Woke up and had a leisurely breakfast with everyone. Fran and Charlie arrived later than everyone else. We headed off to catch a local bus to the Hermitage, which is the main museum and located inside the Imperial Winter Palace. The bus fare was 40 Roubles (about 80c) and we arrived quite a bit early for our meeting with our guide. The weather at least was not too cold and we met and talked with several other tourists while we waited for 10:45am to arrive. We had been told in our voucher to arrive 15 mins early. 10:45, no guide. 10:50, no guide. I started getting worried and tried to phone the tour company. No luck and a message from Telstra telling me that I had used $100 of data. Not happy! At 11:03 our guide appeared with no apology and just started talking as if nothing was wrong. After all, we couldn’t get in to the Hermitage until 11:15.
Liz was, however an excellent guide and her knowledge of the rooms, the history and the paintings and sculptures was amazing.
We began with the main staircase, festooned with a gigantic poster representing Lenin and the 100 year’s since the revolution. Our first point of call was the hall dedicated to the Romanovs. It started with Peter The Great, who apparently had agoraphobia and wanted a new Russia for his people. His first wife didn’t want this and thought of the Russians as a backward people so he had her sent off to a Monastery and had himself a mistress, which later became tsarina. There were several, um, interesting changes between family members with one apparently being crushed by his wife before he could hand over power to someone she didn’t want. Literally crushed him. Landed on top of him on the bed and she wasn’t petite. Catherine II (The Great) has her husband, Paul knocked off by the army and there were other assassinations before Nicholas II even arrived on the scene. One even built himself a castle when Europe stopped using theirs because he feared for his life. Unfortunately for him, the guards manning the castle didn’t want him either. He lasted 4 years and 4 months on the throne. Oh, those Russians!!!
One of the most impressive rooms was one set up for the victory over France in 1812. Not only did it have a Painting Of the Battle Of Borodino and the Retreat From Russia, but it also had a painting for each individual who was a hero from the campaign.
The museum is huge, with the majority of it spread over five buildings with only about 12% of their entire stack on display. We finished our tour looking at some Italian and Spanish artists and their stunning work.
Fran and Charlie had a walking tour which we had done previously so we bid them farewell and went in search of lunch and a coffee. A very interesting and fascinating day.