Russia: St. Petersburg and Peterhof

It's been 35 years since I took Russian History, so before I left I did some brushing up with Robert Massey's new book on Catherine the Great and re-watched the Peter the Great movie based on Massey's 1981 biography. So I was very "into" Peter and Catherine on this trip. It was perfect. Bill, as a teacher of Russian History for 31 years, was in his element. Except for our very brief visit to St. Petersburg on a 1993 Baltic cruise, he hasn't read much Russian since graduate school. It came right back to him, which amazed and delighted him and which was helpful to all of us.


After spending two very full and satisfying days in Moscow with Steve, Maria, Anna, and Kate (previous blog post on this site), we took the fast train to St. Petersburg. Steve and Maria did a great job of posting St. Petersburg and Peterhof pictures and commentary on their blog. You can see them in multiple posts at www.mariavittone.blogspot.com, so I won't duplicate their work. The pictures below are an addition to what they have already posted.

 I took these pictures from the window of a train traveling about 180mph. The vast forests were exactly what I had imagined they would be.

The occasional village would pop briefly into view.

Tradition in the Russian Orthodox church calls for long services, during which everyone stands throughout, including the tsar or empress. Notice that this is not a chair.

I am including this modern statue of Peter the Great even though it's also on Steve and Maria's blog because of some connections I made. It's by Mihail Chemiakin, the same sculptor who did Children Victims of Adult Vices shown in my Moscow posting. The style is so distinctive (and so unlike the way Peter actually looked) that I remembered it when we got to France and caught a glimpse of the one below in someone's walled, locked front yard. I'm sure it's also a Mihail Chemiakin. I couldn't resist sticking my arm as far through the iron gate as it would go in order to get the picture. I will forever wonder who the French one is supposed to be. 

This spot, inside the Church upon the Spilled Blood, is exactly the place on the road where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated. If you look closely you can see some cobblestones.

 We so enjoyed our evening walks on those rather cold nights. This is the Church upon the Spilled Blood from a distance as we walked along the canal behind it.

Natasha said she would take us to lunch at Stolle, where the "best" Russian pies are served--both savory and sweet. What a great "fast food" lunch!

The Cathedral in the Fortress of Sts. Peter and Paul is the burial place of tsars from Peter the Great through Nicholas II. Their tombs are typically white marble, except for these two. Alexander II chose the red for his wife, Maria Alexandrovna. After his assassination, his was created in black. Notice that the same two stones have been incorporated into his marker in the Church on the Spilled Blood (above).

Our home in St. Petersburg was the Rossi Hotel, named after architect Carlo di Giovanni Rossi (b. 1775), who did much of his work designing classical buildings in St. Petersburg.

  

 Our bathroom was probably an add-on in the corner of the original rather small room. Each room was unique. We were the only ones in the family with a complete glass bathroom wall...

 ...and a multi-function shower stall...

 ...and complete instructions on what NOT to flush.

For our goodbye to St. Petersburg at 6:15 AM, we asked Vittole, our driver, to take us by the statues of Peter I (The Great) and Catherine II (The Great). The Bronze Horseman was a gift from Catherine in honor and memory of Peter.

It was dark and snowing that early morning as we bid farewell to Catherine and to Russia.

You will see our guide Natasha on Steve and Maria's blog. This is Vitalle, our driver, who welcomed us at the train station and, here, is seeing us off at the airport.

Russia: Novgorod

The family--Bill, Jean, Steve, Maria, Anna, and Kate--along with our St. Petersburg guide, Natasha, took a day trip to Novgorod. Leaving the city for the three-hour trip through the countryside was interesting in and of itself.

In Novgorod we experienced early Russian history with a very knowledgeable city guide. Novgorod is divided by the River Volkhov into two sections: The market side, Yaroslav's Cortyard, and the administrative side, the walled Kremlin, which is the center of government and religious authority. The churches constructed in the Middle Ages on the market side were built by merchants and provided storage for their merchandise.

On the same trip we visited the Vitoslavlitsy Museum of Wooden Architecture, an outdoor museum of historic traditional wooden buildings built without nails that had been moved from various places in Russia and reassembled here.

Our visit has been well chronicled on Steve and Maria's blog, so I will add just a few pictures. For the complete story, visit www.mariavittone.blogspot.com.

Steve loved spotting the distinctive Soviet-era Lada automobiles wherever we went. All the others I saw were in subdued hues, leading me to believe the owner of this one had given it a cheerful paint job. One might guess the same person chose the color for the house. We saw many of these little houses, called dachas, along the road. A dacha and a little plot of land for growing food was an entitlement during Soviet times, and the families still own them. Many owners have moved to cities and use the dachas as summer or weekend retreats, though for some the dacha is their only home.

 Part of the Market Area, Yaroslav's Cortyard

View over the Volkhov River toward the Kremlin

 

Crossing the Volkhov from the Market Side to the Administrative Side of Novgorod

The wind was fierce and cold, and I was grateful for layers of warmth, gloves, and a hat.

