October 2, 2007
I spent the day (10:00am to 6:00pm) on my feet wandering around St. Petersburg Russia with only a short (~15 minute) break for lunch. My feet are not really happy right now so I took a long soak in the tub to try to work out all the stiffness and sores.
St. Petersburg is often
called the Venice of the North with all of it's canals.
The views
of the Peter and Paul Fortress on the Vasilyevsky Island in the Neva River were
pretty awesome.
There were
fountains going on the river between the Palace and the Fortress. Pretty
spectacular ones but don't show well in the pictures due to the weather.
Walked down
a very long street to the Peter and Paul Fortress on Vasilyevsky Island in the
Neva River. There was a lot of renovation going on and several of the key
sites were closed but the grounds were open so I walked that a while.
Then walked
back across the river to the Hermitage/Winter Palace and spent most of the
afternoon there.
The
building was Czar Peter's (the Great) answer to Versailles (that's the Winter
Palace part) and it houses an incredible art museum (that's the Hermitage
part). (It's all one and the same building but the title varies depending
on what you are talking about.)
All the exterior pictures are sort of dreary as it was overcast to
misty to rainy all day. It really does remind me of Paris (were a
large group of French at the cafe in the museum so sounded like Paris
too). It would be a spectacular city in sunny, blue sky weather.
Obviously another place to put on the list.
One of the other sights I made a point of finding was the iconic
Spilled Blood Church. Pretty amazing, even in the rainy weather.
Pastry/Dessert shops (referred to as Cafes) here are to the folks
of St. Petersburg as chocolate shops are to Belgians...i.e. there seems to be
one on every corner. I went to the cafe in the Hermitage and there was a
huge selection of pastries/desserts, salmon/lox sandwiches, mystery sandwiches
and mystery pizza. I had the pizza. I'm pretty sure it had some ham
in it but everything else was chopped so fine I can only guess that it was a
combination of onion, red peppers and mushrooms. But I'm not really
sure. It tasted pretty good though (no I didn't have a
dessert).
Tonight the folks from Cytokinetics should arrive and I assume we
are going out for dinner. Then it's off to work for the next two
days. I sure wish I had more time here. I did a quick internet
search on St. Petersburg and watched a video on Peterhof...apparently Czar
Peter the Great's country home (reminded me of Versailles). Unfortunately
it is an hour drive out of town but it looked like it would be require a full
day on its own.
I should do a bit of work while I wait for a call from Jackie for
dinner.
October 4, 2007
Yeah!! The audit ended early and the audit hosts arranged
for a driver and guide for the afternoon for us to visit Peterhof. This
palace is Czar Peter’s attempt to build a Versailles equivalent in Russia.
Again the
interior was very opulent with lots of gold and marble, particularly on the
grand stairs.
Much of the
decor attributed to the work of Catherine the Great.
The garden
somewhat mimicked those at Versailles in that there was Grand Canal that ran
down from the Palace terraces to the ocean beyond.
There was a
bridal couple at the top of the Grand Cascades. She wore a warm white fur
shrug...seems appropriate for the fall weather in Russia.
There were
fountains and small pools all over the gardens.
It is fall
in Russia and the grounds were showing off their fall colors.
The
fountains are fed from a reservoir above the palace. The water had been
shut off while we touring the interior so as we toured the gardens the water in
the fountains gradually became less and less. By the time we
finished the tour the water was just a trickle.
The palace and grounds were spectacular in the fall. Now I'd
like to see them in the spring or summer (or maybe even winter...although I
assume the fountains aren't running then).
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