June 3 St. Petersburg Day 6

Monday was an easy day, no more minibuses. 

In the morning I toured the Peter and Paul Fortress, only a ten minute walk from my room. It was the origin of the city of St. Petersburg and was built as a protection against the Swedes. I never realized how big the Swedish empire was at one time.

The high light of the visit, is the cathedral. It is the burial site of Peter The Great, and many other Tsars. In 1998 the remains of the last tsar, and his family, who were murdered by the Bolsheviks were entombed here in a special chapel.

The church is not huge, but the inside is beautifully decorated. They sure like their gold.

Most museums are closed on Monday, so the cathedral is very busy with tour groups. You can hear just about any language. I waited for a lull, and I had time to enjoy the architecture.

As I was leaving I saw six buses arrive at the same time, and a horde walking across the square.

I also visited the prison in the fortress. It is famous, because it housed many of the political prisoners dusting the late 1800's and early 1900's. It is ironic that in the 1800's it imprisoned the intellectuals and socialists who fought the Tsar; there were 8 assassination attempts on Alexander II. After the Russian revolution its prisoners were the government officials of the Tsar.

The prison is 2 minutes from the cathedral, but I only met fewer than ten people. It's not on the tour.

In the afternoon I did my subway tour. Some of the station are quite beautiful. I had researched what stations were well known for their art work. I covered a dozen, or so, getting off, taking pictures, and then getting back on the next train, to the next station. It worked very efficiently. I never had to wait more than 2 minutes for the next train.

I had tickets to the Philharmonic, last evening, and that was an interesting experience. I had no idea what the program was going to be, but, for 10 dollars, I was willing to take a chance. By the way, for those of you that make fun of my frugality, that was the top price. The hall is beautiful, lovely decor.

I knew this was not going to be a concert, when there was only a piano on stage, but I can handle piano recitals.

The program started with a lady coming on stage, and reading from a book, In Russian of course. After five minutes of that I was wondering whether this was going to be Russian poetry for a couple of hours. Next another lady came out and started to talk. She could had lectured on "Black holes, and why they are so black", or "the sex life of the Russian snow beetle". It would have made no difference to me. 

I started to plan my escape.

But, yes there is a God, a singer came on stage and sang an operatic aria. Beautiful voice and great acoustics. After her performance the lady spent another ten minutes talking, before the next song, by a different artist. That was the pattern for the evening. I used my stopwatch, and for one of the songs, she talked for over nine minutes, the song lasted six minutes.

Things did improve, and the singing was beautiful. There were eight different performers, all very good.

I only recognize two operatic songs, The Theme of Carmen, and Lakme's Flower Duet, and that piece was performed. Made the evening special.

There is another observation I have made over the last few days. There a good number of overweight people in Russia. They dress better than our Wallmart folks, but they are there, especially older women. But I have seen quite a few chunky young ones, again more women than men.

One more day in St. Petersburg

Ralf