Marty Magic Travel

Friday, August 16th Gorky Park, the Garage Museum and the New Tretyakov Gallery

Wonerful French pastries in the Arbat district of Moscow

We’ve settled into a morning routine of having breakfast at a stylish French bakery cafe near the metro station. I have a croque Madame and Art orders a set breakfast plate of eggs, croissant and juice. Fully caffeinated after a cappuccino and espresso, we descend into the metro in the direction of Gorky Park.

Gorky Park entrance sign

Tube slide in the children’s play area

The weather is perfect and we stroll through the immense park detouring to a children’s play area where they splash and play in shallow pools with innovative water wheels and corkscrew squirting gadgets.

Interactive water wheel in the children’s play area

Corkscrew water gadgets in the children’s play area

Beyond the children’s area, fountains dance in reflecting pools edged with flower beds.

Beautiful Gorky Park in August

Reflecting pools and fountains in Gorky Park

We expect to see innovative art and design at the Garage Museum but are sorely disappointed with the blasé exhibits. I agree with the message but find the delivery boring. 

Are you are the pigeon or the statue?

There is no planet B exhibit

There is no planet B exhibit

Lunch however is delightful at their courtyard cafe until Art exits the clear glass sliding door only to be smacked in the forehead by a second glass panel a few feet beyond. A museum attendant is seriously concerned but Art shakes it off muttering an irritation to me about squirting train toilet gadgets and unusually positioned exit doors.

Wonderful lunch at the Garage Museum

Delighted to have vegetables again

Still hopeful of seeing some inspiring art today, we head to the New Tretyakov Gallery and stand in an unmoving line for 20 minutes before realizing that this particular line is for a virtual reality exhibit that we are not interested in. We pass around this line and easily enter the main galleries of the museum. We spend several delicious hours enjoying the 20th and 21st century collection of modern, avant-garde and social realism art.

Art and Kandinski

Mark Chagall – Lillies of the Valley

Tretyakov Museum

Builders of Bratsk – 1960 Viktor Popkov

Lyubov Popova – 1916

Composition – 1920 Ivan Klyun

Gallery at the Tretyakov Museum

Modernism

Gallery in the Tretyakov Museum

Get Heavy Industry Moving Yuri Pimenov

Anti Imperilist Meeting – Yuri Pimenov

Future Pilots – 1938 Alexander Deineka

1933 – Vladimir Lebedev

The Kukryniks Artists – 1957 Pavel Korin

The Cosmic Brothers – 1982 Yuri Korolev

Tretyakov Museum

Chronicle of Russian Art 1920 -1950

Returning to the Arbat district we search hopelessly for a decent restaurant for our final dinner in Moscow. We have a simple dinner at one of the outdoor cafes along the street lined with tourist shops and street artists displaying their mediocre paintings seeming around the clock. After dinner we pop into a co-op crafts gallery that is just closing for the day. I find some unusual fabricated jewelry and buy a pair of earrings from the jeweler’s wife.

I buy a pair of fabricated earrings

Saturday, August 17th – Our last day in Moscow.

Art mapping out our day

Cappuccino and espresso

Often our final travel day is one of stress but our flight tonight between Moscow and London doesn’t depart until 6:11 P.M. and we have the luxury of not setting our alarm. We wake shortly before 8:00 A.M to the sound of light rain upon tin roofs. I take the two steps required to reach our tiny bathroom. The Lonely Planet Guide Book recommended Hotel Bukalow in the Arbat district of Moscow. Admittedly it is a bargain at $65 a night and the high ceilings and location to a Metro station make it desirable but there is no elevator and three flights of stairs leaves me breathless. The hotels black cat always seems to be waiting for our return with glowing eyes. After showering and doing a preliminary pack, Art and I head out for a repeat breakfast at the French Bakery two blocks away. A double cappuccino and espresso later we dip into the Metro and Art navigates us flawlessly to the Modern Art Museum.

The sound of water – Jaume Plensa

William Blake – Jaume Plensa

Jaume Plensa

Although the temporary exhibit is painfully amateurish there is an engaging show of Jaume Plensa, a Barcelona artist. His meditative installations of wood, water, steel and sound are lovely.

Exterior door at the Arbat station metro

Long escalators down to the platforms

We have a few metro stops to tick off our list and with an hour to spare, Art navigates us along the circle line and we pop on and off to admire more Soviet era Metro Art.

