DAY 12 & 13 - St. Petersburg

DAY 12 -

Peter & Paul Fortress

Today we headed off just after sun rise, about 10am (the sun rises later and sets earlier in St. Petersburg than Moscow) and took the St. Petersburg metro to see the Peter & Paul Fortress on its own little island know as Hare Island, founded by Peter the Great in 1703.



Cathedral inside Fortress

Inside cathedral

There were many buildings to see. We tried to buy a pass that allowed us into all of the various exhibitions and buildings, but I guess with translation or perhaps that's just how they run it here, we needed to buy separate tickets for a lot of them, so we ended up seeing just the things that the ticket allowed us to. The first building we saw was the Peter and Paul Cathedral which was magnificent.  They really know how to decorate their cathedrals here in Russia.  Beautiful paintings and gold

everywhere and chandeliers, again, very stunning indeed.  After taking in the view from the docking area (views of the Hermitage Museum and neighbouring buildings across the canal) we looked at the prison which was fairly grim as you would expect. During our wanderings the bells of the cathedral were being chimed every half hour resonating across the fortress.
 

Mikhailovsky Castle

We filled our tummies and walked across the lovely St. Petersburg bridge for Mikhailovsky Castle, the afternoon sun already starting to set. This castle isn't a big tourist attraction but we were pleasantly surprised by the old classical style paintings and items it held, not to mention, extravagantly decorated room after room.  Certainly a taste, I think, of what is to come at the Hermitage Museum tomorrow.

Our wonderful friends

DAY 13 -

This morning there was a light covering of snow on the ground, very fitting for visiting the Hermitage Museum today (one of the world's largest and best museums set inside the Winter Palace - the residence of the Tsarist Romanov family until their assassinations). Upon entering the palace square, a beautifully decorated Christmas tree stood before the vast green and white palace.  This palace is amazing from the outside and massive.  We got there in good time so we didn't have to wait too long in the queue to get inside.  The palace was extravagant in every way possible - marble, gold, silver, bronze, crystal chandeliers, decorative flooring,

grand staircases. Apparently there is a diamond room, but there are so many rooms, you can't possibly see them all in one day.  Each room filled with paintings or artefacts from all of the world and different periods of time. It has been calculated that if you looked at every painting or artifact for one minute each, it would take you 11 years to get through this museum (Mark read it would take 5 years - I don't know which one is closer to the truth but either way, it's a very long time).


Another beautiful hallway

Armour & weapons room

 We spent most of the day here and easily could have spent more time but we were all a bit tired and on our way back to the hotel, stopped for a Russian hot chocolate treat.

Massive marble (bowl?)

DAY 10 & 11 - Tchaikovsky Museum/St. Petersburg

DAY 10 -
  




Tchaikovsky portrait

Mark & I didn't want to waste today even though we were tired so both of us set out together to see the Tchaikovsky Museum by metro, the kids staying with Sarah & family as they had a late night too.  It was a little wet and cold today so we walked briskly to find the museum, passing the Moscow University (another magnificent Stalin Sister building). The museum is set up in an apartment type building where Tchaikovsky apparently once lived when visiting Moscow.  For those who aren't so musically minded, Tchaikovsky is most famous for composing music to the three ballets, "The Nutcracker", "Swan Lake" and "Sleeping Beauty" and also many other orchestral works including "1812 Overture"; six symphonies, many piano & instrumental works. He is one of the composers I studied for my certificate, so I was eager to visit this museum.

Tchaikovsky's grand piano

Once we got through the language barrier, we entered the museum which was very interesting and quite detailed, more than I thought it would be. We ended up spending a couple of hours there, then finding a place to eat a late lunch and hopping back on the metro as it was getting dark early. We also needed to pack for our four day trip to St. Petersburg the next morning, an apt place to visit after the Tchaikovsky museum as he spent a lot of time between the two cities.

