Thu30Jun16: Peterhof

Today's tour destination is the imperial palace at Peterhof, reachable by train or by hydrofoil from a quay along the Neva River in St. Petersburg.  Since the walking distance from the Nevskiy Prospekt metro station to the Palace Embankment is about 1km, we elect to take the trolley bus for 30 rubles and yet another transportation experience.  Demand is high and tickets aren't available until the 11am sailing so we poke around Palace Square to appreciate some quiet time in this historical area.
After embarkation and departure, our boat stays 'keel down' during our ride along the lower Neva River, past the Coast Guard station, a dry dock, various fishing boats, a covered sports stadium, an uncompleted bridge, then speeds up onto its foils for the flight across a corner of the Gulf of Finland to reach the quay at Peterhof just before noon.

This 'summer residence' was built by Peter the Great to commemorate his victory over the Swedish navy at Poltava in 1709.  The palace buildings were re-decorated by Catherine the Great in the 1770s, partially burned and then rebuilt in the mid-19th century, then gutted by the bombardment of Nazi forces during 1941-1944. Our ticket allowed us into the lower grounds which were covered with tall trees, providing for a cool stroll in today's warm summer sun.




The Grand Cascade area is spectacular, especially since they had recently re-covered all the mythical figures in gold paint.

Scattered about the park were little garden areas surrounding other fountains:  the Pyramid Foundation (see attached), the Roman fountains, the Samson Fountain, and the Adam Fountain & the Eve Fountain. For lunch we experience what the local ParkFoods sidewalk fast food dispensary called a 'hot dog' and a 'hamburger' - since nobody has a copyright on the contents of these food items, tastes and sauces vary widely around the world; these two examples received a Pass grade.

Our return trip to St. Petersburg departed at 3pm and put us back into the city within the hour.  Another bus ride to the Metro, a Metro ride to Petrogradskaya station, and the usual 1km walk back to the Andersen Hotel.  This is the shortest tour day yet, and our feet appear to thank us for that consideration.  So it's time for a cool libation, watch a bit of Wimbledon on the TV, and do some laundry. At breakfast this morning we met three fellow cyclists, and this evening we join Scott & Yvonne for supper at the Andersen Hotel restaurant.  Approximately our ages, they have cycled all over the world together, including the Silk Road (7,000 km from Kashgar to Istanbul) and Lhasa - Khatmandu (28 days through several passes over 5,000m), so we have lots to talk about.

Wed29Jun16: Pulkovo Airport & The Hermitage

By 9am we were down in the lobby having showered, dressed, been fed & watered, totally ready for our taxi to Pulkovo Airport.  My bicycle-in-a-box and the equipment bag didn't make it on the flight from Brussels to St. Petersburg eleven (11) days ago, but the Lost & Found section has now confirmed that they now have both items at airport storage, although I have to go there and personally pick them up.
Budget Travel appears to have hired an Uber driver for this ride, but he speaks enough English to make the 40 minute drive interesting.  When we get to the airport, he gives us a 'burner' (untraceable cell phone) - because he can't remain or park in the Arrivals area - and shows us how to call him when we've got the bags and are ready to be picked up.  Customs & Immigration processes in Russia involve the normal bureaucratic hassle of paperwork and signatures, but after 40 minutes we have the two pieces of baggage and are ready.
Since we're back at the Andersen Hotel before noon, this is an opportunity to take the Metro downtown and spend the remainder of the day touring The Hermitage - the world's largest single collection of art and artifacts.

History notes that in the 18th century Catherine the Great was scouring the European flea markets for bargains in paintings, sculptures, and trinkets by all sorts of artists.  She then built an entire 3-storey building adjacent to her house - the Winter Palace - to display that art.

When the Bolsheviks took over the country in 1919, they simply confiscated all the art held by the nobility & wealthy middle-class across Russia and moved it into the rooms of the recently vacated Winter Palace.  So, now there's this monstrous sprawling complex of 300+ rooms with wall-to-wall treasures on display.   

Walk, walk, climb stairs, walk, walk, descend stairs, walk, walk, so by 7pm we're finally exhausted and 'burned out' from so much artistic beauty.









Back to the Nevskiy Propekt Metro station, pasta supper at Pizza Hut, and a final walk to the Andersen Hotel to rest our weary feet.

