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
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
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| Cemetery |
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| Famous clown who died and had a huge following of people who mourned him. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| The real building at Moscow University. The fake one is below. |
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| Dad standing in the center of a circle. Dang, I will revise this later, but I can't remember what it is for. |
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| There were loads of little kiosks outside Red Square. Turns out there is an Ice Cream Festival going on! Dad is in heaven. :)) |
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| 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. |
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| Molly and Dad in Red Square |
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| Dad and his new best friend from the ice cream festival. |
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| Bolshoi Theater |
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| Metro Station--Square of the Revolution |
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| 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. |
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| Metro Station--Mayakovskaya. The next 3 photos are the mosaics that are in each of the big, lighted circles in the ceiling. |
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| 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. |
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| Sunflowers |
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| Larisa said that Russians are big on planes/flight so this is that. |
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| 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. |
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