) I am thinking grandma in the forefront is not too happy about this situation (and she was trying to pull them out).

...and when you least expect it....as we were walking back toward the boat ticket booth, we came upon this group of "elders" who clearly came out to party at the Peterhof. What is hard to see in this picture is the 3/4 empty bottle of vodka in the hands of the woman in the black shirt. Some groups have tour guides. This one obviously had a drinking guide. I raised my glass to them, however, because they were all laughing and having a great time.

You have got to be kidding. 40 miles from St Petersburg and the wedding party is still following us around? As for the boat ride, we got into line with about 400 of our favorite friends and waited and waited and waited. A sign came up that said the last boat would be leaving at 5:30. It was 5:15. But magically, another ticket window opened up and I ran to it for tickets. I felt like a refugee trying to flee the dictator who had just taken over the country. "Let me out!". But we all made it back in good shape....on another speed boat...with curtains.

Off to the Peterhof

Today we are headed to the Peterhof Palace. Do you get the idea that there are lots of palaces in Russia? We found out that one aristocrat had 56 of them?! The Peterhof is located on the Gulf of Finland on land from Peter the Great. I'll dispense with the history for now. It's more important to know how we got there. By speed boat. This picture is from inside the speed boat. Have you ever been in a speed boat with curtains? Us either. We got a late start this day and had to expedite our travel time. So we took the 30 minute boat vs very confusing lines of trains and taxis. Only downside was that they couldn't guarantee us a way back. This was almost 40 miles from SP?! I'll hold you in suspense for the ending....

The Peterhof is beautiful. A huge palace of course, but the real artistry of this property is the fountains and outdoor gardens. 1500 acres of them! This shot is looking toward the mansion from one of the bazillion fountains.

This may be one of our favorite pictures from St Petersburg. It accurately captures the beauty and scale of this scene from real life. This is looking down toward the Gulf from the mansion. It also resembles my view of our backyard when the sprinklers are running. What's fascinating about these fountains is they are all gravitationally fed. No pumps. Can you imagine the water pressure needed to reach these heights!?



And let's not forget the back of this small place. I am at least 2 football fields back from this palace during this shot. We didn't go inside the Peterhof since we had to get to the "we can't guarantee you a boat ride back" ticket stands.

Before we move to our next tourist location, here are a set of pics that speak to I don't know what. This first one we found very ironic. Note the Christ-like figure the guy is standing in front of. Now note the bottle next to his right foot. I watched him for a bit. He would pray. Then he would look at Christ. Then take a drink. Then start the process again. I believe at this point, he is either waiting for some holy reaction or thinking of his next request...

Across the street from the church above is this HUGE souvenir bazaar. They sell everything one would ever hope to buy in Russia. And they are dutifully aggressive about wanting you to buy. One thing you see everywhere in St Petersburg are matryoshka's (stacking dolls). About a million of them. But one thing we didn't think we would see were stacking dolls painted like Big Ten Mascots. Kind of freaked us out. And of course they sell fur hats. I told Hillary that if she would don one, I would start singing Somewhere My Love from Dr Zhivago. (While she removed it before I could warm up my vocal cords, truth is she's been talking about getting one of these since the start of our trip. We fully expect to be bringing one back on the plane. In summer. To Chicago.)












The second night we ate at this wonderful outdoor cafe. Rather than walk, we opted for a cab. We were warned that taxis in SP can be questionable. So our hotel flagged one down. Scooter (hotel guy) stopped what appeared to be a random car (no taxi sign, no meter, some windows missing) to take us. He ensured us skippy (cab driver) would get us to the restaurant. We flew off with radio blasting. Good news. We made it. Bad news. Skippy let us off about a mile from the restaurant. Took me 3 minutes to order vodka. Shared it with Hillary who also informed me that sipping vodka was a bit foreign to her. (vs what....?)