St. Petersburg to Rome in One Quick Flight (Day 24)

Hello everyone,
   We are now in our Rome hotel.  Our flight was fine, but very loud and cramped.  Not sure why, but Molly and Dad agreed.
   We were met at the gate, just as we got off the plane, and taken to Immigration.  Not sure how this guide got through all the security to get right to the gate, but it was nice.  Then he took us to the Diplomats line at passport check.  In Italian, he told the guard that Dad was 91 and standing in a long line (and it was a very long line) would be too much for him.  The guard looked at Dad, said something to Ilea (our guide) that showed he was not convinced.  They went back and forth, and finally the guard stamped Dad's passport.  I told Dad he needed to try looking feeble!  Or at least look his age.
   He stamped my passport without ever looking at the picture. Very different from Russia.  Getting into Russia took a long time due to each person spending 5-10 minutes at the counter.  Getting out still took 3-5 minutes per person.  They are very diligent there.  :))
   Oh--I'm going to take a detour.  The 3 of us have shared a room all along.  One day Dad mentioned that the shampoo felt like it had grains in it.  I went in and got my tube of Jeju Sea Salt face cleanser and asked him if that is what he used.  Yep.  And he liked it so much he used it for soap too!  I tell him he looks younger every time he uses it.
   Back to today.  We got to our hotel.  It is very European in that you have to ring a bell to get in.  The lobby is not a huge thing--actually it's a desk and a couple of chairs.  There are 2 rooms off of it with lots of easy chairs and sofas.  To get to our room, we walked outside and around the corner.  Then got into an old fashioned elevator.  You get on (and the 3 of us barely fit), close the big door, close 2 little doors, and then it goes up/down.
   Starting with the walk to the room, I was thinking--where are we going and why are we out on the street?  Then we got to our room.  Well, actually our 6 rooms!  It is an apartment, complete with living room, kitchen (even a dishwasher), 2 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms.  And an entryway, but I didn't count it as a room.  The fridge is stocked with every imaginable drink from Coke to juices to wine to beer to little airplane size bottles of alcohol.  And it's all complimentary.
   We are here 4 nights and it is a nice way to end the trip.  All the hotel rooms have been very roomy, but this surpasses 'very roomy' by loads.  We decided to go to a grocers and get cheese, bread, salami and some veggies for dinner.  Luckily Molly went too since Dad and I were completely lost on the walk back to the hotel.  Both of us thought we should go in a different direction.  Good thing we know how bad we are about directions, and listened to Molly.
   As Dad said in his journal--from the time we got off the plane until now, they made us feel very special.   Tomorrow we see the Colosseum, Basilica of St. Peter, Arch of Titus, Circus Maximus,  and some other sights.  Dad's cold is much improved, he is back to his old self.  :)
amy

Half of our living room

The other 1/2 of the living room

Kitchen (duh)

Garden

Steps up to the rooms

One of the 2 hotel lobby rooms

    

How to Politely and Smoothly Take Cuts in Line! (Day 23)

Hello,
   Frida/guide is magnificent at taking cuts in line!  My G3 kids could learn a lot from her.  We arrived at the Hermitage (Winter Palace of Peter the Great's daughter), and there was a long line.  She called someone, and he came out with our tickets.  Then Frida walked up to two guards, spoke to them, pointed to Dad, and the next thing--they opened the gate and we walked in!  Molly says she did a similar thing yesterday on her tour of the Fortress.  And no one complains or says anything.  It is amazing how polite people are.  She even did it on our way out of the Hermitage.  You are supposed to go out the same way you came in, but we wanted to see the square (2nd largest).  We got to the exit on the square side, she talked to the guards, and zippo--they let us through.  She's a keeper!
   The Hermitage is beautiful.  They started building it in 1732, and the whole thing burned down in 1837.  Well, not the WHOLE thing--but most of it.  So they rebuilt it, but they changed all of it, except the chapel.  There are 1,200 rooms in it.  Dang lot of dusting, I say.
   Peter the Great never lived in it.  He built it for his daughter, Elizabeth.  He lived down the street (so to speak) in the Summer Palace.  You might note the difference in the two palaces when you see the photos.  When we asked Dad for a palace, he didn't even bother answering!  We're pretty sure that was a no.
   After that we went for a 1 hour canal ride starting on the Moika canal, then to the Neva River, and on to the Fountain canal.  There are a load of palaces surrounding the Winter Palace.  Frida says they belonged to relatives of Peter.  This city has beautiful buildings all through it.  Molly says it is her #1 city of all we've seen, so far as the architecture is concerned.
   We had fresh water river Sturgeon for dinner.  A specialty of St. Petersburg.  We are now packed up, ready for our flight to Rome tomorrow.  It has been nice having cooler weather.  Today was perfect--not hot or cold, nice breeze.  We are heading back to the land of heat!
   Get ready for loads of photos from all our cameras.
amy