Beautiful stained glass at the Novoslobodskaya station

Novoslobodskaya station

Komsomolskay – ceiling mosiac

Komsomolskay station

Komsomolskay station

Pink Floyd anyone?

We take a taxi to the Moscow airport which with traffic takes considerably longer than the $17 meter price. An hour later, Art gives our driver $20 and we check in and breeze through security with ease. With just a few Rubles remaining we have diluted drinks at an airport bar and board the 4 hour flight to Heathrow. We arrive in Heathrow, London after 10:00 P.M. and shuttle to our nearby airport hotel to wait for our flight to San Francisco in the morning.

Art and I do a movie marathon between our London to Phoenix flight, sleeping just a little. We pick up our bags, go through U.S. immigration and dawdle some before checking through security in Phoenix. We have re-entered the U.S.A. and all seems good. Art breezes through security with his carryon’s and my computer but I am pulled aside.  As a frequent traveler, I am used to an occasional snafu but this security check is intense. The expression on the face of the TSA agent who scans my passport changes dramatically and he looks at me intently and calls for a supervisor. They pull me aside and it is several minutes before a woman agent arrives and interrogates me. She asks where I have been traveling and inquires if I wish a private room for a body search that will be done by a female TSA agent. I am now nervous about missing our Phoenix to SFO flight and Art is standing on the far side of security watching me anxiously. Although the search will be intimate, I will not need to undress so I tell them that I don’t need a private room and stand awkwardly, legs apart as the woman pats me down and runs her hands under the waist band of my leggings over my breasts and most everywhere else. In the meantime, the supervisor has disappeared with my phone, drivers license and passport. When they first pulled me aside, they asked for all my electronics and I was grateful that Art had carried my computer through ahead of me. I don’t know what she did with my phone but I imagine that my sim card was examined. She returns 15 minutes later with my identification and phone but there is sill the explosive wand test to do on all my carry on baggage. I am curious why I have been flagged and with the exception of missing our connecting flight, I am not at all anxious. I chat to the supervisor as they wand my belongings. I surmise that it is the Russia leg of our trip that has caused the flagging and she tells me that the Russians are not our friends and asks me why we choose to travel to Russia? I tell her about the many world class Art museums and how beautiful Moscow and St Petersburg were and that the people we encountered were friendly and that traveling in Russia felt no different than traveling elsewhere in Europe. By the time they release me, we are all smiling and chatting about family and international travel destinations. 

Wednesday, August 14, 2019  An Art Museum Marathon, Saint Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin 

I set the alarm for 7:15 and take a quick shower before our breakfast is served. At precisely 7:40 our soft spoken stewardess knocks and brings us our breakfast trays. We raise the shade and eat watching the grey outskirts of Moscow roll by. 

Unfortunately, I have our arrival time wrong by 15 minutes and we are lolly-gagging when we pull into the station. We hurriedly zip suitcases and take stock of our belongings and disembark. Our taxi driver is waiting and he escorts us to a black BMW and whisks us across town to our Hotel Bulgakov in the Arbat district. According to the Lonely Planet Guide Book, the hotel I have reserved is perfectly located and has high ceilings and is a bargain for this district. Admittedly, it is a bargain at only $65 a night but the entrance is from a back parking alley and there is no elevator. The hotel is one flight up paint worn stairs to a tiny reception area and another flight up to our room which will not be available until 2:00 P.M.  The décor is funky and a fat black cat is curled on the reception sofa, apparently the hotel mascot. Cat prints and pillows are everywhere and a sign warns us to not allow the cat into your room under any circumstances.

We stow our luggage in a tiny downstairs closet and head out to get our bearings. We are steps away from the main restaurant and shopping street of the Arbat and although in most situations, we prefer to go local not corporate for our coffee, we find a spacious Starbucks where we can sit and plan our day. 

We set out walking towards the Pushkin Art museum, along stately back street with elegant buildings and past the occasional golden onion topped church. Naturally, there is a line at the museum but Art stands in it allowing me to sit and rest and within 20 minutes we are gliding across polished museum floors. We enter a monumental gallery with the fabulous Assyrian Gates, lines of Greek and Roman marble statues and a marble frieze of Saint George and the Dragon. 

