St. Petersburg Day 2

From Russia with Love: Today was Day 2 in St. Petersburg. It is an amazing city. I am still awed by the size and beauty of the city. Saw more of the canals that dissect the city and learned that St. Petersburg is composed of 41 islands and the city itself it on the largest island. Again, we had good weather, which means no rain. They get about 30 cloudless days year, 120 snow days per year and the rest are rainy days. At 2 am, the 21 bridges in town all go up and stay up until 5:30 am. People line the walkways or take boats to see this sight. Young people especially do this because if you are stranded on the wrong side of the canal you have a great excuse for not getting home and missing curfew.

This morning both Michael and I had escort duty. We went to the Winter Palace and the Hermitage, one of the world’s most famous and esteemed art museums. The Winter Palace has over 1,001 rooms swathed in malachite, jasper, agate, marble and gilded mirrors. The parquet floors had intricate patterns using many varieties of woods and in some rooms, the patterns on the floor mimicked the goldleaf designs on the ceiling. There were intricate mosaic and stone tables and floors. I had the audacity to brush my hand up against the side of a magnificant malachite table and this old lady guard came up behind me and swatted me!

The Hermitage houses art work from Picasso (there are 32 pieces) to Rembrandt. Since we only had 3 ½ hours for the tour, the guides only took us to view and learn about the items of artwork that are considered the highlights. There are displays of 15th and 16th century French, Dutch, and Italian art as well as Impressionist works from Renoir, Degas, Monet, and Van Gogh. In total, we walked 2 ½ miles!

In the afternoon, I took the Jewish Experience Tour. We had a bus load of 42 people. We went to the second largest synagogue in all of Europe (the first is in Budapest). It has a Moorish design and has been fully restored. There was one couple who had seen the synagogue just before the fall of Communism and said it had been boarded up and in ruins; they were so delighted to see it had been restored. As our guide gave us the history of Jews in Russia, so many of the group could relate as most of them had relatives that came from here. Next to the Big Choral Synagogue was an old brick building called the Small Synagogue. We climbed up to the top floor and looked down onto the main floor; I was transported back a hundred years, and I could see Tevye (from Fiddler on the Roof) sitting there studying the Torah. This untouched shul is still in use today. There was a shared bond among the group and you could really see and feel it when our guide told a few jokes and everyone on board laughed. It was a wonderful experience that I am glad I didn’t miss.

Our Russian guides have been well educated and spoke excellent English. It was a bit crowded at the Hermitage as there were 9 ships in port in various harbors. They are in the process of building a new cruise terminal that will hold 12 ships at a time. The traffic is bad; add in all the tour busses and it becomes almost gridlock. Imagine narrow streets with cars parked on both sides and then imagine tour busses double parked disgorging or picking up passengers. How the busses didn’t rip off their side mirrors is a mystery to me. Tourism is a big deal here in St. Petersburg.

You are with the guides and on tour and feel good about things, and then you have to go through customs and you remember you are in Russia. The customs inspectors sit in enclosed booths and there is a little slot to slide your passport and papers through. You cannot see what they are doing. There is no eye contact, no “have a good day,” absolutely no communication. They slide it back to you. It is very eerie. If you smile at someone, like the guard ladies at the Hermitage, they look away.

Tomorrow is a sea day. We have lessons in the morning and bridge in the afternoon. We arrived in Stockholm tomorrow night at 6pm. We have a 2 hour time change tonight. My body doesn’t know what time it is on!