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St. Petersburg, Russia
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This place was Amazing
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Hermitage yard with sculpture
Wednesday morning we headed over to the Winter Palace and Hermitage complex. Our guide Katya was determined to march us through this vast museum with purpose and dispatch. We saw great throne rooms and ballrooms and magnificent entryways. We lined up to pay our respects to the two daVinci canvases in the collection and viewed other paintings of note by Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse and Kandinsky. We were interested to see the 'special collection' of Scythian gold artifacts and other treasures from the Caucasus and Crimea dating back to the 3rd to 9th centuries, and some much older. To get access you book a mini-tour in advance, ticket cost 25 rubles for local residents, and 400 rubles for foreigners. At the appointed time, we found our way through the maze to Room 27 where we met an intense middle-aged blonde lady who walked us through the displays with a half-dozen other English speakers. She gave elaborate impassioned descriptions of the different jewelry and decorative pieces, explaining how the Scythian, Greek, Oriental, and Russian motifs are mixed and echoed over and over in different pieces from different places and different times. The displays in the special collection are so intricate and exquisite, and the rooms hushed and not crowded like the main museum - located behind two sets of locked and guarded entries - we really got the message that we are privileged visitors to a hidden piece of history and culture. We walked and walked around the museum until closing time, our legs numb, backs stiff, practically cross-eyed with looking at masterpieces. The Hermitage Museum owns 2.8 million objects. Just to glance at each would taked nine years or so. We started to think maybe we'll come back one day and spend some portion of our retired years here.
Outside the museum we walked across the square and through a graceful arch leading to a quiet alley off bustling Nevsky Prospect. We took the Metro to the neighborhood around Preobrazhensky Church. Inside, the chapel filled with the voices of the choir singing responses to the service recited by the priest up front. It's remarkable because the choir consists of just four people. They really sounded more like eight or even sixteen, and the pretty harmonies filled us with a feeling of peace. Russian Orthodox churches have no pews or chairs: the believers do their worship standing up. Among the dozen or so worshipers, we stood quietly listening to the lovely music.
We stopped for dinner at the Rioni restaurant on Shpalerdnaya Street. We picked the place because it serves Georgian cuisine, and we were not disappointed. If anything, our meal was even more delicious than the lunch we had on Old Arbat Street. Further up Shpalerdnaya, we caught the last tune and a half at the JFC Jazz club. Afterwards, the walk across the bridge was cold and romantic, full moon rising above the city and great floes of ice breaking up and moving slowly under the bridge.
Posted
Dec 09, 2004
by GoAmcan
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