Baltic Sea Cruise May 4-6, 2018 St. Petersburg Russia to Tallinn Estonia
Ready to muster for our Russia excursion.
We made it through passport control approximately 8:30 am for our bus ride to the Hermitage.
The happy smiling Swedish greeting of welcome was replaced by the efficient ex ray gaze of passport control agents as they matched our passport photos with a visual inspection of our faces and a visual scan of our intentions and DNA. Wow, that was intensive. Спасибо, товарищи!
We are given a form and told we must hand it back to passport control when our tour day ends. One does not want to return without your passport or form. I’m thinking Gulag. Code name Solzhenitsyn. No thank you. The 45 minute bus ride was very comfortable and we shared the ride with approximately 35 other art lovers. Multiple lectures on the skills of pickpockets and the Russian mafia.
Buildings on the bus route.
Here are a few of the buildings we passed on our ride to the Hermitage:
The Hermitage from inside one of the art collection areas. This is a view from across the palace square.
Inside: beautiful!
Let’s shuffle forward to look at some of the artworks by the masters. Two slideshows follow.
On permanent display until 2035.
Saint Isaacs Square
The tail is important.
We went to Saint Isaacs square to visit Saint Isaac’s church – the fourth largest Cathedral in the world and the largest Basilicas in the world. Note czar Nicholas the first atop his horse with the tail up. We will come back to this.
This church holds 10,000 people who worship respectfully close. During the 2nd WW LARGE STATUES were stored here but as the Germans fought forward they moved them to Siberia. The dome was used as a sighting to allow bombing of St Petersburg. The Germans never made it into the center of the city because of the resistance of the Russian army.
This is the palace built for one of Nicolas’ daughters. Remember the tail? The daughter refuse to live in the Palace because the horses...er...tail pointed at her palace. True story. Atop the palace two flags. One is the St. Petersburg city flag. The tricolored flag is the Russian flag. Baba said the white represents air, The blue water and the red beauty. Another version is generosity, loyalty and courage. There is no official explanation of the colors. Imagine me with a clip board conducting a survey. Will have to wait. Only know how to say Da and Nyet.
Known as state church of savior on spilled blood. Also known as the Cathedral of the resurrection of Christ. This is where Catherine the Great’s oldest son was murdered. We would have like to tour the churches however that is another tour. One of our fellow tourist showed us beautiful stained Glass photos from within some of the churches. Next time....maybe.
This is the battleship aurora that signaled the start of the revolution in 1917. Ship fired it’s guns on the city from here. A signal for the Bolsheviks to storm the winter palace.
This is the doorway they stormed at the Hermitage. You can almost feel the ghosts of history pushing their way past...
Famous hotel for the Russian people. This is where Hitler planned to hold a congratulatory reception after the conquest of St. Petersburg. They have copies of the invitations.
Russian proverb, the church is close but the road is too icy. The pub is far but I will walk very carefully.
Tallinn Estonia Sunday May 8 2018
Alexander Nevski Orthodox Cathedral
After a brisk climb we came upon the Alexander Nevski Orthodox Cathedral. After the revolution against Russia occurred in 1988 many people wanted the Church changed but historians prevailed and it remained. A bloodless revolution occurred when 300,000 thousands citizens gathered to protest against the rule of Russia by singing Estonian folk songs. It was called the singing revolution
Gathering in the town square Carol and I decide to make a break from the group.
Great pic of the old town city center.
Charles Dickens A Christmas Carole?
Out away from the tourist crowd the streets were practically deserted. We passed a church along the way filled to overflowing. It was, of course Sunday.
Where ever you go there is graffiti, right?
Safely back to the civilization of tourists.
I will take a picture of just about anything. See me on the left?
Meet my bodyguard. Many beautiful pictures of this medieval town however I don’t have enough space to show them all. Space the final frontier. Please see Baltic number three.