Hello!
Well we've had another jam packed but amazing day! I am so tired and my legs are still really sore. The good news is I'm losing the bit of bus+snacking weight I put on fast because we do so much exercise haha.
Started off by walking back to the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood. The forecast for today was rain all day :( When we left the apartment it was raining, but luckily for us apart from this one hour shower and a downpour for about another hour later in the day, the rest of the day was clear and sunny.
We bought our tickets and queued outside the church. Here's another example of how confusing and strange things are here. My guidebook and the sign on the office of the church say 'Opening hours: 10am-7pm". So we arrive at 10.10am....but the church is closed. It gets to 10.20am and some man with an oil can appears and starts fixing one of the turnstiles. Which would make sense if there was only one for us to enter through, but there were five. We had a conversation with two guys from Oxford about why on earth they would choose just before the church opens to fix this turnstile. The church is closed on wednesdays for maintenance and is closed from 7pm to 10am...why not fix it then? Or why not rope off the turnstile that isn't working and fix it later? Haha. Never mind. The man with the oil can worked his magic and we were let through the doors at 10.40. And it was worth the wait! As I had been told my some friends, the mosaics inside were absolutely incredible. The photos really don't do it justice. The entire interior was covered in colourful mosaics. I stood there for ages just staring. We spent about half an hour inside just looking in awe! There were mosaics on the outside of the church as well.
We walked through the Mikhailov (I think that's how you spelled it??) Gardens. Not quite sure of the purpose of these though, as the sign upon entry read "no pets, no ball games, no picnics, no walking on the grass". So we just walked through as that's all you're allowed to do evidently!!! Haha.
We crossed the bridge to the Peter and Paul Fortress and bought the combination ticket. We had another confusing experience as the sign made it appear like you gained admission to five places with this ticket, but it turned out to only be two. We walked around the grounds of the fortress. This was the first structure to be built in St Petersburg when Peter the Great decided to crate the new capital here. Building works started in 1703 and over the centuries it has served as a military base, prison and burial ground for the Russian Royal family.
We went into three parts of the fortress. Our first stop was inside the Peter and Paul church. Nothing was in English and I just wanted to find where Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra and their five children were buried. We walked around the whole church and were continually blocked off by huge tour groups. We also saw where Peter the Great was buried and enjoyed the beautiful interior of the church (I'm up to 15 churches now!). We eventually found them. In 1917, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated as the revolution was fast approaching and there were lots of strikes occurring. This wasn't enough though. He and his family were taken into exile but Lenin and the other revolutionaries still saw them as a threat as there was still some anti-revolution sentiment about and he was worried that if these groups got hold of the tsar and his family, they could use them to gain support. So on July 17, 1918 the family were taken into a small room, having been told they were being moved to a safer location. However they were then advised they were to be executed. The entire Romanov family (Nicholas, Alexandra, Tatiana, Olga, Anastacia, Maria and Alexei) were all shot, as well as the servants that had fled with them. On July 17, 1998 their remains were moved to this church on the 80th anniversary of their murders. The remains of Maria and Alexei were however never found. So we saw where they (except for Alexei and Maria) are now buried, and then enjoyed reading about different tsars and their history in a small exhibit.
Then we went to the Commandant's House which now serves as a history museum about St Petersburg. Hardly any English at the start, but improved throughout. We learned all about the history of St Petersburg from when Peter the Great decided to build a capital here right through to World War I. There were lots of pictures and items from different times. I've been meaning to mention as well, just about everything here has a guard. If we employed as many guards for things in Australia as they do here, I don't think we would have anyone in the country unemployed. There were literally 30 grumpy Russian women working at this tiny museum that had about 10 visitors inside it. Ridiculous !!!! There are guards for everything from parks to the courtyard in our apartment complex!
Finally at the fortress we went to the Trubetskoy Bastion Prison. Firstly this prison was used to imprison revolutionaries, but then once the revolution occurred it was then used by the revolutionaries to imprison and/or execute anyone they wanted to really. These included people associated with the Romanovs. There were signs outside certain cells that famous people had been incarcerated in. I got my photo in Leon Trotsky's cell as he was a big name revolutionary we learned about.
At this point we were all getting very tired! We had done a huge amount of walking and had nothing to eat. So we left the fortress and walked a fair distance more, crossing three bridges to get to where the winter palace is. The grey clouds started to disappear and the sun came out then!! We walked in front of the winter palace to a pie shop called Stolle which my 'Lonely Planet' guide suggested. The pies were incredible!! I had mushroom, mum had salmon and dad had cabbage. All were delicious. Dad and I then shared a beef pie, and as we are tired we decided to buy some pies for dinner to heat up in the room. We have apricot, apple and cranberry for later!!
Walked back to the hotel and had a long rest as we are so tired. But mum and I went shopping a little later. I didn't buy anything - be proud!! What we noticed even more so at the shops is that personal space does not exist here. I was looking at clothes racks and you have these pushy women pushing up against you and past you. Interesting how different cultures differ on such things! Makes me a little uncomfortable but what can you do. Our pies for dinner were yummy!! My favourite was still the mushroom though.
Peterhof tmro in the sunshine! Can't wait.
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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