Thursday, August 15th,  Visiting the Kremlin and the Armory.

Art and our “friend” Marina in front of he Kremlin Palace and Trinity Gate Tower

We didn’t realize that booking a tour to the Kremlin needed to be made weeks in advance. Against Arts wishes, I arranged for an expensive private guide to get us past the literal blockade into the Armory and the Kremlin. Marina, our young private guide meets us in the Arbat district and because of permits required, we agree that on the entire “tour” we will pretend she is a friend, not a guide. The three of us ride the metro together to Red Square and she navigates us to the remote entrance to the Armory. Another “friend” passes her tickets and we wait 30 minutes in line in a light drizzle. Although there are only about 30 people ahead of us, bag security checks take a long time. I didn’t want to visit Moscow and not see the Armory’s treasures but we are not allowed to take photographs and although the opulence of treasures are staggering; royal dresses, robes, crowns, armor, weapons and carriages; the excessive bling eventually becomes boring.

The Assumption Cathedral and Ivan the Great Bell Tower

Archangel Cathedral

Golden onion topped spires

Annunciation Cathedral

Archangel Cathedral door fresco

Tsar Bell

From the Armory we walk to the Assumption, Archangel and Annunciation Cathedrals all of which share a common square tucked within the Kremlin walls. Golden onion topped towers glint in the sporadic sunlight and we wait in lines at all three to admire the soaring domes from within and view Russian iconic frescos and the royal burial tombs. Photographs were not allowed inside the Cathedrals.

A peek at Putin’s helicopter pad

Surrounding Kremlin park

Kremlin park grounds

It is mid afternoon when our tour ends and our guide suggests we go for late lunch in the Gum shopping mall across from the Kremlin. The beautiful three story steel and glass roofed arcade was built over 100 years ago and is two football fields long. Graceful bridges and walkways span the structure filled with designer shop and upscale cafes. There are many dining options and we choose a bustling cafeteria on the second floor and find a small table on one of the bridge walkways where we can enjoy our meal, people watch and rest our legs.

Gum Department Store arcade

Gum Department Store arcade

Hotel Metropol Portico

We window shop and wander the short distance to Hotel Metropol, an Art Nouveau masterpiece built in the early 1900’s. I hope to splurge on a late afternoon cocktail in the bar of this historic hotel. Art and I straighten our clothes and our posture and mount the stairs to the hotel. A door man opens the door and we stroll through the elegant lobby trying to look as if we belong. I expect the bar to be under the soaring glass roof but it is just off a side wing of the lobby. One look at the designer clad women and well attired business men sipping their cocktails, plus a glance at the drink prices gives us pause. After circumnavigating the bar awkwardly, we make our less than graceful exit.

Caviar, wine and mushroom soup

Cnacckuu Restaurant

The palatial women’s restroom

Earlier today Art made a dinner reservation at Cnacckuu Restaurant where we were enticed and then turned away from for dinner last night. We rest and freshen up at our hotel and return to the restaurant to be welcomed by the gregarious Maître-d and seated at a corner window table. The interior glitters with ambience and promise but the service is slow and they are out of both the steamed mussels and the moderately priced caviar. We opt for an inexpensive alternative which is ceremoniously served to us accompanied by thin crepes and several sauces but it is a disappointment. The mushroom soup is overly salty but the remainder of the meal is decent and we wash it down with a good crisp white wine. I pop into the bathroom before our metro trip back to our hotel and am delighted by golden tiles, crystal wall sconces, glistening mirrors and a red and gold brocade chair more suited for Catherine’s Palace. Our bill including tip is about $80.

An after dinner stroll

Saint Basil’s Cathedral illuminated

Flowers and fairy lights

Saint Basil’s Cathedral is illuminated when we exit, the psychedelic painted towers popping in the night. The shopping promenade is lit with fairy lights and brightly colored beds of flowers bloom.  

Monday, August 12, 2019 – A City Walking Tour and Metro Tour

At 9:00 A.M. our group gathers with our listening gizmos for a walking tour. Our local guide gives us an overview of the history of Saint Petersburg and tells us about the Russian Siege.

Along a waterfront canal

Guide talking about the Russian Siege

Along a waterfront canal

We wander the Vasil’yevski district through back streets and along canals, all of which is picturesque and interesting.

