The Winter Palace

With winter just around the corner in Russia the winter palace would have been the location the Tzar and royal family spent their time in St Petersburg. From what we have seen so far driving past, this a popular location for tourists and locals. The palace was built under instruction from Catherine II on the bank of the Neva river. In winter this river can freeze over, so visions of Russian's ice skating on the frozen surface immediately come to mind.

Alexander I Monument

We left the ship earlier today and once again had another bus tour of the city en route to our main destination, the Hermitage Museum.  In the square outside the museum is a memorial to Alexander I. Nothing in St Petersburg is built on a small scale.

The Hermitage Museum

Today we toured the Hermitage museum with our extremely knowlegeable guide Vlad. His spoken English is better than some Aussies and Brits. The Hermitage comprises of several different museums and has around 1200 rooms. It is attached to Catherine's winter palace, which now makes up part of the museum. We were lucky to get early entry as it gets very busy most days from 10.30 AM. It was commissioned by Catherine II in 1764 and now contains around 3 million items.

There are art pieces from all over the world including artworks by

The Giant Vase

Michaelangelo, Rembrandt and other world renowned artists. Some artefacts also include a large granite vase made in 3 solid pieces. It weighs 19 ton and took around 700 people and around 120 to 160 horses to move it to its current location.

There are also several vases and table with a malachite veneer, a range of armour and medieval weapons, and an Egyptian display complete with mumified priest and fish.  It also has the most unusual clock that is a display peice of a Peacock, owl, rooster and several other animals to display the time. There is a video of it working.

Peacock Clock

It is a consistently busy place so for anyone wanting to visit, I would recommend a full day and a map as it will be easy to get lost.

Soldiers and Horses in Armour

The Grand Staircase

Double Headed Eagle

After we finished our tour we went to the Hotel Moscow. This is an impressive building and also houses a supermarket and shopping mall.

After lunch we  went to the Yusupov Palace. This is the place Grigory Rasputin was assassinated. As with all palaces, the level of oppulance is far above anything we see today.  The Yusopov family were the second wealthiest family in St Petersburg at the time and owned around 150 palaces.

The Tzar's box at the theatre

The Princess' Bedroom

The Blue Room

The Red Room

The Green Room

After the museum we took a cruise on the canal and river to explore the sights. Unfortunately the rain caused problems for us to be able to take photos but I did manage 1 good picture of the naval cruiser Aurora, used by the Russian Navy in the fight with the Japanese in 1904.

Aurora.