St. Petersburg, Russia (Day 1)
Russia's a little nutty about tourists, and since we didn't have a pre-organized tour for the first morning, we couldn't even get off the ship. When we dragged ourselves out of bed to check out the immensely disappointing view (it's, like, a port, y'know, cranes and containers and whatnot) we discovered that the lifeboat just below our veranda had been extended out over the side of the ship so that painting could be done behind it.
At breakfast, we intentionally sat on the opposite side of the ship, where the views were infinitesimally more interesting (the cranes and containers were in motion). On the way back to our room, we passed six empty hot tubs, and decided that was a perfect way to spend the morning. So for about an hour, we sat in a whirlpool, outdoors in a light drizzle, in St. Petersburg. Greg got all Nordic and hopped over to the cold pool, but I just couldn't do it.
We had lunch on the 10 aft patio, and timed how long it took people to get through the customs building. After all the buildup we'd heard, it really didn't look that bad. By 1:30, we were on the bus for our tour, "Russian Museum and Church on the Spilled Blood."
The Russian Museum is the largest collection of Russian art, housed in the former Mikhailovsky Palace. Our guide explained early on that usually people are interested in whatever the biggest thing in the room is, so that's what she'd explain, but whenever people asked about other works, she had a wealth of information about them, too. I have to think she was an art history student. We started with 12th-century icons (in rooms with open windows?!) and got a reasonable survey of art up to the present day. I think my favorites were mosaics made to look like oil paintings, and Greg's favorite was a sculpture of Anne, designed to show how cartoonishly extravagant she is.
After the museum, it was a short walk to the Church on the Spilled Blood, built on the site of the assassination of Alexander II. Like most of the churches we visited in St. Petersburg, it never actually served as a place of worship. It was begun in 1883, more or less as a memorial to Alexander, and served as a stable during WWII. After that, it was basically neglected until the 1990s, but was completely redone and opened to visitors in 2003. On the canal side of the nave, the cobblestones covered with Alexander II's blood are in a shrine of their own, and the rest of the church is literally covered with mosaics. Covered.
As promised on virtually every tour, we did get a chance to shop, but the local tourist market didn't have anything we really "needed" (although we did consider some Soviet-era gas masks, because why not?), so we headed back to the bus, and back to the ship.
At breakfast, we intentionally sat on the opposite side of the ship, where the views were infinitesimally more interesting (the cranes and containers were in motion). On the way back to our room, we passed six empty hot tubs, and decided that was a perfect way to spend the morning. So for about an hour, we sat in a whirlpool, outdoors in a light drizzle, in St. Petersburg. Greg got all Nordic and hopped over to the cold pool, but I just couldn't do it.
We had lunch on the 10 aft patio, and timed how long it took people to get through the customs building. After all the buildup we'd heard, it really didn't look that bad. By 1:30, we were on the bus for our tour, "Russian Museum and Church on the Spilled Blood."
The Russian Museum is the largest collection of Russian art, housed in the former Mikhailovsky Palace. Our guide explained early on that usually people are interested in whatever the biggest thing in the room is, so that's what she'd explain, but whenever people asked about other works, she had a wealth of information about them, too. I have to think she was an art history student. We started with 12th-century icons (in rooms with open windows?!) and got a reasonable survey of art up to the present day. I think my favorites were mosaics made to look like oil paintings, and Greg's favorite was a sculpture of Anne, designed to show how cartoonishly extravagant she is.
After the museum, it was a short walk to the Church on the Spilled Blood, built on the site of the assassination of Alexander II. Like most of the churches we visited in St. Petersburg, it never actually served as a place of worship. It was begun in 1883, more or less as a memorial to Alexander, and served as a stable during WWII. After that, it was basically neglected until the 1990s, but was completely redone and opened to visitors in 2003. On the canal side of the nave, the cobblestones covered with Alexander II's blood are in a shrine of their own, and the rest of the church is literally covered with mosaics. Covered.
As promised on virtually every tour, we did get a chance to shop, but the local tourist market didn't have anything we really "needed" (although we did consider some Soviet-era gas masks, because why not?), so we headed back to the bus, and back to the ship.
Labels: honeymoon
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