Vasil’yevski alley

Back street in the Vasil’yevski district

Fashionable Cafe in the Vasil’yevski district

Vasil’yevski alley

Late morning, we stop for a coffee break at a gated and guarded island park. There is nothing of interest here except for the availability of restrooms and I gaze at the large pink snails attached to the brick walls with amused boredom.

Pink snails at an island park

Pink snails!

Along the canal

We continue our fast paced walking tour over ornate hippocampus and trident grilled bridges spanning the vast canals of Saint Petersburg and end at Saint Isaac’s, an opulent Russian Orthodox Cathedral.

Hippocampus bridge railing

Saint Isaac’s Russian Orthodox Church

Cathedral door

Saint Isaac’s Cathedral dome

Saint Isaac’s Cathedral dome

Stained glass at Saint Isaac’s Cathedral

Ceiling fresco

Interior detail

Standing under the impressive dome we ogle at the frescos, stained glass and opulence. Art and I make our way back to our Pushkin Hotel and have a blissful 45 minutes to recharge both bodies and electronics before meeting Eszter for an afternoon tour of the Saint Petersburg Metros.

Our beautiful room at the Pushkin Hotel

Descending into the metro

Entering the metro

I visited Russia with a University of Redlands tour in 1971 and after visiting the metros, I wrote a paper on the Soviet Realism Art. We ride a seemingly endless escalator hundreds of feet below ground to the first of many stations on the must see metro station list. Remarkable Soviet era mosaics decorate the end walls of some stations and stately marble pillars support crown molded ceilings. Countless wrought iron and brass chandeliers hang from arched ceilings. At one station, the columns are decorated with an iridescent golden molded glass imprinted with the Soviet star and bundles of wheat. Each metro stop we visit is spotlessly clean and decorated with impressive Soviet Era art intended to reinforce in the hearts and minds of Soviet citizens, the abundant lives they live under communist rule.

Puskin statue

An ornate metro station

Metro station mosaic

The ArtBobo station:)

Metro station chandelier

Metro station with columns of iridescent pressed glass

Column detail

Bronze bas-relief sculptures on every corner

Hammer and Sickle

Our group on the Saint Petersburg metro tour

Eszter and Art

Tonight is our final evening of our Rick Steve’s tour and our group boards a boat for an evening ride along the Neva River and through the Saint Petersburg canals. The weather is blissful and Saint Petersburg is aglow with slanted evening sunlight. We sit on the top deck while Eszter pours champagne into plastic flutes and we all toast to our week’s adventure.

Evening boat ride panorama along the Neva River

Saint Petersburg view from our boat on the Neva River

Watch your head!

Passing under many bridges we note the warning sign on the top deck of our boat. “Saint Petersburg has over 500 bridges, but you have only one head!” An hour later, out boat docks in front of a Georgian restaurant and our group of 25 enjoys a final dinner together. The food is both excellent and plentiful and the wine flows freely. There are a few farewell speeches and although many of us will see each other in the morning at breakfast, we say goodbye and goodnight to all.

Farewell dinner in Saint Petersburg

Toasting to a wonderful tour with great guides!

Tuesday, August 13 – A Day On Our Own and the Midnight Train to Moscow

After breakfast with our tour group, we stow our luggage at the hotel. Today we will be semi homeless until our train to Moscow departs at midnight. Admittedly it is preferable to have a room to return to where one can recharge batteries both literally and figuratively but with resolve, we set off to the near-bye Hermitage on our own. Eszter has coached us that the best way to avoid the ticket lines is to buy them at the automated kiosks just inside the ornate gates of the Hermitage courtyard. Although we arrive 30 minutes prior to opening, snaking lines extend far into the plaza. Just as we are heading to the end of the very long line the gates of the courtyard open and we see tourists rushing the gates. We fast walk through the gates but instead of lining up at the museum door for tickets, we spot four automated kiosks inside the courtyard. Art is second in line at one until a Chinese family asks him a question and skillfully maneuvers in front of him. Discount tickets are not available at the kiosks but even full price tickets are only 700 rubles each (about $11.) Unfortunately, the kiosk does not become operational until 10:30 A.M, the same time that the Hermitage opens. A long line forms behind Art and at all the kiosks and precisely at 10:30 A.M. the kiosk comes to life. 10 minutes later Art holds up our tickets triumphal! The ticket line at the Hermitage door is moving slowly but those with electronic tickets can enter through a side entrance in the courtyard.

