This morning Den is feeling much better – ‘Ze Rushian
Medikatshion has vurked it magick dah’. Yes it had.
So brekkie then onto the buses and off back on the usual road
to St Petersburg but this morning the sun was shining, The city took on a better look and I thought
maybe it just might be getting closer to being in my 10 top cities – definitely
not in the ten but at least closer.
So our choice for the day was a visit to the Yusupov Palace
(mansion). The Russians call any big
expensive mansion a palace. There was a
row of houses similar in looks to the grand terrace houses in England but of
course instead of being man houses was just a few Palaces.
The Palace we visited had been owned by the Yusupov family –
they were richer than the emperor of the time, they had another 3 palaces in
St. P. and another 3 in Moscow but the one we visited was the one that the
family had as their main home. It is
also the house where Rasputin was murdered.
We were taken down into the basement where Felix Yusupov had a bachelor
pad. This was where he and four others
poisoned and shot Rasputin. Thinking he
was dead they then took his body to throw into the river but the river was
partly frozen and the body didn’t sink.
It is thought that Rasputin actually drowned. His murderers were caught and a mock trial
held. Their sentence was being sent
somewhere out of Russia (where I can’t remember but it was like them being sent
to a holiday resort). This ‘punishment’
saved their lives as the Revolution happened soon after and they would have
been killed.
The rest of the house was quite beautiful. The Yusupov family were originally from Iran. Their wealth came from gold and other mines
they owned. The rooms had different
themes – one being dedicated to their Iranian background. They had their own theatre, complete with a
Royal Box. It was fabulous. We had to
pay to take photos but only the equivalent of about $4.
Then off to lunch at a restaurant called The Restaurant. It was a lovely meal and I shared a beer with
Sandy while the guys had a red wine.
We were then off to the
Hermitage Museum. We were lucky to be in
a group and could walk straight in. The
queues were long with people waiting 2 hours or more. The Hermitage was built by Catherine the
Great to house her collections. She accumulated
so many pieces of art that eventually 6 houses have all been joined together and
act as one museum. There is a Rembrandt
room. Two paintings by Leonardo Da Vinci,
a Michelangelo sculpture, many paintings by Titian. Rooms dedicated to Italian artists, French
Artists and so on. A room full of
Egyptian treasures. It is said that if
you stood and looked at each piece in the collection for just one second you
would be there for 9 years. The rooms
themselves are quite beautiful. Some
very over the top with no expense spared.
No wonder there was a revolution.
It was a wonderful experience to go to the Hermitage but
people from 4 cruise ships, half the population of St. P and ‘us’ all were
sharing the same experience so it was exhausting just moving around. There were still huge queues waiting to go in
at 4pm when we left and the museum closes at 7pm.
The Captain’s Welcome dinner was the next event on board. So a quick rest, shower etc. and off to
dinner. There are 84 passengers, a total
of 80 staff and crew. They are all
Russian. Everyone is very warm,
welcoming and genuinely trying to help in any way they can to make our trip fantastic.
After dinner the four of us went up to the Neva Lounge- top
deck – and watched the sun starting to go down – 9.30pm and we had to sit so
the sun didn’t shine into our eyes, by 10pm the clouds were getting a few pink
tinges and when we said goodnight the sky was still bright blue daylight – it was
after all only 10.30pm. Den and I
decided to go and have dance before bed.
It was another very full but fabulous day.
