From Russia with love Day 2

May 27th, 2014 Day 2....The Hermitage. 

It was a gray, overcast day in St. Petersburg. Our tour guide Olga picked us up at the boat for this long-awaited visit to one of the world's best-known landmarks. 

The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture. It's one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, it was founded in 1764 by Peter the Great's daughter Elizabeth as a winter palace. Catherine the Great filled the palace with art and it became a museum in 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display, comprise over three million items, including the largest collection of paintings in the world.

The roadies were breaking down the stage and stands from a concert the night before. 

 
Here Lynne and Louise are trying to decide if this palace is big enough.

 Olga and Lynne check out the front door. 

The grands staircase is certainly grand. It took 4 camera angles to get it all in.

The galleries are endless and in most cases the rooms are more beautiful than the art. There is art everywhere you look. It is really overwhelming. The Western European Art collection includes European paintings, sculpture from the 13th to the 20th centuries. It is displayed, in about 120 rooms, on the first and second floor of the four main buildings.

They often have special exhibits. Here Lynne and Louise check out the hottest royalty fashions from the 1700's. Do you think that dress is a little long on the back-end?

In the Hermitage, Catherine accomplished a huge achievement within the art world. She collected thousands of impressive pieces of artwork that were numerous in size and value. Her collection of at least 4,000 paintings came to rival the older and more prestigious museums of Western Europe. Catherine took great pride in her collection, and actively participated in extensive competitive art gathering and collecting that was prevalent in European royal court culture. Here you can see Olga looking at the back of her hand while trying to explain it all.

 It was a special weekend in St Peteresburg. They celebrated the city's birthday (and our visit of course) by lighting these old lighthouses. I got this shot from an open window of the Hermitage.

Here's the Peacock Clock, a large automaton featuring three life-sized mechanical birds. It was manufactured by the entrepreneur James Cox in the 2nd half of the 18th century and through the influence of Grigory Potemkin it was acquired by Catherine the Great in 1781. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI7IHGO-L8I to see it in action.

 Here's the Czar's throne. I wanted to try it out, but the security guards did not like that idea. 

Here's Lynne checking out the ornate ceiling while the statue picks his toes. This is actually a unfinished statue is by Michelangelo called Crouching Boy, and one of the many masterpieces represented in the museum.

Here's a view of the Hermitage from the river. This place is huge.

Next stop, the Faberge' Museum.

The Faberge' Museum is one of the newest museums in St. Petersburg. It holds a fabulous collection, including the largest collection of Faberge' eggs to be found anywhere in the world – even in Russia, only the Moscow Armory comes close to rivaling the St. Petersburg exhibition. The museum also holds a number of other items made by Faberge'.

  Of all Faberge's masterpieces, his Russian eggs are the most famous – and the Imperial Easter Eggs the best known and most fabulous of these. The Faberge' Museum in St. Petersburg houses nine of them, Lynne says she will be happy with any of them..... I'm feeling the pressure :)  BTW, the museum's Soviet-style "No Pictures Policy" was just the inspiration Bill needed to capture these images on his cell phone. Bad Boy !

The Imperial Easter Eggs, as their name suggests, were constructed on the personal orders of the last two Russian emperors - Alexander III and Nicholas II. They were created for significant historic and dynastic events within the Imperial family.

That evening, Lynne dropped into the Mariinski Theater, home of the famous Kirov Ballet. Oddly, Bill skipped the ballet and camped out at the Irish Pub across the street and worked on the blog. As you may know, a visa is required to move freely around Russia. Good thing we had one, I hate the tour bus.

Here's a look inside the Mariinsky.

For dinner, we checked out a local hot-spot across the street from the theater. And for all you foodies, here's a sampling of what we had for dinner. yum yum