The line to enter the Hermitage Museum

Museum ticket kiosk

After being x-rayed we push through a turnstile and find ourselves in a nearly empty Hermitage. We have entered through a side annex and wander a series of beautifully furnished decorative arts rooms within the palatial rococo rooms of the Hermitage.

We have this wing of the Hermitage to ourselves

Alone in the Hermitage

Alone in the Hermitage

Exotic jungle screen

Serpent jardinier

One of the many decorative art rooms

Gallery room in the Hermitage

Library

Griffin base display cabinets.

I wish to visit the treasury which requires a separate ticket and you can only visit on a museum tour with a guide. We are fortunate to time this perfectly and there are only 6 or 7 of us on the tour. Unfortunately we are not permitted to take photos but the hour long tour is wonderful. The opulent collection is varied and much of the jewelry is from ancient civilizations. The highlight for me is a single display of baroque pearl jewelry where master craftsmen cast and fabricated fanciful designs of mermaids and knights and dragons around irregular pearls. The high carat gold designs are opulently set with gemstones and richly enameled.  After the tour we share a quick sandwich in the crowded museum cafeteria unable to even find seats together and balancing our half sandwich on our laps.

Friday, August 9,  2019.  The Train to Saint Petersburg Russia.

We say good bye to Helsinki and walk briskly to our train. Thirty minutes before departure, we board Allegro, the fast train that will take us between Helsinki and St. Petersburg. We sit with Brian and Kathy of Castro Valley, California. Ester, our guide passes out lunch boxes and tells us what to expect from both the Finnish and the Russian border guards. She tells us to remain in our seats and not talk or smile during the process. The train departs on the dot of 11:00 A.M. and it is not until then that Ester coaches us about how to fill out our immigration forms. We must print in all capitals and there can be no mistakes or cross outs. Even without the swaying of the train, writing this information clearly in the tiny boxes would be challenging. Brian needs three forms before he manages to complete the form correctly. I make a mistake on formatting my birthday but I correct it legibly and Ester lets me slide. Our “bento” lunch boxes have tasty pickled vegetables but the fish spread roll leaves much to be desired. There is a constant line for the bathroom and two hours into the trip and shortly before crossing into Russia, the line dwindles down to one. Our seats are close to the bathroom and I stand waiting my turn when the Russian border guards come into our train car. The unsmiling but kind female guard looks at me quizzically and  I point to my nearby seat and make a move to sit down. She indicates that I may stay where I am and wait my turn and proceeds to begin checking passports. Whoever is in the bathroom is taking a very long time and the boarder guard knocks on the door. In a few concise words she both motions and tells me to “go to car number 7 ” to use the toilet. Art scowls at me as I pass our seat and proceed to the next car. There are several passengers waiting in the toilet line of #7 so I nervously return to our car resigned to having a full bladder. My return is so quick that the same female guard looks at me questionably and I mutter that there was a line.  The bathroom line to our car is now short and she motions me to pass her and to wait for the toilet in our car. When it is my turn and I finally sit to pee, I am so anxious that it takes me a minute to relax enough to relieve myself. In an effort to hurry, I forgo washing my hands and return quickly to my seat just in time to hand over my passport and receive the coveted entry stamp. 

We arrive at the St. Petersburg train station and gather obediently on the platform until our tour has completely disembarked and all are accounted for. We follow Ester to a waiting bus, load our suitcases in its open belly and climb onboard. We drive into St Petersburg, an impressive and awe inspiring expanse of rivers, canals, bridges, palaces and churches. The elegant city is blend of Paris, Venice and Amsterdam laced together by bridges and canals. Our bus stops on the island between the left and the right bank and we have 15 minutes to stretch our legs and take photos. 

From there we go to the golden- spire Peter and Paul Cathedral. Although there are a half dozen tour buses parked outside the gates, the tours disperse in the immense courtyard and the site is surprisingly un-crowded.  I smile at a group of middle school Chinese students all dressed in bright pink and in striking contrast to the cream, yellow and gilded gold of the cathedral. 