The Ambassador's Staircase

Dad, Molly and Frida in the Ambassador's waiting room.

The Emblem Room.  Behind each set of five lights there is the emblem from a country.

Let's go with the Red Room.  Actually this is where rulers were sworn in.  

Floor in the room where the palace guards changed jobs.

I saw a lot of this carved wood when I was in Slovakia.  

My, my, what a lovely family!

Pano of the Winter Palace square

And again, from a different angle.

We saw lots of weddings.  This one is from our canal boat ride.

The Neva River and surroundings, taken from our boat.  Neva--did you know there was a river named for you?!

And back to the Hermitage.  This is a clock.  While they don't run it anymore, it does work.  The tail spreads and rises, the little animals move, the rooster crows.  It is all very tricky.  I would love one.

This is where Peter the Great lived with his family.  It is being renovated so that is why it is covered.  You can get a feel for how small it was compared to Elizabeth's palace.

The red thing on the right is a lighthouse for the Neva River.

VERY small statue on the wall of the canal.  

The military building.

Top of the building at the Winter Palace square.

On our canal ride.

Still on the boat.  

The Chapel that was restored to its original way.

Raphael hallway

The 2nd longest tunnel on the canal ride.

A bridge on the canal.

Rain in St. Petersburg (Day 22)

                                                                                     Tuesday, June 28
Hello,
   Dad and I stayed in the hotel room this morning.  It has a little sitting area with a couch and chairs.  He is not feeling well, so Molly went on the tour of the Peter and Paul Fortress and St. Isaac's Cathedral.  I think I mentioned that I was in St. Petersburg in 2010, so I have seen those sights.  Molly took pictures for us.  Our canal ride was cancelled due to rain, we will try tomorrow after we go to the Hermitage.  I find this funny since it poured buckets the week I was here 6 years ago.  I had to buy an umbrella, and I am still using it 6 years later.  It is my favorite.
  As for Dad--he caught a cold a few days ago, the kind where it saps your energy.  He was okay in Moscow, but he decided he wanted to take a break this morning.  After Molly returned, all of us went on a tour of the city, seeing the Fortress and Cathedral from the outside, and lots more.  This is a beautiful city.  Dad decided he would never want to drive here--too many cars.  I noticed there are no scooters.  That could help, but the climate is not conducive to being exposed to the weather gods.
  Our hotel is right on Nevsky Prospekt, the main road.  We hear no traffic--there are two sets of windows so I guess they block it all out.  Breakfast was the usual humongo buffet.  They have nice fresh fruits and yogurt here.  I tried pierogies--when in Russia!  Actually I think I've had them before, but I still like them.
   As we were eating dinner, something funny came up and I asked Molly to remind me about it when we got back to the hotel.  I think she might need to join my "12 Minute Rule"--she can't remember.  But if either of us does remember--I will have a funny story for you!
   amy

Way out of order--This is the inside of St Peter/Paul's Cathedral in the Fortress.

On our city tour, we stopped here.  This is the Church of the Spilled Blood.  This church was built on the exact site where Emperor Alexander II was fatally wounded in March 1881 by an attacker with a grenade.  For many years you could see his blood on the cobblestone floor.  

A close up of the crosses that are crossed three times. Since, as usual, the photos will not load in order and they don't seem to like being moved, this is the top of the next photo.  And the explanation about why they have 3 crosses per cross.

This is a close up of the top of that Church.  Each of the crosses on top of the onion domes, are crossed 3 times.  The top for the head, middle for hands, and bottom for legs.  Having reference to Christ's crucifixion.