DAY 11 -

Fast train when we arrived at
St. Petersburg

We all got up and ready in good time to catch the fast train to St. Petersburg, but at 6.30am we waited for our rides (two cars Anth had booked) to take us to the station.  Both cars ran a bit late which we then had to run to get onto the fast train.  So here we were hurrying down the platform in the freezing cold whilst it was trying to snow, stopping occasionally to ask the stationhands which carriage to get on. When we got to the last carriage (this was a long train) the guard had told us we need to catch the other train on the other side of the platform, so again we run down almost the full length of this train and just making it with a minute to spare. Phew!

Feeling relieved, we sat down and enjoyed the comforts of the train.  The ride was so smooth and needless to say, very fast topping a speed of 216km at one stage.  It  was lovely watching the sunrise over the scenery and a slight covering of snow could be seen for most of the trip.  Most of all, I loved seeing the little Russian houses in the villages we passed.  At 11.30am we arrive at St. Petersburg, -4 degrees with a wind chill of -10 degrees).  After checking in at our hotel and putting extra layers on, we walked to find a place to eat at a Georgian restaurant (and to thaw out).

Walking again, we headed for the Church of our Saviour on Spilled Blood cathedral (Emperor Alexander II was assassinated here in 1881). This was the most amazing place with its many domes (like St. Basil's but much bigger and more elaborate). Instead of being painted throughout inside, they were all mosaics - tiny coloured glass tiles making up all the pictures, every wall, arch, dome too I imagine (bit too high to tell) - absolutely STUNNING! We were allowed to take photos too - bonus! 

Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood

We crossed the road after exiting and walked down a couple of streets to the Marble Museum, another decorative building with modern art.  By the time we finished, it was dark (the sun rises later and sets earlier here than in Moscow). So we head back through the pretty lit streets, stop for dinner and back to our hotel rooms.


All mosaics inside Cathedral



CHRISTMAS EVE/CHRISTMAS DAY

DAY 8 -
It' Christmas Eve, so today was a day to finish Christmas shopping and make preparations for tomorrow. For those who won't eat Christmas pudding, I made my sticky date cheesecake with caramel sauce for an alternative.  It will be interesting to see how it tastes as food items aren't quite the same in Russia ie. cream cheese, biscuits for base, sugar, butter. The sauce I will make on the day which uses brown sugar, again being a little different.  Mark also made his borsch soup (Russian beetroot soup) for a Christmas Day entrée, it smells delish.

All ready for Christmas.

Anth and Mark took care of purchasing (a lot of) fireworks, of course you can buy them here (from the shopping mall). Hmmm, most of these will be kept for New Year's Eve but maybe a couple will be used for Christmas, only if it snows. All of the snow has melted in the last few days because of warmer temperatures (it reached 7 degrees) and rain. So it doesn't look like a white Christmas as such, but the forecast predicts snow for Boxing Day. 

My experience of shopping here on Christmas Eve in Russia was probably the most relaxed ever, we headed for the shopping mall at about 3pm.  It was very quiet as Russia celebrate their Christmas on January 7 so it was really nice to get the last minute things in a cruisy and relaxed environment then sitting and having a mocha while Ana shopped in one of the clothing stores. Have I mentioned the security guards that man nearly every shop? And also the entrance doors? I do feel safe here as there are security guards everywhere.

DAY 9 - CHRISTMAS DAY
After having a little bit of a sleep in, I looked out the window hoping that the weather forecast would be wrong and that there would be snow. However, it wasn't to be a white Christmas.  We started off the morning by excited kids & adults opening presents followed by champagne & croissants for a late breakfast - yum.

It was a very relaxed morning and looking at the weather forecast again, it predicted snow at 10pm tonight. So Mark and Anth were talking excitedly again over letting off some fireworks if it did snow.

Christmas Day entrée

We started off our Christmas dinner with an entrée - Mark's borsch soup which was very tasty. After dishes were cleared away and cleaned we sat again to eat Sarah's roast chickens and vegetables - she really does the best roast chicken. Feeling quite full, we sat down and watched "Love Actually" - it has become tradition of Sarah's to watch this movie every Christmas. We had dessert once it finished, the cheesecake I made was very nice, less rich and sweet than at home.