Inside, immense crystal chandeliers hang from cherub painted domes and gilded baroque arches and doorways delinieate choirs and naves.  All our heads are craned backwards as we gawk upwards at the opulence.  After a visual sensory overload we are ushered into a tiny chapel by a half dozen priests and find seating along the walls. When the chapel door is closed, they burst into song. The acoustics are astounding and the alto voice of one man sends chills down my spine. I don’t want the a_cappella singing to ever end but when it does, one of the priests announces that we can purchase CD’s of their music recorded in this very chapel. This closing sales pitch cheapens the experience somewhat but I am seriously tempted.

The highlight of the afternoon is visiting the Church of the Spilled Blood, a Russian Orthodox Church, completed in 1907.  Parts of the exterior are covered by scaffolding, obscuring the central onion dome but the surrounding domes are colorfully and whimsically painted and tiled.

Brick and tile facade of the Church of the Spilled Blood

Church of the Spilled Blood

Wrought iron work

The interior is stunning. The walls are patterned with intricate mosaics and the tiny golden tiles shimmer with iridescence. The interior of the domes are decorated in biblical scenes and afternoon light streams through the clearstory windows. Whatever one’s faith, being inside this church is a spiritual experience. The immense and ornate alter door is embellished with icons framed by sculpted gold and silver borders. The door looks like a giant piece of cloisonné.  There is no surface left unadorned. Even the floor is intricately patterned in various colors of marble.

Church of the Spilled Blood, mosaics

Interior, Church of the Spilled Blood

Entryway, Church of the Spilled Blood

Looking up

Ornate doorway, Church of the Spilled Blood

Christ

Saint George and the Dragon

We exit the church from an opposite door and walk past the ground walls topped with gorgeous wrought iron scroll work. Artists have their paintings propped along the walls and street musicians play for rubles. I take a distant photo of the scene and one artist growls at me.

Back exterior of the church

Street musicians and sidewalk artists

Our hotel, the Putin Inn is just a block from the Hermitage Museum and faces one of Saint Petersburg’s many canals. Art and I are fortunate to have a spacious ground floor room with a sitting alcove.  Our welcome group dinner is in the hotel’s adjoining restaurant and our vodka toast is accompanied by balalaika and accordion music. Our group claps in rhythm to the spirited music and a couple of our tour members are invited onto the dance floor which adds to the gaiety. Our appetizer is a creamy potato and egg salad followed by beef Stroganoff in a mound of mashed potatoes and thin crepes with berry compote for dessert.

Welcome group dinner

Welcome to Saint Petersburg dinner

Sherrod and Craig enjoying the music

Balalaika and accordion music

Ester leads us on an after dinner walk of the district, pointing out a few good restaurants we might consider for the two nights that we will be on our own for dinner. She leaves us on the main street and we all find our own way back to the hotel.

Street musicians along the main boulevard

Mobile cafe

Nighttime view of Church of the Spilled Blood

Motorcyclists along the boulevard

The boulevard is swarming with pedestrians enjoying a relatively warm evening out and the monuments and canals are illuminated. From a canal bridge we can see the Church of the Spilled Blood illuminated in the distance.  There are numerous street musicians and we stand and listen to the music. Two bands in particular are very good and we put money in the expectant hat. This is not the Russia that I experienced in 1971.  Art has been especially anxious about visiting Russia and I see him relaxing some. We stroll and people watch for an hour before heading back to our hotel.

Saturday, August 10, 2019 – The World Class Hermitage Museum 

An elaborate buffet breakfast is served in the adjoining hotel restaurant.  The spread caters to all nationalities. I forgo the eggs, bacon and quiche and enjoy lox, tomatoes dressed with vinaigrette, lingonberry crepes and a tiny croissant.  Two cappuccinos later and fully fueled, I walk with our group towards the Hermitage Museum, founded by Catherine the Great in 1764.

Hermitage Palace square, Saint Petersburg

Cats are honored at the Hermitage

 Our tour has early entry and we are 45 minutes ahead of the main crowds. We ascend a wide staircase and pass through gilded and mirrored rooms. The interior of this Rococo palace is like a frosted wedding cake decorated in pastel colors with curvaceous sculpted moldings,  gilded friezes and crystal chandeliers. We glide across intricately patterned floors of inlaid wood and crane our necks to admire the trompe l’oeil ceiling frescos of floating cherubs.