Wed29Jun16: ...the signs are a'changing...

One thing that neither Kathy or I did before coming to Russia was to study the Cyrillic alphabet.  So, when we first arrived in Russia, the signage at the airport and along the highway into St. Petersburg looked strange.  But also strangely familiar.   Just as the English language has been derived from German and the Romantic languages (viz. French, Spanish, Italian), the Russian language has freely 'borrowed' words and entire phrases - most of them from the English vernacular - and then written them phonetically in their own Cyrillic script.

Our first breakthrough came when we saw the Golden Arches and realised that the sign said "Mcdonalds",

just down the street was another familiar logo and a sign that must be "Burger King",

so that little confectionary store just down the street must be a "Mini-Market",

and the larger one in the next block is a "SuperMarket",

but the most common sign in any neighbourhood is a "Cafe",

although when we're shot on cash there's a "CyberBank" on nearly every corner with an ATM that just keeps spitting out 1,000 ruble notes,

and today our 'teksi' driver said that "Il Patio Restaurant" had very good Italian food and reasonably priced.

So, now I'm on a roll.  Everywhere I look I realise that any tourist can read the signs that may be important for them to find information.

 

If you're a driver, there's a "Stop" sign located under every traffic signal light,

if you're a pedestrian and in need to have a 'pit stop' there's the sign that announces the nearby  presence of a "Toilet".

So, now I'm actively looking at every printed sign I find to see whether I can translate it.

There are several commercial outlets near our neighbourhood Metro station, including this one that advertises a "CopyCentre" for your stationery needs,

and another called "MegaPhone" that deals in cell phones and electronics. 

On the menu page when we had supper at Pizza Hut was this little insert that offered prizes including a "Certificate",

and when we were standing at the railway station looking at the other trains there was this passenger car that announced it was part of the "Nevskiy Express".
Since we didn't bring any Russian phrase or language books from Canada, it's been just a matter of starting with signs that were partially understood, and then guesstimating what the other Cyrillic letters represent.  Eventually we'll learn the entire Cyrillic alphabet, but that will probably occur on the day we depart this fascinating country.   

Tue28Jun16: ...goodbye Moscow goodbye...

Up at 8am and we only have a few hours to wrap up our visit to Moscow before heading to St Petersburg.  After our traditional bliny & coffee breakfast at Tepemok, we walk down to the pedestrian mall on Ulitsa Nikolskaya and explore the last section of old Moscow city wall, repainted orange and complete with a fortified tower and gate.

Surprisingly, after a week of closures, the gate leading to Alexander Park and the Tomb to the Unknown Soldier is open, so we pay our respects to the fallen military.

 Although it's not yet 10am there's already a long line-up at Lenin's Mausoleum,so we walk past and check out the honour guard at Saviour's Gate.


As seems to happen every day, a group of military enter and cross Red Square to the delight of all the tourist photographers.

It's time to leave, so we pointedly say "Goodbye" to each and every facet of Red Square and head back to the hotel to finish packing our suitcases.  After a goodbye to Luba, and return the key, we're on our way to the Metro.  For two experienced travellers we should know how to follow signs in Cyrillic, but after passing Kitay Gorod station three times, and wasting 20 minutes of time, we finally get on the correct subway and are heading towards the Leningradskiy Railroad Station.

The Sapsen train pulls out at exactly 13h40 and soon we're into the suburbs of Moscow and heading west at 200kph.

Along the railroad there's not an acre of arable land in sight, so all these little farm houses and villages must be (a) summer homes for city folk, or (b) people make their living cutting down and processing pine trees.










Sapsen pulls into St. Petersburg just before 6pm and by 6:30pm we're having supper at the KFC at our neighbourhood Petrogradskaya Metro station.  Yes, that's right.  KFC!  There's no English menu, but with a signboard showing plenty of food pictures, our pointing and gesturing gets us the salad and chicken that we crave.
Then follows the usual 1km trundle of suitcases down the street to the Andersen Hotel and we're soon reunited with the hotel's Reception staff who confirm (a) my bike and bag are at Pulkovo Airport, and (b) we have confirmed rooom reservations for Saturday and Sunday night (or Katerina promises to find a room in her home village).  Shortly afterwards, four of the TDA Cycling staff arrive in two of the tour vehicles, they dump their bags in the lobby, so we go through the round of introductions:  one Turk, one Hungarian, and two Slovaks.  This promises to be a mult-national crew.
No Euro2016 tonight, so we head out to pick up some water before settling in to watch a bit of Wimbledon tennis before heading off to bed.

