Poppy's Grand Adventure: 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.