Hermitage Palace staircase

Hermitage Palace

Inlaid wood floor

Hermitage museum hall

Mosaic floor

Decorative gilded Griffin table supports

Griffin table base

Our four hour tour is of the highlights of the museum and we try to absorb all the spender and history but it is a sensory overload. Showcases display bronzes and porcelain, jewelry and religious icons.  We spend time immersed in the Italian Renaissance and then move into the galleries of the Dutch masters. There are long halls filled with marble statues and other halls draped with tapestries.

Hallway of marble sculptures

A grande gallery room

Mary Magdalena, Titian

The Rape of Proserpina

Rembrant

Marble frieze

Snake jardinere

Muscled victor with snake

After three hours in the main Hermitage Palace we cross the Palace square to the annex building that house the Impressionistic collection. We have a short break at the museum café and eat two small salads before exploring the galleries. We easily identify the various styles of the many impressionists and viewing these paintings is like visiting with old friends but there are Gauguin’s, Picassos, Monet’s and Van Gogh’s that we have only seen in art history books. I happen to glance outside a window and notice a fashion photo shoot taking place on an opposite roof top. I find it hard to concentrate on the art when I fear that the model, leaning against a flimsy rooftop railing, may fall to her death. The museum guard is also facinated.

Picasso, Girl with a Ball

Gaugain

View of the Palace Square

View of a photo shoot from the Hermitage

A risky roof top photo shoot, viewed from the Hermitage museum.

1907 Charles Hofbauer

When our guided tour ends we decide to forego lunch and visit other floors of the contemporary wing but this detour proves to be a disappointment.

We hurry back to our hotel to recharge my phone and take a much needed 30 minute break. I suggest we grab a sandwich but there is really no time and we imagine that there will be food available at Peterholf Palace and Gardens.

At 2:45 we meet our group to fast walk to the hydrofoil that skims us out to the Peterholf Palace. The 30 minute hydrofoil ride takes us past modern skyscrapers along the outskirts of St. Petersburg and into the Gulf of Finland.

Modern Saint Petersburg

Our tour boards the hydrofoil to Peterholf Palace

Saint Petersburg bridge

Modern Saint Petersburg

Arriving at the Peterholf Palace docks, we follow Eszter towards the entrance and she helps us with our bearings before setting her duckings free to wander the opulent palace grounds. It is a glorious sunny afternoon and we have over two hours to enjoy the immense park. A snack is in order but Art realizes that he has no cash and the many park kiosks do not accept credit cards or Apple Pay. I have intentionally left my purse and valuables back at the hotel and our stomachs grumble as we wander through manicured gardens and gaze at cascading fountains.

Cascading fountains at Peterholf Palace

View of the canal and fountains from Peterholf Palace terrace

The gilded domes of Peterholf Palace shine in the afternoon light and I understand why the palace and gardens are referred to as the Russian Versailles. 

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Peterholf Gardens

Peterholf dock

Marty at the Peterholf Palace canal

Peterholf dock

Our tour returns together on the 5:00 P.M. hydrofoil and Art and I quickly regroup and head out in search of dinner.  We choose one of Eszter’s recommended restaurants, Arka which looks and feels very trendy and upscale.  It is early and although there are a few patrons at the bar, no one else is in the upstairs restaurant. Ordinarily, this would deter us but we are hungry and take the chance. We start with two house crafted cocktails, both of which are delicious but as usual, Art prefers my drink over his. His “Shuskin” cocktail is maple syrup based and mine is vodka with jalapeño and lime. We share a duck salad, potatoes with truffles and an artfully rolled sea bass entree.

Arka Restaurant, Saint Petersburg

Cocktails at Arka

Skewered Sea Bass entree

After dinner we wander along the main boulevard again, listening to the street musicians and enjoying the ambience of the night.  We stop in an Irish pub for a disappointing after dinner drink before returning to our hotel.

No surprise, a disappointing nightcap at an Irish bar in Saint Petersburg

After another hearty breakfast at the Tallinn, MyCity Hotel, we roll our suitcases several blocks to a waiting bus. After a tour of the outskirts of Tallinn we will take the ferry to Helsinki Finland. Our first Tallinn stop is the amphitheater, the site of the Songfest, a singing event that takes place once every 5 years. 200,000 people attended this past June from all over the country. It’s hard to imagine the sloping park and amphitheater accommodating such a crowd but Eszter tells us that singing in choruses is popular throughout Estonia and that the Songfest is a wonderful event that unites the country. 

