Today our driver took us outside of St. Petersburg to Pushkin, also known as The Tsar’s Village or Tsarskoye Seloe. There we toured the small church that was favored by Nicholas II and the Catherine, or Summer Palace. Just a small country dacha (hah! Think Versailles). The area suffered major damage during the siege of Leningrad, and the rooms of the palace that have been restored thus far are works of art. This includes the famous Amber Room, which has been the subject of mystery. No one knows for sure what happened to the original amber panels after Hitler’s army removed them to Kaliningrad. Today’s room has been recreated from black and white photos and is amazing.
When we returned to the city, Dan and I split off from the group, had a lunch of burgers & fries, then set off walking to find the Church on the Spilled Blood. This is a wonderful onion-domed church built on the site where Alexander II was attacked and mortally wounded. It, too, suffered damage from both the Bolshevik Revolution (turned into a warehouse) and then WWII (used to store the bodies of the citizens who either starved or froze to death during the siege).
We leave early early in the morning for our return flights (up at 2, leave by 3, flights at 6). Some observations: St.Petersburg is a time capsule of history from Peter the Great through the end of the Tsarist period, then through wars and communism, into the modern society of today. The people we met tell us things are much better today than they were before the fall of Communism. They also do not hesitate to speak their minds. While the guides we’ve had know tons about the structures and history, the ordinary people we met while asking for directions to landmarks were surprisingly ignorant of them. A couple of them said they weren’t from the city, although they are working here now.
We also found a sense of accomplishment in being able to navigate in places where not only the language is different, but also the alphabet.
All good things must come to an end. While we have met many wonderful people in both countries we visited, it will be great to get home to our own beds and our cat. We have seen many things and made many friends.