So we're walking towards the Hermitage...anticipation building....
Here is what we saw on the way....again...gotta love the canals...
The Cathedral in the background...
:)
Tah-dah! Here we are....
So this is the Winter Palace aka imperial residence of the Russian tsars from 1730's onwards...
Now it is the Hermitage, world-famous museum...
Again, sometimes the rooms of European museums are more beautiful than the works of art themselves...
Here we have the Throne room!
'And for services rendered to the crown, Lord Aaron, we give you....the Canary Islands.'
'With grateful heart I receive this gift from Your Majesty...'
Oh oops...sorry...my 'daydream' reality sometimes takes over this reality....sorry ;)
Bery beautiful baintings.... (sorry, my nose is stuff ;)
This corridor is an exact copy of a hallway in the Vatican...
If you squint you can make out who is in the background :)
Ceiling of the corridor...
Room to go into the Palace's Theatre....CLOSED! GRRRR....
Some of the doors in here were just exquisitely beautiful! Absolutely loved these!
Hello Peter and Paul Fortress!
This is the Pavillion...wunder-wunderbar...
copy of a mosaic...
:)
Again, a lot of the museum is beautiful itself - like these 'wooden patterned mosaics' throughout the Palace...
The desk is amazing!
At times I love these palaces and then other times I start thinking about all the 'good', aka helping the Russian people, this stuff could have done....hmm....
Part of a door.....a door! Beautiful...
two Da Vinci works are on the left-hand side....
And now we enter the Hermitage's 'Antiquities' area....
'Jupiter' - I guess its famous cuz it was featured on our map LOL! :)
This was made to memorialize all those who fought and finally beat (through Russian and Allied efforts) Napoleon.....
What a hall, eh?
I forget, but this looks like a Monet...
Cezanne and his love-affair with that mountain :)
Degas and his ballerinas....
I dedicate this to Haidan and Julia - the ballerinas in my life ;)
I was SO happy to see this Van Gogh! I had never, ever seen a 'print' or 'copy' of this one...not only did I like it, but I had never seen it before! How phun!
Ceiling of the Blue Room....
Gauguin....neh....whatever....
One of the few Matisse's I felt comfortable taking a photo of, LOL!
Pee-kasso! I never liked him till I saw a photo of a painting he'd done of an altar boy. The painting was PERFECT! i.e. I had always thought Picasso painted 'this way' cuz he couldn't paint 'for real'...nope, he could....he truly was revolutionary!
Looking out at the garden near the front entrance....
Now this is a bit confusing....I think this is where someone (maybe Nicholas II) abdicated or gave up his power....it seemed like one of the Russian govt's abdicated in this room and that is why it is famous....but I could be making that all up :)
Well thank you Hermitage! You are a gem of gems and you're full of those as well!
You are a definite 'must-see'!