Songfest Amphitheater, Tallinn

We continue onto the grounds of the Kuma Art Museum to admire both the modern exterior architecture of the museum and the surrounding park grounds.  After strolling downhill through the park we arrive at formal French Gardens with manicured box hedges and fountains that feel like a mini Versailles.

Palace and gardens in Kadriorg Park

Our bus drops us at the Tallinn ferry building and we obediently follow our group up the very long gang plank onto the ferry. The ferry swallows dozens of semi trucks and tankers for the crossing to Helsinki. Tallinn city disappears in the distance and we sit with Alan and Sharrod for the 2 ½ hour crossing.

View of Tallinn from the Helsinki Ferry

Helsinki Port Architecture

Sibelius Monument looking up

Composer Jean Sibelius Monument

The modern architecture in Helsinki is in striking contrast to the Tallinn skyline. Eszter and Mirjam usher us to a waiting bus and we have a stop at the Sibelius Monument, an abstract pipe organ monument in honor of the composer. I’m not impressed by the exterior view but looking up into the pipes makes for an interesting photograph. 

From there we drive to the Seurasaari Open Air Museum where we have close to two hours to explore the idyllic island with authentic Finnish farm houses, churches and homes. Rough hewn log structures have been moved to this island in an effort to recreate and capture the stark living conditions of the Finnish people 100-200 years ago. The isolated farms, harsh climate and minimalistic comforts look grueling to this California gal.

Doug, Art and Allen at the Seurasaari Open Air Folk Museum

Inside the church

Farm house kitchen

Seurasaari Church

Loom and Spinning wheel

Before going to our Helsinki hotel, we stop at the Rock Church in the heart of Helsinki, a marvelous intimate church hewn deep into a granite formation in the city center. Copper, wood and the rust colors of the granite make the church architecturally striking. I observe the signs forbidding climbing upon the rocks and feel for the children and young rock-climbers because the walls seem to invite scaling.

Helsinki’s Rock Church

Detail of Rock Church

Copper roof of Rock Church

Thursday, August 8, 2019  Helsinki – Dinner with Baja friends, Erica and Bruce

Who would have imagined that the highlight of this mornings’ walking tour would be the new public library.  The three story library is spacious and as much a gathering and makers space as a library. There are innovative reading areas, private glassed in conference rooms that are available free by reservation. The fall school semester started today so the gaming rooms are fairly empty but some young people sprawl on couches twitching gaming controls in glass fronted sound proof rooms. There are glass cubical kitchens for rent where friends can gather and cook a meal together and even bring along their own wine or beer.   3-D printers and color copiers are free to use and charge only a modest supply fee for paper or kink.  Students are curled in pod like chairs while others sit outside overlooking the city and soaking in the northern sun.

Skylights to the Art Museum

Looking up Library staircase

Library seating area

Pod reading capsules

Helsinki Library reading sundeck.

After visiting a few cathedrals our tour ends at the waterfront and we have the afternoon at large in Helsinki. 

Ornate gate, Lutheran Cathedral

Neoclassical Lutheran Cathedral

A daily craft and food market spills out along the waterfront plaza. After our usual indecision over where to eat, Art and I choose a food stall serving ample plates of salmon, potatoes and stir fry vegetables.  We share the 12 Euro plate of street food and Art returns to our hotel. I spend a delicious 30 minutes alone wandering the craft stalls and purchase a hand woven table runner directly from the artist and a couple of pewter gifts.

A weaver at the Helsinki craft market

There is much to do in Helsinki but we expect to meet Erica later in the afternoon and decide to go to the Design Museum close to our hotel. The museum is somewhat of a disappointment but there is an exhibit of Song and Olin about the value of reproduced crafts that hits a core with me. My take away is that instead of looking at the duplicated souvenirs for sale as worthless, to respect and consider the dedicated crafts persons making each piece and the initial design concept required to bring a souvenir  to market.  Art does not share my enthusiasm over the exhibit. 

Master craftspersons

Videos of craftspersons creative process

Globalization

Song’s and Olin’s journey

Furniture design – Stockman department store

Lighting design

Bar stool