Candy and Craig's NEWS

We went back to the Hermitage for a second day. We didn’t even make it to the third floor where all the European art was. Tyler took it on himself to take the Hermitage map that had all the rooms numbered and make sure we went in all of them, including the ones that he had been in on Thursday. It does not appear that people here are “morning people”. The Hermitage does not open until 10:30 and there were hardly any people the first hour. It was interesting being in a gallery with two da Vinci’s in it and no one else around. Of course, that does not count the staff member sitting in the room. They are all the same – older, broader and apparently bored out of their minds. I would smile and say hello or thankyou often and seldom get any reaction at all. Then again, sitting there day after day, year after year, probably takes some of the excitement out of it.

In addition to the da Vinci’s, we saw art from virtually all the artists I ever heard about in Humanities courses (and never paid much attention to). I mentioned before, that it was not just one piece from an artist, but rooms of art from each. The gallery with the Rubens was huge. I would guess that it represented his output over a period of several years. I don’t know how long it took to paint one of these giant canvases, but a quick search indicated that the painting Bacchus was done between 1638 and 1640. The same search indicated that the Hermitage collection includes 39 Rubens. Besides Rubens, there were rooms of Monets, Gauguins, van Goghs and Picassos, to name a few. I have posted pictures of Tyler with some of his new “friends”.

We even saw a bunch of Tintoretto’s. I will confess to knowing little about art, but I remembered somewhere that in a movie there was a line to the effect “a regular Tintoretto”. A google and sure enough it was a line in Cat Ballou in reference to the ceiling painting in Sir Harry Percival’s train car. A little more reading, however, pointed out that the painting in the car was NOT a Tintoretto; rather, it was a Titian. Not to fear, because we saw a bunch of Titian’s also. If you are like me, you will probably remember more about the line from Cat Ballou than the artists.

We left the Hermitage about 1:00 PM and walked to the Peter and Paul Fortress. This took about 45 minutes and included crossing the Neva River and two other canals. Just across the Neva, we stopped at the Strelka which is a park with two large commemorative columns referencing some key battles. It turns out to be an area where brides come for wedding photos. You will see my contribution in our posted pictures. One of the things that we have noticed (and it would be hard not to notice) is the number of women who are dressed to the absolute nines. It has been true for any day and for any time of day. Most would not be allowed in to a stake dance. Just outside the walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress are a couple of beaches on the Neva River. Maybe there is a shortage of cloth in Russia. There seemed to be a negative correlation on the beaches with the amount of material used and the amount of material that should have been used.

I am beginning to get the impression that gold is a favorite color and medium. The Peter and Paul Cathedral made a fair bit of use of it. Interestingly, they are refurbishing part of the alter and other items. While it obscured some things, it was interesting to see the process of restoration. In this cathedral are the tombs of many of the emperors.

From the Fortress, it was back across the Neva River via and different bridge and sort of headed back to our hotel. However, just to the left as we got off the bridge were the summer gardens so, of course, we had to walk through. Some beautiful fountains and more brides being photographed, but little in the way of flowers. Mostly, green areas, trellises and walk ways. As we came out of the garden, we were close again (which was part of the plan) to the Church of the Spilled Blood. We had not been able to go into it previously, and corrected that. It is now a museum. Most of the churches after the revolution were converted to museums of atheism. This one is interesting in that nearly the entire interior is done with mosaics. They are incredible. By the time we were done with this, we were totally worn out. A Subway sandwich shop was near us and we grabbed sandwiches and drug ourselves back to our hotel room.

The opening ceremonies for the Olympics were going to start at midnight. Let’s just say we didn’t stay up for them, but thought perhaps we would wake up and watch them. We did just that. We woke up the next morning and the German TV station we have was replaying the opening ceremonies so we watched from about 9:00 AM to 11:30. When the parade of nation’s athletes began, we went down for breakfast and got back just as the United States was coming in. We watched the rest and then headed out. Details in the next post.