Travel Thursday - The Baltic Adventure Part 7

Day two in St. Petersburg was as lovely and overwhelming as day 1.

Our day started with a boat cruise. We had less than an hour of rain this morning, mostly while on the boat.

Saint Peter and Paul Church

The beautiful bridge, before I had to sit down to pass under it! 

The smallest statue in St. Petersburg

The Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood

An example of a crumbling building

Now on to the second stop of day 2 and the reason day 2 is going to be 2 posts - The Hermitage. This is the second largest art museum in the world (the Louvre is number one). It was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great. She needed a place to store her huge art collection. Originally it was the royal family's private museum but it opened to the public in 1852. 

When I was in Paris a decade ago, the Louvre was my favourite site and I spent over 16 hours in it, and didn't think I got enough. We only had a few hours in the Hermitage, and this was not nearly enough. I could have spent the entire two days and not have been done. I could have spent weeks there. The rooms the art is displayed in are as impressive as the art. If there is one thing the Tsars knew how to do, it was to create beautiful buildings. 

The following are a sample of what we saw.

The outside

My ticket

You will see a theme and my love of statues

A wall decoration

A staircase 

The throne room

Sample of a mosaic 

A second story garden Catherine the Great had built when it became difficult for her to  go up and down stairs

This is a clock

Famous Da Vinci  - The Madonna Litta- crowds to see it, but definitely not the most impressive piece

A tapestry 

Trying to capture the scale of the rooms

A hall and my favourite picture of the Man from the trip

Another attempt to showcase the room the art is displayed in

One of our guide's favourite pieces

The texture of the hair amazed me on this one

The Hermitage from across the square

On our walk back to the van, we had to wait for the last 2 runners of the St. Petersburg marathon. The street erupted into cheers as they ran by.

Next week we will finish the Russia leg of our dream trip.