Baltic Cruise: St. Petersburg Day 2

JUNE 2016

Passing through immigration on our second day in St. Petersburg was much easier than the first! All of our information was already in their system, so we got to exit the boat on our own, go to the same immigration office, meet face to face with immigration officers, and board the bus, all within about 15 minutes. Thank goodness!

Our morning bus ride was short, since our first stop was within the city, and I seized the opportunity to snap a few photos of how the buildings in St. Petersburg lined the water. I apologize for the picture quality, but you can still see the colorful buildings along the man-made canals. The only way I can describe the architecture was like a weird combination of Venetian, Austrian, and even Finnish concepts: lots of columns, almost sitting on top of the water, with tons of color.

The first official stop of the day was St. Isaac's Cathedral. Does it look a little familiar? This building was modeled after the same building as the US Capitol, Andrea Palladio's La Rotonda. Vicenza, where we live in Italy, is the home of Andrea Palladio and La Rotonda, so it was definitely a cool sight to see in Russia!

Russians love their golden accents, and it makes the buildings in St. Petersburg very visible on a sunny day. In fact, they painted all of the golden domes gray during WWII to deter enemy planes from dropping bombs on them. 

The Bronze Horseman, a Peter the Great statue, across from St. Isaac's

Today, St. Isaacs is a museum, and it is its own exhibit. We did not go inside the church, but from what I read, it is basically a large version of the other Russian Orthodox churches, full of iconostasis and no pews. Unlike churches elsewhere in Europe, the iconostasis are usually mosaics made from stone and gold, that recreate scenes and important figures within the church. This is especially common in Russia, because the harsh winters could easily damage paintings and frescos.

From the Bronze Horseman statue where we were standing, we could see Hotel Astoria. In World War II, Hitler planned to host a victory party at this hotel once the Axis powers seized Leningrad. He printed and sent out lavish invitations for the soiree, but it never ended up happening... because the Nazis were unsuccessful in their siege. 

We again boarded our bus, and I promptly fell asleep. Hey! I was exhausted! I was only half asleep though, so I opened my eyes every once in a while to see if the scenery had changed. Luckily, it didn't change much, and just looked like a typical highway.

Our destination was the summer residence for the Russian czars, Catherine's Palace in Pushkin. The gardens at Cahterine's palace seemed to have more landscaping than the Peterhof palace, which seemed to specialize in trick fountains.

The blue and white pillars with the iron and golden fence was beautiful against the greenery! I'm not quite sure how it would look during the dead of winter, so I'm glad that we got to enjoy it in the summertime. The gates surrounded the palace itself, but since we arrived early, we were able to explore the beautiful gardens.

After passing through the gardens, ooh-ing and ahh-ing the whole way, our walk ended with a spectacular view of Catherine's Palace.

Golden domes!

We waited outside of the palace for a while for the palace to open for the day, but were luckily entertained by a little band playing some classic tunes. 

Once inside the palace, the golden theme continued, as did the extraordinary detail. We saw waiting rooms, ballrooms, bedrooms, and dining rooms. I loved all of the gold paired with the white walls, painted ceilings, and beautifully tiled floors. Its definitely not a style I would want in my own home, but its spectacular to think about how every inch of this extravagant palace was laid by hand.

This dining room was my favorite of the multiple dining rooms that we saw. It was beautifully adorned with two giant stoves, which played an important role in keeping these rooms warm in the winter.

Source

Photos were allowed in all of the rooms except for one: the Amber Room. Considered one of the "Eight Wonders of the World," the Amber Room is just that: a room made of amber. It's panels are made of mirrors, gold leaf, and amber, and cause the room to completely flicker with gold. It was originally constructed in 1701 in Prussia, and was eventually expanded to contain over 13,000 lbs of amber. That's a lot of heavy panels! During WWII, while the Nazis were invading Russia, they stole the panels from the Amber Room (aka: the entire room). The location of the original Amber Room is still a mystery, so the Amber Room we saw (pictured below with source) is a replica.

As with most areas in Europe, our tour ended with a look at Catherine's palace during WWII. It was severely bombed, and went through a huge renovation. Pictures were posted in a long hallway at the end of the tour, and the photos of the damage were haunting. On a brighter note, I think the hallway looked like something straight out of Fixer Upper.

We again boarded the bus, ate a quick lunch of beef stroganoff, ended with a vodka shot (because that's what you do in Russia!), and made our way to the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Today, the fortress itself consists of a large wall surrounding a large church that houses all of the Russian emperors and their families after their death. While initially it doesn't sound interesting, its one of my favorite things we saw. 

This Russian Orthodox church was similar to the others we saw in Eastern Europe. There were no pews, and the altar took up the front wall, and was full on iconostasis. The only difference was the graves. Marble caskets above ground marked where every member of every Russian royal family was buried.

If you grew up on Disney movies, you may be asking yourself, What about the Romanovs? What about Anastasia? In the early 1900s, the Bolshevik Revolution overthrew the Russian czar and royal family, and gave the power to the people (called soviets). This resulted in Russia becoming the first socialist state. 

To ensure that the czars and emperors could not reclaim their power, they were all murdered. Since royalty is determined by blood, all of their families were murdered. Lastly, because back in the day, illegitimate children (as a result of extramarital affairs) were employed by royal families to work in the castles, all of the servants and workers in the castle were also executed. The bodies of the Romanov family were hidden, and recovered almost 80 years later... all except Anastasia and her brother, Alexei. The entire family, even without two of the children, were buried with full honors in a special room at the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Along with those full honors, the entire Romanov family was buried as saints in the Russian Orthodox church. Fast forward 20 years later, in 2008, Anastasia and Alexei's remains were found near mass graves near St. Petersburg. DNA evidence proved that the bones and fragments belonged to the two missing Romanovs, but there was a slight problem. Within the Russian Orthodox church, these two royals were already honored and buried as saints in the church. This put the church in a new predicament: how do you bury a saint? This issue has still not been resolved, so their remains are in storage, quite different than the Disney tale that she escaped on a train...

Romanov Family

Our final stop was the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, one of the most recognized sights in St. Petersburg. We were a little disappointed in this stop on our tour, because it was so crowded and fun of busses, it was near impossible to get a good photo! We stood across the street and strategically played with our camera to get a few shots:

Don't worry, there's no actual spilled blood on the church site today, it received its name because it was built in the late 1800's on the site where Alexander II suffered a fatal grenade attack. For as miraculous as this church is, it does not host any church services. In WWII, it was used as a morgue, after the war it was used to store potatoes, and today it houses art. We didn't go inside the church, which is totally fine, because the exterior is stunning. St. Petersburg surprised us as a very colorful city, and this church embodied all of the spirit that we saw during our two days there. 

After our quick 10 minutes at the church, we hopped back on the bus bound for the cruise port. Of course, we had plenty of time for a final souvenir stop! We didn't buy anything since we made our purchases on our first day, but it was definitely nice to see this familiar face on the shelf...

Gig 'em Aggies!