Ceiling of St. Isaac's Cathedral

A smaller version of St. Isaac's.

Inside St. Peter & Paul's Cathedral at the Fortress

Next to St Peter/Paul Cathedral in the Fortress

Outside St Peter and Paul's Fortress 

The front of our hotel.  With a badly timed truck passing by.  

If you look closely, you can see Molly and Dad walking into our hotel.  Hah!  Good luck on that one.

Last Day in Moscow (Day 21)

                                                                                         Monday, June 27
Good morning,
   I woke at 4 AM and could not fall back to sleep.  I decided to check out the "Snacks in the Conference Room".  Pringles, little chocolate bars and coffee.  Nothing that particularly sounded good at 4 in the morning.
   We toured the city this morning.  That Larisa/guide is a gem.  We watched the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers.  I do not mean this to be disrespectful--but the way the soldiers walked up to switch places, reminded me of the skit from Monty Python about the Ministry of Silly Walks.  I wish I could have videoed it--they raised a leg straight up, then crossed it over the other one, then circled it around, or something close to that.  But really, no disrespect.
   Then we walked to a Metro (underground train) station and looked at the design.  Hoped on the train, and stopped at another one.  Moscow is famous for its beautiful Metro stations.  I'm taking a photo of a postcard so you can see some of them.  We only saw 3--it would take all day to view them all.
   We also visited a cemetery where many famous, and not famous, people are buried.  The grounds are beautiful.
   Our much anticipated train ride to St. Petersburg was a bit disappointing.  We were hoping for a view of the countryside, but in fact they had built up the area lining the tracks so all you really saw were trees and fences.  But it was a nice ride.  When we got on the train, we were all hungry, so we broke out our cache of snacks.  Hah!  Then they came down the aisle and put a place mat on our trays, and brought us a really nice lunch.  We didn't know it was included.
  We got to St. Petersburg at 6 pm (4 hour train ride).  Only 5 million population (Moscow is 12 million), and you can feel the difference in the cities.  The hotel is quite nice, but it came as a crushing blow to all of us--we are no longer VIP.  We are simply three, of the masses of people who come here.  I think we are all glad of it--the pressure of being a VIP is staggering.  One can't eat cheese with one's fingers, it must be cut with knife and fork, and if you want a second piece of chocolate mousse pie, you have to pretend it is for your sister.  Yes, too much pressure--give us a bag of chips and a beer we can drink out of the bottle, and were happy.
   Okay, I am joking.  It was fun to be pampered, and certainly not something any of us (Molly, Dad, me) expected so that made it even more fun.
   Tomorrow is the Fortress and a Cathedral, then lunch and a canal boat ride.  St. Petersburg is known as the "Venice of the North", hence the canal boat ride.
Nighters,
amy

Cemetery

Famous clown who died and had a huge following of people who mourned him.

Where's his cell phone?  I think it looks like he will push up and walk right out of this stone.  Many of the graves had similar headstones.

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Russian Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961.  This is his grave and I copied the above right out of Wikipedia.

The real building at Moscow University.  The fake one is below.                                          

Dad standing in the center of a circle.  Dang, I will revise this later, but I can't remember what it is for.  

There were loads of little kiosks outside Red Square.  Turns out there is an Ice Cream Festival going on!  Dad is in heaven.  :)) 

This is the building I told you about yesterday.  It looks too beautiful to be an apartment building.  It is a smaller copy of Moscow University.

Molly and Dad in Red Square 

Dad and his new best friend from the ice cream festival.

Bolshoi Theater 

Metro Station--Square of the Revolution

Square of the Revolution--everyone rubs the dog's nose for good luck.  This tradition started when University students would come and rub it for good luck on their tests.

Metro Station--Mayakovskaya.  The next 3 photos are the mosaics that are in each of the big, lighted circles in the ceiling.

Well sisters are a good thing!  Cassie wrote to say these are NOT flowers--they are parachutes.  Now I see them.  She says that all of the mosaics are of sky scenes so when you look up, you do not feel like you are way underground in a Metro station.  

Sunflowers

Larisa said that Russians are big on planes/flight so this is that.

Yes, I notice it is sideways, but I do not see a way to fix it.  I will work on it.  But you can see 8 of the Metro Stations.