June 1 St. Petersburg Day 4

Today was the day I was waiting for; my visit to the Hermitage. The Hermitage is the main reason I decided to come on this trip.

I was apprehensive, I had all these great expectations, and usually, the real thing doesn't live up to expectations.

It didn't start out too well. I had bought a two day pass, before I left home. It seemed like a good idea, because the line-up to buy tickets was long. I went to get my tickets, at a special booth, no line-up, but the lady wanted to see my passport, which was safe at my accommodation. She sent me to a supervisor, same story I needed ID. I didn't want to spend an hour going home, but I had my iPad with me, and I had taken a photo of my passport. I showed it to her, and it worked.

I also learned that I didn't have to use my pass on two consecutive days, but that I have a five day period, so I plan to come back on Tuesday, my last full day in St. Petersburg; a nice way to finish my visit.

The Hermitage is in what the Winter Palace of the Tsars was, and it is huge, comparable to the Louvre.

The most impressive aspect is the building itself. Gorgeous architecture and the decorations are lovely. It's Like a maze though. On the map each room is numbered, the problem is that not all the rooms have numbers. This is where tour groups come in handy. The highlights of the collection always have a group. What is nice is that if you want peace and quiet there are many rooms that are almost empty. I discovered a painting by a student of Hieronymos Bosch, one of my favourite artists, and detectives. It was in a room, no one in sight. I spent several minutes enjoying it.

The Hermitage also has a Caravaggio, I wanted to see. It was in a large room, one of about twenty paintings on a wall. It obviously wasn't on any tour group highlight, because there was nobody viewing it.

There are almost twenty Rembrandts, but most are not his best work.

The one painting that was, both a highlight, and very busy was a daVinci, Mother and Child. I had to wait several minutes for a tour group to finish, before I had a chance for a close up. It is magnificent.

If anyone is interested in the Hermitage I would like to recommend a film called "Russian Ark". It was made about ten years ago, and is the story of an actor wandering through the Hermitage, engaging in conversations with figures of Russin history. The amazing thing is that the director was given permission to film in the real building, but he had only one night to film it. So the movie was shot in one continuous shot, no retakes, no cuts. An amazing piece of organization, and filming. The Hamilton library has a copy, and I have a reserve on it, when I get home.

 I find that three hours of viewing art is my limit, after that my brain goes numb, and I get that glazed look in my eyes. I see a lot of that with tour groups. I wish that the museum would allow re-entries, but they don't, once you leave you can't go back, without buying a ticket.

That's the nice thing about having another day to see the collection again. Knowing where things are will make the second visit so much easier.