R2RRussia has had some “great” (?) rulers for the last 3-400 years or so, and it would seem that our romp through St. Petersburg (Pietr) gave us a chance to get up close and personal with a few! To get you into the right mood to read this post, I strongly suggest digging out your Boney M greatest hits 8 track, tape, CD, or record and enjoy a little “Rasputin.” For anyone who doesn’t own this music (heaven forbid…it’s a classic) here is a link to the song I am referrring to.
Peter the Great won the war against Sweden and gained the swamp that would eventually become St. Petersburg. He built a fancy summer palace, and a lovely cabin in the woods – Peterhoff. He was great (I wonder what it takes to get that title…) Matt and I are thinking of building a cabin like this in the Sundre area. If anyone knows where to source some gold leafed Roman God Statues please let us know.
Catherine the great was an interesting woman. She was a German Princess who married into the Russian Royal Family, and did what any power hungry woman would do: had her husband offed so she could become Queen. She was responsible for stocking the Hermitage with works of art from around the world including Rembrandt’s, Davinci’s, and Egyptian mummies. Perhaps she is “great” because of this art collection? We “did” the Hermitage in one day and Matt did his best to ensure I was as cultured as possible…I have decided that Picaso was somewhat unbalanced and I don’t understand what all the fuss is about Rembrant.
Nicholas II was the last Russian Tzar. When the Bolshiviks rose up against the monarchy he was imprisioned and eventually he and his family were murdered (along with their wine steward, driver and cook….everyone needs fine people like this around while you are exhiled). We went to the Cathedral of Peter and Paul (no Mary) and saw all the tombs of the dead tzars including Nicholas II, his family, and staff. Everything I read says that Anastasia did die with her family, but I am still not sure.
The sites mentioned above were lovely, and we would both like to go back to see some of the things we missed (like the all night clubbing from 11:00pm -7:00am), but it is generally the people we find the most interesting, and Pietr didn’t disapoint! Russians are not known as being an overly expressive culture, but we discovered they do like to pose, and there is often a very serious facial expression, and/or a lot of effort put into body positioning. Below are a few of our favourites. If Russia is on your bucket list put it higher and make the effort to go – we know we will be back!
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