St Petersburg summary

The enjoyment of being an independent tourist is you do not know how events will unfold. This trip fully met my expectations. This really is just a diary for me to remember what I did,  otherwise I find one forgets. Thank you for friends and family who may have accessed this. Any feedback is welcomed. I have found that doing a Blog enables one to combine a diary and photos close to the time of the trip. After one gets home there is no need to do much more except a summary like this. The highlights were visiting the Hermitage and Winter Palace (all the same building), seeing the amazing reconstruction of all the historic buildings that has occurred since 1941 and continues to this day, having three days with excellent English speaking guides, making the history of Peter the Great, Catherine the Great and Nicholas and Alexander come alive, a walking tour on the first day that morphed into a tour of the extraordinary Metro stations built in 1955 in the Soviet era, a visit to Pushkin (Tsarkoe Selo, the Catherine Palace and gardens), visiting the fountains at Peterof, seeing the Italian Opera Pagliacci at the Mariinskiy Theatre, eating at small Turkish, Georgian and Italian restaurants, visiting an up market shopping center, hearing music and a ceremony at the Kasan Cathedral, seeing St Petersburg and the Neva river and canals on a boat excursion, riding in taxis (need to know how to not be fleeced), buses, trolly buses and the Metro, very comfortable hotel with English speaking staff, getting by without knowing or understanding Russian, able to get WiFi when needed, unaware of any Russian Politics, able to get one English channel on TV - Bloomberg news and being able to observe the Russian citizens (mostly a dour lot). 
Some perhaps negatives - two days with rain and one with strong winds, worrisome security on buses when they are crowded.  Taxi drivers and many of those people in stores rarely speak English. It would also be nice to have a compatible travelling companion to enjoy the adventure!
Anyhow - I am signing off this Blog with this summary. Thank you to those who have followed it.

The long journey home

Just for the diary! Five days ago I left the St Petersburg hotel at 2.15 am. St Petersburg is GMT +2  - in other words ten hours behind Victoria. In order to save having to spend a night near Gatwick I had chosen to get a 5.15 am flight out of St P. Also in order to get a discounted air fare I was going via Toronto and Air Canada Rouge. It turned out to be a 30 hour journey. The 5.15 flight was to Riga in Latvia via Air Baltic then to London Gatwick. There was a 2 1/2 hr wait at St P then about 1 1/2 hrs in Riga - time for free Wi Fi and catch up on emails. The girl behind the snack bar looked like Elizabeth Salander - half her hair shaved but I did not see a tatoo.  A bit of Trivia - Air Baltic is the first airline to buy the Bombardier CS 300 which is coming into service soon. Then three hours at Gatwick - had to go through passport control and security because I had not pre-printed a boarding pass in St P.  At Toronto managed to speak to grandchildren on FaceTime (free Wi Fi at airport). I was glad just to have carry on luggage as I did get an earlier flight out of Toronto and even in Vancouver slightly earlier after another 2 1/2 hour wait. Anyhow was welcomed enthusiastically by Lucy, and by Penny at Victoria arriving home at 11 pm Victoria time. Had managed on and off naps on flights so not too sleep deprived. Now five days later sleeping patterns getting nearer to normal although it is said that you need one day for every hour of time change. Going east tends to be better.      

The Mariinskiy Theatre

I was lucky, thanks to my first guide, to obtain a ticket for Pagliacci. (Pagliacci means clowns in Italian). The music and libretto were composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo.
Of course the main reason for going was to experience an opera in the historic Mariinskiy Theatre.
There was a large orchestra (seven double basses) and the soloists good but not exceptional.

Of course you cannot take pictures during the performance. It was impressive how young the audience was with the theatre filled with what appeared to be St Petersburg residents. Quite a contrast to the grey haired crowd who attend Pacific Opera Victoria!

A canal boat trip

The previous guide ( Anna) suggested a company that gave hour long canal boat tours. I had considered a hydrofoil trip from Peterhof but was dissuaded because of the noise and smell of diesel.
The canal boat was another way of seeing and understanding the swamp area where St Petersburg was built. There was an excellent audio guide.

Peterhof

An extravagant collection of palaces, fountains and landscaped gardens, Peterhof is located on the gulf of Finland. Peter the Great commissioned the building of a palace here in 1714.
I did not visit the inside of this palace since it is is similar to Tsarkoe Selo. The main attraction is the fountains. When you consider when they were first constructed they are quite an engineering feat and rely on the hydrostatic pressure from the source in hills about 20 KM away. Their extravagant reconstruction since WWII and the Soviet era is remarkable.

Catherine park

This extensive park has some remarkable buildings including what is listed as a "Grotto". Here were performing a group of four singers in a memorable acoustic space. I recorded it on this IPad on video but unfortunately it does not seem to load onto the Blog. Here are some pics taken in the park.

Pushkin

I took a private tour to Pushkin where Tsarskoe Selo is located. These palaces and gardens were created as a country retreat by Catherine I - the wife of Peter the Great. Tsarina Elizabeth began extensive work on the estate and then Catherine the Great  (Catherine II) redesigned  the palace with the help of Scottish architect Charles Cameron. Tsar Nicholas and family were initially imprisonned here in 1917. 

During WWII the palace was occupied by the Germans and was extensively damaged. To-day the restoration that has occurred is remarkable.

The guide Anna was an interesting person. She was the daughter of a Russian physician (anaesthetist) who when he retired went to live in the Czeck republic. Anna was the single mother of a 10 yr old girl but had been a professional guide for 6 years. She originally got a degree in history but now to get their annual certification as a guide they  have to attend seminars in the winter months when there are less tourists.

This is the first time I have taken photos with my IPad Pro.

Pushkin

Anna

More photos from the Hermitage.

The tour lasted three hours. Luckily there was a Cafe for a snack and one could have stayed till 9 pm with the entrance ticket. However one runs out of steam after a while. Here are some more pics.

Empress Elizabeth.

Sculpture gallery.

Bacchus - the Roman God of agriculture and wine. Painting by Rubens.

Leonardo Da Vinci

There are a couple of Madonna and child paintings by Leonardo Da Vinci in the Hermitage. His most famous though is the Mona Lisa in Paris at the Louvre.

Rembrandt

This is one of the most famous pictures in the Hermitage. The prodigal son.

Our guide told me there is an excellent film of the story of "The Night Watch" painted in 1642.

That painting is in the Rijkes Museum in Amsterdam.

Catherine II

 Much of the art was collected by Catherine the Great.