Neighbours Sheri, Russ and their three kids came in for Christmas celebrations.  It was decided to let off the fireworks although snow had not started falling. So there we were standing in -6 degrees watching fireworks. Once finished (and the happy gate guard had come to tell us he had received complaints) we went back inside to thaw out. Not long after, snow began to fall. So at about 10.45pm we had a white Christmas after all. Celebrations went into early Boxing Day morning playing a game similar to Pictionary but on Sarah & Anth's glass pantry doors which you can write on.  A lot of fun and laughs were had (and some sore heads, namely Anth).

Christmas Day snow.

Happy it snowed!

DAY 7 - Kremlin

DAY 7 -

Last night Mark and I decided if he was feeling okay today we would head into Red Square again with the kids to give Sarah some peace and let her rest.  We knew which station to get off, so it would really be quite easy for us to manage.
 
So after waking up this morning and Mark giving the okay, he took his medication and we made sure Toby's sores were covered up and headed off on our own.  Today we set off to visit inside the big red walls of the Kremlin - the official residence of the President.  Mark did a fabulous job communicating to the metro ticket seller to get ourselves a metro card of our own, then we were on our way.



Entry to Kremlin

As it was an overcast day, pretty lights were still on everywhere.  We wandered down Alexander's Gardens to the ticket booth, through the necessary security measures and entered (30 minutes later).  Wow! There are 3 palaces and 20 towers which are not open to the public, apart from walking through the entry tower.  There are also 5 amazing cathedrals and bell tower all in the one area known as Cathedral Square which were open to the public.  As we headed to the square we passed the large Tsar Cannon (weighing 40 tonnes) with cannon balls that looked like they would plonk out of the cannon and on to the ground no matter how much power was behind them.

I took many, many, many photos of these cathedrals and at different angles but unfortunately we were not allowed to take photographs inside these beautiful, elaborate, old buildings. Again, ceilings, walls, domes were all painted inside and the doors were very decorative.  The

Annunciation Cathedral

Annunciation Cathedral was the private church of the Russian grand Princes and Tsars.  The Archangel Cathedral is the burial church of many Princes and the first Tsars of Russia - the tombs gave this cathedral a very somber feel but was still amazing at the same time.  The Belfry attached to the bell tower has been made into a museum, but the public were unable to climb the many steps to the bell tower today, apparently the views are spectacular.


Archangel's Cathedral

Assumption Cathedral

Bell Tower & Belfry

We past the Tsar Bell (weighing 200 tonnes - is this the biggest bell ever?) and wandered the Secret Gardens, admiring the views.  Making our way back we noticed a number of very official looking cars with blocked out windows arriving and extra guards arriving too. We pondered over what important meeting was to be held with President Putin today but not for too long as we felt a bit intimidated by all the security, not to mention, cold and hungry by this stage.  Poor Mark needed a rest too, trying not to cough his lungs up.

After lunch and refreshments we walked again past the cute Christmas market stalls down another lane so that I could take some photos of the Bolshoi Theatre, it too has been decked out with Christmas lights. We have put on our "to-do" list to come back to Moscow at night time to see the lights at their best.

Bolshoi Theatre

DAY 5 & 6 - Cat Cafe/Old Arbat Street

DAY 5

Beautiful Metro Station

 Sarah, being a cat lover like me, was eager to take us to the Cat Café in Moscow. So ten of us set off (us, Sarah, Dan & Mitchell together with neighbor Sheri and her twin 17yo boys) on the metro, this time with a change over of metro lines which meant stopping at one of the more extravagant stations to get to our destination.  We then walked to the Cat Café which, much to our disappointment, looked like it had closed.  However, with today's technology and clever phone app, we were able to decipher that the café had moved, so off we went.

Kids with forest cat

The kids were delighted to spend time with the nine or ten cats of all different colours and types.  The Cat Café takes in sick/wounded street cats or abandoned cats and nurses them back to health.  There was one cat in particular that looked like he had been picked up out of the forest, so tall with extraordinarily long ears and a long bushy tail (like Cousy's tail but much longer).