The wedding-day lock and kissing tradition I mentioned in the Moscow blog is carried out on this bridge, too.

I loved these old wooden buildings at the Vitoslavlitsy Museum of Wooden Architecture. We went inside some of the houses and could see how real people lived in them long ago.

This was the plain home of an ordinary family.

This was the home of a well-to-do family.

The Russian Orthodox Church, in all its forms, is part of the fabric of Mother Russia.

Russia: Moscow

After much online searching, Bill was attracted to the tour company Travel All Russia for a couple of major reasons. First, their tours were available when we were--our granddaughters' Easter break from school--while most tours and cruises in Russia don't start until May. Second, they offered child-friendly tours and we would be traveling with Steve and Maria, whose girls, Anna and Kate, are ten and seven. As it turned out, the trip was extremely successful and will be a highlight among our memories even though we were only in Russia for a week. Our Moscow guide, Kira, took us to all the places scheduled by tour planners Ivan and Kristina as well as to a few extras she thought would especially appeal to our family. Here are photos of some of the highlights.

THE KREMLIN AND RED SQUARE

We were scheduled to visit the Kremlin and Red Square on April 1. It was supposed to be open. It was closed. No explanation. Kira simply said, "Sometimes things are closed with no explanation." Bill, Steve, and I walked there from our hotel at night and were treated to beautiful views. Steve came back the next morning with Maria and the girls before we met Kira for the day.

A few days later, in our hotel lobby in St. Petersburg, we saw the reason in the St. Petersburg Times.

Kremlin wall and Spasskay (Saviors)Tower, built in 1491

Kremlin: Cathedral of the Annunciation

 Kremlin: Cathedral of the Archangel

Kremlin: Cathedral of the Assumption

 Kremlin: Church of the Nativity.

 Kremlin: St. Basil Cathedral

Steve, Bill, Jean, Kate, Maria, and Anna with the bronze Tsar Bell of 1733, the largest bell in the world weighing 445,170 pounds. The bell was broken during casting and has never been rung. The broken piece weighs 25,000 pounds. 

Red Square: Kazan Cathedral

Red Square: GUM Department Store

Red Square: Historical Museum

Red Square: Lenin's Tomb (Between the towers)

OUT AND ABOUT IN MOSCOW

 GUM Department Store on the side outside Red Square

Inside GUM, where we had a tasty lunch in the cafeteria

One of the "Seven Sisters" Stalinist buildings constructed between 1947 and 1953.

Statues: Children are the Victims of Adult Vices, a group of sculptures in a park near the Kremlin. They were created by Russian artist Mihail Chemiakin.

 "Make Way for Ducklings" by sculptor Nancy Schon was a gift from Mrs. Barbara Bush to Mrs. Raisa Gorbachev. Installed in 1991 on old Boston cobblestones and native black bassalt, the sculptures are like the ones placed in the Boston Public Garden in 1987 honoring the 1941 children's book by Robert McCloskey.
 

These giant Matryoshkas at the top of the AFIMALLCity Shopping Center are painted in traditional patterns representing the different ethnic cultures in Russia.

Our child-friendly tour took us to the Moscow Circus, an evening we adults enjoyed as much as did Anna and Kate. 

Izmaylovo is one of the oldest parts of Moscow, where the second Romanov Tzar Alexey Mikhailovich had his summer residence. His son Peter the Great was brought up in this very location. Now it is an outdoor historical museum and traditional handcraft center. We each got to paint our own Matryoshka or bell--a huge hit with the whole family.

One of the things we wanted to do was visit a Moscow Metro station as they are reputed to be beautifully decorated. This is one of the ceiling mosaics in the Komsomolskaya Station.

 It's a very long way down!

More Komsomolskaya Station

On this pedestrian bridge over a canal near the Moscow River, couples come to kiss on their wedding day. They put a lock on the tree and throw the key in the water so nobody else can find the key to one's beloved's heart. When a tree is full, it's removed and placed in a long line of trees on the adjacent sidewalk to make room for a new tree on the bridge.

NOVODEVICHY CEMETERY

This was not on the original schedule, but Kira thought we'd enjoy seeing where some of Russia's greats are buried. Here are just a few.

The cemetery is walled. The columbarium is in the walls.

Boris Yeltsin

Writer Anton Chekhov

Composer Dmitry Shostakovich

Nikita Khrushchev

Composer Igor Stravinsky

We couldn't have asked for a nicer stay in Moscow. Ivan and Kristina at Travel All Russia had every detail worked out in advance, including the visa process, but on-site guide Kira had plenty of flexibility to adapt. Our driver, Constantine, met us at the airport with a "Family Woolley" sign and Kira delivered us to the train when we left for St. Petersburg. The Assambleye Nikitskaya Hotel was in a great location for walking and the staff was most accommodating. 

On to St. Petersburg...