Today's main mission was to get into and enjoy the truly massive collection of Russia's premier art gallery - the Hermitage museum, the main building of which is the Winter Palace. This blue and white baroque extravaganza was one of the focuses of the Russian revolution and the battleship that fired the opening salvo is now preserved on the other side of the river. Words that could not be used to describe the facade of the Winter Palace are "understated" and "modest", that is until one compares it to the inside of the Winter Palace. The decoration is perfect, the proportions exact and the building exquisite; if your favourite colour is gold, your ideal size massive and your preferred building material marble. So much gold leaf, paint and plating would test the mettle of even the most fancy schmancy church or palace (and there are plenty of those around here).
Even the decoration though, pales in comparison to the truly staggering collection of art that is housed here thanks to the former occupants having moved on (and been brutally murdered) due to a small historical event. Even being the art philistines that we are we were wowed by rooms full of Matisse, Monet, Cezanne, Picasso, Rodin and Van Gogh, amongst other masters that we'd heard of, let alone the hundreds or thousands that we hadn't. It comes to something (but cements your position as an art philistine) when you're surrounded by the GDP of a small county in paintings and all you can say is "oh, its another Picasso". It would certainly be possible, fascinating and probably enjoyable for many people to spend days here, which as a student one can do for nothing - the only ticket that cost us any money was my camera's (~£5).
After enjoying a lunch not surrounded by priceless treasures we headed out to see more shiny, shiny gold buildings at Peter and Paul's Fortress, across the river from the Winter Palace. The shiniest and most gilded of these buildings is the Cathedral of Peter and Paul, which is the final resting place of a large number of Romanov Tsars and their families, including the city's founder Peter the Great. Now fancy schmancy gold is all well and good, but if your Russian's a bit dodgey (read: non existent) then appreciating what you're looking at can be less than easy, as was the case here. The whole island was magnificent and worth a visit but the long walk did not mean we were ready to start attempting to decipher the displays' Russian.
All in all an impressive day but we're both looking forward to a quiet night and a more relaxed day and less walking tomorrow before we head on to Moscow over night.
Rhys a little overwhelmed by it all.......
That's right day three already!
Gold!
Gold....
And more gold....
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