Interesting building along the way

After our papoose fix (Sarah's word for cat), we headed to Old Arbat Street in Moscow.  It's a one kilometre pedestrian street full of bars, shops, museums and restaurants along the historical centre of Moscow.  There were lovely old buildings everywhere. The girls and Mark tried some more Russian cuisine for lunch whereas the young boys preferred to eat burgers at Shake Shack a few shops down.  

One of the Stalin Sisters
in the background

Afterwards, we continued our walk down Arbat Street (walk off our lunch) and came across one of themagnificent Stalin Sister buildings, although only built between 1947 to 1953, the architectural design is very grand indeed.  There are seven of these buildings across Moscow.

Arbat Street

DAY 6

Unfortunately, there is not much to report for today as both Mark and Sarah have come down with a cold/chest thingy.  Sarah headed off to the doctor for herself and about $240AUD later (very expensive), was diagnosed with a chest infection - poor Sarah. She was given some antibiotics of which we then headed to the pharmacy and got some for Mark so he could get on top of his sickness quickly - yes over the counter.  We had to get some more cream for Toby's sores he has on his body (its either a very, very mild case of chicken pox or "school sores" either of which we need to be careful about). He is however, feeling very well so we are thinking the latter.

So apart from the trip to the pharmacy (which is interesting trying to translate what you want, again technology to the rescue), it was a restful day spent at home.

Amazing leadlight in one of the stations

Day 3 & 4

DAY 3 -

"No swimming" !?!
You can just see some ice fisherman

After reading the weather forecast, we took the opportunity to go for a five km walk through the forest whilst there was still snow. So we headed off about 9am just after sunrise, is was about -1 degrees when we started.  It was so beautiful, I don't think I could ever get tired of seeing snow settled on trees. We trudged through fresh snow that fell overnight and dodged some skiers making the most of the snow too.  It didn't at all feel that cold in the forest and we could tell it was warming up as snow started to melt and fall off the trees.



REAL Christmas trees!!!

Today was spent a little more quietly to catch up on washing and relax a little but Sarah did take Mark, Ana and I to some indoor markets to buy ingredients for party with Sarah & Anthony's next door neighbours.  Again, it was interesting seeing all the Russian packaging for foods and then seeing familiar items amongst them (Snickers, Mars bars, Lindt, Pringles - even crab flavoured ones).  It was very busy and no one blinks an eye if you happen to bump them or they bump you, or people reach across you if they want something without saying a word.  It could easily be perceived as being rude but that's the Russian way and they actually are quite helpful.  One guy came along and translated for Sarah and I as we were trying to buy antibiotic cream (yes, you can buy it over the counter) at the pharmacy.

We finished the night with the "silly Christmas t-shirt/costume" party next door.  Sarah kindly found some silly t-shirts for us all to wear so we didn't feel left out.  She is such a wonderful friend.

DAY 4 -

We raced off on the metro again this morning to Izmailovo. The underground train service here is brilliant. Trains run every two minutes both ways, are fast and clean. No one eats or drinks on the train therefore keeping it that way.  The stations are so clean too.  No graffiti that I have seen, no vending machines selling food or drinks, therefore no bins are required.  Oh, and it is so cheap per person to use the metro service.




Kremlin of Ismailovo

Sarah told us there were markets at Izmailovo but what we saw when we arrived astounded us all.  The markets were set up next to the Kremlin of Izmailovo (kremlin means fortress within a city). We had a look through the Kremlin and were amazed at the colourful buildings inside. Every building was different to the next whether it be shape, size, building materials, colour - fabulous.



Inside Kremlin

More interesting architecture






 











 
 We ventured on to the markets full of stall after stall selling matryoshka dolls, fur hats, scarves and coats, hand painted wooden ornaments, decorated Faberge eggs, beautiful Uzbeki style hand painted plates/bowls, Russian badges, delicious shashliks (kebabs) for lunch.  I have never been a big "market" person but really enjoyed the experience here.


