Thursday, November 28, 2013

The City at Night

You probably all read on Kristina's blog that she, Lucy and Mom went to see Swan Lake. Well, now you get to see what Papa and I did in that time. :)
Papa's friend kindly agreed to drive us around to see some of the major sights by night. It was incredible! As you saw from the boat ride pics, everything gets lit up at night. We even got to drive further out and take pictures of Smolny Cathedral. :) It was fantastic.

St. Isaac's Cathedral. Kак красиво!

The Hermitage on the riverbank.


Ancient icebreaker, very famous.

Sphinx! Directly from Egypt!

The bridge was lit up so beautifully that night.


Smolny Cathedral

The Church of our Saviour on the Spilled Blood

Kazan Cathedral

Дом Kниги

Catherine's Palace: The Interior

So, you've seen quite a few pictures of the park outside Catherine's palace. Actually, you've seen a LOT. So now we will take a look at the inside.

Ballroom

Look at the gold! Of course, now it's just gold plated, but imagine back when those pillars were solid gold.



Super fancy heating ovens

Nice writing desk

The "Intimate Dining Room"
(this is not it's official name, Mom came up with it)

Metro Stations!

We went around to all the nicest metro stations (most on the red line) and took pictures. It was a long process, but we managed to get quite a few!

AVTOVO

FRUNZENSKAYA

KIROVSKIY ZAVOD


NARVSKAYA


PLOSCHAD VOSSTANYA


PUSHKINSKAYA



This particular little bronze casting is  quite unique.  Many of them just depict Lenin making a speech, but in this particular one there is a man standing behind him.  None other than Joseph Stalin himself. Which is kinda strange, considering that Stalin wasn't actually there.
VLADIMIRSKAYA


Sergei Kirov Museum

On November 21, 2013, we went with Babushka to the Sergei Kirov Museum. Kirov was a very high-ranking official in Communist Russia. You might say he and Lenin were "pals". Anyway, the museum is really his apartment, each room an exhibit. It was pretty cool!

A dirigible in the stairway
This room was a reproduction of his office at Smolny, not part of his actual apartment. I thought the model tank was pretty cool...


Portrait of Joseph Stalin

Monday, November 18, 2013

November 18, 2013

Today was Mom's cousin's last day here. We went to the Peter and Paul fortress via Gor'kovskaya Metro station, and on the way stopped for a cup of coffee. Well, the adults did anyway... :P It was an awesome little place, and I took lots of pictures. In fact, on the door it said "Please Photo". :)
So we went to the fortress, walked past the Монетны Двор and saw a man swimming in the river.... 

I should probably mention it was 3 degrees Celsius outside. Brrrr!

Anyway, after that we walked around the harbor, went for a snack and dropped Mom's cousin off at her hotel so that she could get her stuff together before going to the airport. Then we went home and cleaned the house. Now I am catching up on some much-needed blogging. :P

Apparently this coffee was fantastic. Naturally I wouldn't know… :P

The café

Sunrise at 10:30 AM


The gate to the fortress

Another cool sunrise pic

The steeple of the cathedral

The sadly disproportioned statue of Peter the Great




Signing off for now!

November 16, 2013

This day was pretty full. Because Mom's cousin from Switzerland was here, we did all the major sightseeing. The Hermitage, St. Isaac's Cathedral, and a ballet later in the evening.
Going to the Hermitage was an adventure. I separated from the rest of our clan twice, first to see ancient asian artifacts, pottery and art, and the second time to see mummies. :) I saw a lot of pottery, sculptures and more physical stuff, which I found much more interesting than gazing at Rembrandts for hours at a time. I appreciate paintings, but I much prefer ancient artifacts. When I went to see the mummies, I wandered around for quite a while before actually getting to the Egyptian room. I got lost 2 or 3 times, and wound up seeing little bits of the entire first floor. Which I thought was pretty cool. I went through the Ancient Greek statues, Egyptian pottery, some paintings, a bit of jewelry I remember seeing somewhere in there... It was all kind of jumbled together. I was lost, after all. :P
St. Isaac's Cathedral was just as incredible as the first time. It was just me and Mom's cousin, everyone else went to the Grishko store to get Kristina some pointe shoes. :) We climbed up the colonnade, went inside the museum, bought some postcards and marvelled at the incredible architecture. After that we went to Дом Книги to get Mom's cousin a book on the Hermitage, and then she, Mom and Kristina went to the theatre to see a ballet. A full day of sightseeing.

Ancient Asian Vase

Elephant!

Armour of a Mogul warrior

Mogul swords

A hall I ended up in when I was lost...

Sarcophagus

Hieroglyphs! 




Egyptian

Greek statue

Statue in front of St. Isaac's cathedral