We had a bit of a problem this morning; we
found out that one of our credit cards was part of a mass problem and they
reissued all of them. But…we’re not home
to receive the new card! So we’ll have
to do without the use of that card after twenty days. They would mail us a new one but since we’re
moving frequently that is a bit of a problem.
Oh well…we never travel with only one card and this proves the wisdom of
that rule. Tatiana had to wait for half
an hour while we ironed out the problems on the phone; so we lost half an hour
and that messed up our schedule a bit but we still got everything done from
10:30 am to 7 pm.
The rain finally arrived and we were walking
most of the day in rain with our umbrellas.
Our first stop; an easy walk from the hotel, was the Church of the Spilled
Blood. So named as the Tsar Alexander II
was killed on this spot and they built a church to commemorate his death. It is also known as the Church of the Resurrection. He was the one who abolished slavery and was
very
popular among the poor; but also hated by many. Their slaves were poor peasants and were
bought and sold as property. This church
has five onion domes on top representing Christ and the four apostles who wrote
the gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John. It is a stunning church and has
many stories of why is was not destroyed by the Soviet government…many could be
called miracles. It was used to store vegetables after the
revolution. The walls are covered by mosaics. Stunning!
Then we walked to the Russian Museum that
houses the art treasurers of the nation.
Tatiana took us from room to room explaining about the best of the best;
but also stopped and included history on ones we asked about. One of the most interesting was a bust of Tsar
Paul, his face was asymmetrical… it looked completed different from each
side. I have the photos in the slide
show.
By 2 pm we were out the door in
the rain and headed towards the Metro System.
Built in 1955 by the Soviets, it has marble
walls and granite floors. Beautifully
decorated and was a showcase for Stalin.
It is buried deep underground and you are on the escalators so long that
no one tries to walk past you. There are
three of them and each will run in both directions so that there are ALWAYS two
of them working. A guard sits in a hut at
the top to make sure that any problems are immediately solved. We rode to different lines and stations and
enjoyed seeing the different decors in each station.
About 3:30 pm we finished the Metro System,
purchased a candy bar for nourishment and jumped on a bus as it was still
raining. We only went a short distance
to the private apartments of Rimsky Korsakov, a famous Russian Composer. The apartment is now a museum for him. Weekly they have various musicians perform
classical music in a salon and we were fortunate enough to enjoy one starting
at 4 pm. The program lasted an hour and
fifteen minutes. We had the Four Seasons
and other pieces played on two very different instruments that complimented
each other.
Tatiana met us after the performance with
George and the car. For the next couple
of hours we visited by car some of the final sites on our tour. We saw the outside of St. Nicolas of Sailors
Cathedral, the Egyptian Sphinx and Chinese Foo Dogs that decorate some of the
landings along the
Neva River. We drove
to Smolny Cathedral on the outskirts of the city. And finally to the Souvenir Shop for our
special remembrance of our trip to Saint Petersburg…a tiny Faberge Egg.
Back at the hotel we said our goodbye to
Tatiana. She was truly a treasure to
have on this special journey. She’s
given us things to do tomorrow on our last day that are within easy walking
distance. We may do them and we may take
a day to rest before leaving on Tuesday. Our driver George will be back to take us to
the airport for our flight to Berlin.
But for tonight we enjoyed a light dinner at
the restaurant next to our hotel and then called it a night.
Again….if you can do slideshows…click on the
photos below to go to the web page:
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