The day was spent here and we headed for home tired but happy with backpacks full and carrying bags with us.  

The market stalls are held under the brown roofs above.

DAY 2 -

I woke up feeling more normal today after a big sleep. I look out the window and find snow is drifting down as the sun was rising (it was about 9am). We went outside and I was so excited to see that snowflakes are actually shaped that way (of course they must be, but I had to check and when you think about it, they really are a very delicate, intricate part of nature that is rather amazing).

 

Today was going to be exciting as Sarah had planned to take us by train to Red Square. The underground train (the metro) caught me by surprise at how it races through the tunnels.  It was a little scary at first, the noise and the speed, but got used to it after a while.

 

State History Museum

As we headed to Red Square, it was all decked out with cute little market style shops decorated for Christmas. We entered Red Square and was greeted by the State History Museum, the Kremlin, Gum (pronounced Goom) and an ice-skating rink set up for Christmas but most of all, St. Basil's Cathedral WITH SNOW. I could take a hundred photos of it (probably came close).  It was amazingly decorated inside with walls and ceilings (even the domes) all painted with some of the doors and walls being very ornate in their design.  We reached the second level and I was so fortunate to have caught the end of three male singers singing acapella in the vestibule. I believe I recognised it as one of Rachmaninoff's Vespers (a choral work by my favourite Russian composer). I can't explain how beautiful the voices sounded resonating through St. Basil's, but I was overwhelmed with awe and brought tears to my eyes. I will never forget this moment and now when I think of St. Basil's, it will always have a place in my heart. The whole experience was a very "pinch me" moment.

 



We headed to a little café inside Gum (goom) building and warmed up with the most velvety Russian hot chocolate, followed by mandarins which is the traditional Christmas fruit of Russia.  They had bowls of mandarins on each table which were free to eat.  They even decorate their Christmas trees with them. We explored Gum a little more, its like a shopping mall with lots of little shops (think of Royal Arcade in Melbourne but on a much large scale). Sarah took us to a place to eat a smorgasbord type lunch with traditional Russian food.  There were some very interesting foods there, I was not feeling all that adventurous in trying something new so stuck to a safe option - chicken kiev.

 

After warming up we braved the -2 degrees outside  again and ventured out to view St. Basil's from the bridge (the other side and yes, I took more photos).

 

The day was finished by the boys heading off to watch Star Wars and the girls having dinner at a local pub near Sarah and Anthony's residence.  I wasn't too hungry and went for Borscht, Russia's traditional beetroot soup, a delicious way to end the day.

 

Beautiful St. Basil's

 



 

DAY 1 -

As the plane came into landing at Moscow, the sun was rising (about 8.45am) and we could see snow everywhere, the land seems quite flat.  It was interesting to see snow ploughs and trucks filled with snow driving around the airport. We had no problems getting through passport control and customs (yay) and were relieved to be greeted by Anthony.
 
It was -5 degrees outside but it was so refreshing after being on a plane and in airports for 24 hours.  We had another 2 & 1/2 hour drive to our destination (I won't complain about Melbourne's traffic again) but I didn't mind that much as it was beautiful to see snow on the trees, lovely buildings/churches here and there (and not so lovely).  Driving on the other side of the road is something to get used to and felt strange.  Ana and I couldn't help but notice a lot of ambulances and police cars going past (should I be worried?)

Finally, we arrived at our destination and the happy face of Sarah and warmth of the house greeted us.  After settling in a bit and having a shower, coffee and lunch, we were so excited to see snow that we rugged up and went outside to play in it and build a snowman.

Later that day, Sarah drove us to a nearby forest and lake which was frozen.  It was fascinating to see an ice fisherman fishing.  I wasn't brave enough to walk on the frozen lake despite the fisherman, but Mark and Toby did walk on it a little (and be silly), just to freak me out I think.  Afterwards, we stopped by the local village supermarket where Mark and I tried to guess what the Russian packaging said and work out the Russian ruble pricing compared to our dollar.


We finished the day with a lovely home cooked meal, wine and an early night.
 


Frozen lake