Mon27Jun16: All Russian Exhibition Centre, Metro tour, Kitay Gorod

Up at 8am, breakfast at Tepemok, down into the Metro and a long ride north on Line #6 to the All Russian Exhibition Centre (VVT).

Just outside the Metro station is a 100m stainless steel obelisk topped with a rocket, atop the Monument to the Conquerors of Space with a line of busts of five Russian cosmonauts and a miniature solar system.

 The VVT park has a triumphal entrance topped by a statue of a tractor driver and a female farmer holding a sheaf of corn, guarded by a statue of Lenin, with scores of pavilions of the old USSR republics lining the walkway.

Flower gardens, rows of trees, fountain areas, one large Fountain of the Republics with 15 gilded statues of maidens in national dress representing the former Soviet republics,

the second fountain constructed with precious stones from the Ural Mountains.


The Moscow Aquarium and an amusement park complete the attraction.








Back into the Metro system, and this time its a tour of a dozen stations of the Circle Line, each station with its own architectural design and appeal.





We emerged at Resurrection Gate, for another look at the Kremlin wall and Red Square, and mailed a batch of post cards.

Continuing our walk down past the GUM Department Store towards the Moscow River, and the line of churches and Old English Court - home of the English merchant traders of the 16th century - that lined the original north bank of the Moscow River.


Liberated some money at an ATM, then back to the hotel for a quick shower before supper.  Luba has decided to clean the room, and give us fresh linen & towels - after 6 days of usage, and the night before our departure.  Strange sense of timing.


A last meal of pasta & salad, before heading to the room for some Euro2016 football, and time to plan another short excursion to Red Square before tomorrow's return to St. Petersburg.

Sun26Jun16: ... Sunday we went to more churches...

For breakfast I tried an apple & caramel pliny (a.k.a. crepe roll), Kathy stuck to her 'tried and true' ham & cheese pliny; there's just no end to our daring spirit when it comes to clearing the cobwebs out of our addled brains in the early morning hours.
Down into the Metro and a subway ride out to Novodevichiy,

 a fortified religious institution near the Olympic Park and noteworthy as the burial site of very important Russian artists, military officers, writers, government officials, musicians, and not-so-revered politicians, etc.  Since the cemetery is closed for a funeral until 1pm we tour through the convent section, originally founded in 1524 but with subsequent construction of churches and buildings inside the walls.

This cemetery contains a collection of very large and ostentatious headstones, busts carved on a stone  column, embedded photographs, a bronze pet dog, etc.  Well known figures such as Nikita Kruschev,

and Boris Yeltsin (whose headstone is a large concrete Russian flag),

the musical composer Prokofiev who wrote "Peter and the Wolf",

Josef Stalin's second wife (and you don't want to know what happened to his first wife),

 and a large red heart at the gravesite of a famous Russian cardiologist.














 

Down into the Metro and return to Moscow centre for lunch at Mr. Pit (who serves pita sandwiches),

 and then a tour of the huge Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.






Looks like a good time to use the second day of our pass on the Hop-on Hop-off Bus, so we grab a ride that is going around Route #2 Green, also getting a farewell view of Gorkiy Park and taking the long way 'round to Red Square.


 Moscow temperature today is 30C, sunny, and the stones of Red Square are radiant and hot.  We take the interior tour of St. Basil's Cathedral, a collection of small chapels and rooms on two levels, but not nearly as striking as the multi-coloured exterior.

Now 5:15pm and time to walk back home, up the slight grade to Ulitsa Ulinka and Ulitsa Maroseyka, into the Old Moscow Mini-Hotel where we catch the last 15 minutes of the Euro2016 match between France and Ireland.  A shorter day but still enough distance for Kathy's feet to let her know they've had enough exercise.
Supper at the Deli, then home for more Euro2016 matches in the evening.
  

June must be the month for Weddings