So, the two of us wakey-wakey'd and got our tourist ON!
Here is Kazan Cathedral...quite an intersting building...notice the 'all seeing eye' on the typanum...saw that EVERYWHERE...quite interesting...
I don't know....was it the choice of material? The cathedrals in St. Petersburg had such a 'dark' look to them...quite foreboding if you ask me...
Columns....
Walking down Nevsky Prospect with the 'Admiralty' building in the background...
We were making our way to the 'Fortress'....but first....
AHHH!!! THE HERMITAGE!!! CAN YOU BELEIVE IT?! Or the 'Winter Palace' as the Romanov's used to call it :)
WHAT A SIGHT! WHAT A SIGHT!
Again...where am I? Amsterdam? Venice? No, BEAUTIFUL St. Petersburg!
Part of the bridge...
Here is the Marble Palace...a present from Catherine the Great to her 'favorite'...hmmhmm....
Crossing the Neva river...what a sight!
And there you have it! Peter and Paul Fortress with the Peter and Paul Cathedral spire (where the Romanov's were buried) - no building can be built higher than the spire in St. Petersburg...or at least 'back in the day'...
But first a quick peek at the 'northernmost mosque' in the world....(reminds me of the northernmost Denny's in Fairbanks :)
The Russians thought it would be good to build this mosque after they annexed most of Central Asia, as a show of respect and tolerance to their new subjects.....hmm.....
Here we are at Peter's Gate...on our way into the inner area of the Peter Paul Fortress....
Peter the Great started building this fortress in 1703 and it continued for 40 years...all of this was done mostly due to the 'Northern War' between Sweden and Russia...
Purdy tree-lined lane, eh?
The Cathedral was finished in 1733 and holds the remains of almost all the tsars and families since Peter the Great.
Shall we go in?
QUE BELLA!!
I don't know....I was never much into icons, but my dad, unbeknownst to me, has a 'thing' for icons...so now I actually find this one pretty...
Looking up....
The tsar's 'pew' I guess you could say....
Looking back...WOW!
Here is where the remains of Nicholas II and his family were placed in 1998 (the 80th anniversary of their deaths)...
Rest in Peace...
So before we left they had a group (don't know if they were priests or just a religious choir) who sang in a private chapel. Here is their song called 'The Lord's Prayer'. Sorry, but I had to snap it into two parts so that it would fit on the blog...
Outside the cathedral I saw what we came to learn is a common sight in St. Petersburg - BRIDES, BRIDES and MORE BRIDES!! :)
Apparently 'the thing to do' is when you get married you go all around St. Petersburg and get your picture taken in front of landmarks...we saw....around 30 brides in our 2.5 days in St. Petersburg...!!! It should be called 'The City of Marriages'....or something like that....
Now we will go back to the Cathedal and go up the Belfry tower....
Looking down....
This actually ended up being a TOUR of the Belfry...i.e. a woman spoke in Russian for 30 minutes at least about the history of the tower and we could only go up when she did....
We honestly thought it was 'we'll walk up and look out over the city....' nope! Dad was going nuts!
And then this was our view....wire! Disappointing...but still cool to see some of the city....
Here is the view towards the Hermitage and St. Isaac's cathedral in the background....
Quasi-Aarondo ;)
Thanks Belfry...different from what we expected, but nice nonetheless....
Now let's go to the prison, oh happy day!
:(
Almost all the plaques told about political prisoners who stayed here...mostly anarchists who wanted to bring down the tsars....
Doesn't look so bad to me, but then I imagined being here in a Russian winter...BRRRR!
You can read the bottom in English, but it talks about how the prisoners would communicate by 'tapping' out messages to each other....
Long lonely corridor....
Wouldn't want to be here back in the day....no indeed....
This is the 'bastion wall' and on the other side is the Neva river and then St. Petersburg....
Goodbye Peter and Paul Fortress....thanks for the memories....
From the Belfry we could see this building, a military museum....looks friendly, right?
I hate war, by the way! What a waste all of this is...could've gone to medicines, drug research, space program....anyway....
and friendlier.....
Of course I know we, Americans, have all of this as well....just....yeah......hmm....
See...he's a 'friendly' General! :)
And one of 'friendly' General's favorite toys is a....
MISSILE LAUNCHER!
Yes, a missile launcher....ugh.....
Hello Peter and Paul Fortress....nice to see you again....
Neva River and St. Isaac's Cathedral off in the distance....
DUH HERMITAGE! ;)
Crossing the bridge...what a view!!
These are the 'Rostral' columns...each boat represent a river of what was then, Russia....
And then the Stock Exchange to the right....
Looking across the river, we see St. Isaac's cathedral with the Admiralty on the left and the Senate building on the right.....
WHAT WONDERFUL WEATHER we were given! Thanks Heavenly Father!
It was also right about here that we stopped for lunch....we both got Stroganoff, since this is where it comes from. Interestingly enough, it doesn't come with rice or noodles...it literally was just like fajita meat....it came hot on an 'iron' plate and it was spiced. The meat was great! But not the Stroganoff we know in the States LOL....
These are two real sphinxes from Egypt! Kind of weird that they're here....reminds me of the same type of deal on the Embankment of the Thames river in London....
Crossing the bridge, again, what a view!
Love this pic!
This is 'New Holland' which is under massive repairs right now....but still the idea was cool....
Peter the Great had such a dynamic vision for his new capital and for Russia - too bad tens of thousands died building his dream.... :(
Love the canals....
This is St. Nicholas Church (I think)....we couldn't go in cuz it was closing and cuz we didn't have pants on! WHEN WILL I LEARN MY LESSON and stop my LASCIVIOUS, IMMODEST WAYS?!!
:)
Pretty baby blue....Peter the Great decreed that all buildings in his city had to be a 'light' color.....hmm.....
Walking along the canal....beautiful....
This is the old Mariinsky Palace...now the St. Petersburg 'city hall'....
the nearby St. Isaac's Cathedral....again, kind of a 'dark' looking cathedral...I guess it was the choice of column material, etc....
But still impressive, nevertheless....
Famous statue of Peter the Great with St. Isaac's in the background....
People relaxing in front of St. Isaac's...I was SO grateful for the weather at this point....it 'cooled' down significantly and so it was comfortable to be in the city....
The Kunstkammer across the way....this is a museum Peter the Great founded. The 'highlight' is a collection of deformed fetuses/baby heads that Peter the Great had midwives send him from across Russia from stillborn children. Who COLLECTS something like that?!!
Kazan Cathedral again....
Here is a copy of the Kazan icon that is inside....I don't know a lot about Orthodox beliefs but apparently icons are considered to have 'supernatural'/magical powers....used to heal, protect (in the case of the Kazan icon), etc.
We listened to some beautiful singing inside (no pix allowed)...definitely like Orthodox 'sacred' music....
We listened to some beautiful singing inside (no pix allowed)...definitely like Orthodox 'sacred' music....
For some reason or another part of the road fell into the canal....
My favorite part of the scene was....
all the locals hanging out to watch the guy in a scuba suit go under :)
And that was the end of our day....we needed to get our sleep on cuz tomorrow is.....
THE HERMITAGE!!
