Monday, August 22, 2016

I can't believe we went to Russia

For those of us over, say 30 years old, going to Russia really didn't seem like an option growing up in the US.  I mean, I watched White Nights, and Baryshnikov doesn't lie. Even now, Russia's visa requirements mean that the only way we could go to St. Petersburg was with a cruise excursion, so that is what we did.

We lost an hour when we got to Tallinn the day before, and our excursion meeting time was at 7 am.  So that meant getting everyone up at 6 am, which felt like 5 am.  We had to go through passport control and that took time as well.  It was going to be a long exhausting day for our kiddos.  We could have left them on the ship, but they hated the kid's club, and we really feel strongly about traveling as a family and giving our kids these opportunities to see the world.  (In retrospect, we would have left them on the ship, though Amelie was the biggest problem and she wouldn't have been allowed to stay.)

So, all aboard the crazy bus!  The excursion we purchased was a city tour by bus with photo stops and visits to the Peter and Paul Cathedral and the Hermitage art museum.


Our first stop was St. Isaac's Square where we saw this monument to Czar Nicholas I. This was the first equestrian statue in Europe to have only two support points (the back hooves) and was erected in the 1850s.

This is located right in front of St. Isaac's Cathedral. This is the largest Russian Orthodox church in the city and was built over 40 years in the 1800s as well.

Next we made a stop by the Neva River.

Boys will be boys.

Then we arrived at the Peter and Paul Cathedral at the Peter and Paul Fortress.  We got there about 10 minutes before opening time which was perfect...

...because Charlotte desperately needed a bathroom.  Yes, these city buses have been converted to public toilets and connect directly to the sewer.  According to Charlotte, they are not very nice inside.

Anyway, back to our tour with tour guides Toby and Jake.  Our actual tour guide was from Kazakhstan and moved to St. Petersburg while they were both still part of the USSR. She was a bit much to deal with, but more on that later.

The Peter and Paul Cathedral was built in the 1700s and is famous for being the resting place of the Russian Czars- including the final Romanovs. It was so gold!!  And it is actually gold leaf, not paint.  Craziness.

On the front right is the grave of Peter I.

And in this room is the memorial and grave for the Romanov family.  In October 1917 the Romanovs were removed from power and in July 1918 they were all executed and buried in an unmarked grave.  Their bones were not fully recovered until 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union. After that the remains were in a laboratory until 1998 while they were studied and decisions were made about what to do with them, and then they were interred here. In 2008 DNA testing was done to prove the authenticity of the remains.  The kids were disappointed to know that Anastasia did not survive.

Amelie taking nap #1 outside the cathedral.

Our next stop was a souvenir shop (of course.)  We didn't buy this, but it was fun to play with.  We were glad for the clean and well stocked restrooms.

STOP sign along Nevsky Prospekt. 
Rob was working out the Cyrillic pretty well, but this and Кофе Хауз (Coffee House) was about all I understood. Our tour included a "Russian Lunch."  We laughed when we arrived at a Park Inn (by Radisson). Lunch was pretty good actually, but I don't know how Russian it was. We had salad, some sort of green soup (there was no menu posted or given,) beef with gravy and mashed potatoes, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of watermelon and apple cubes. 

After lunch we drove to the Hermitage.  Our guide recommended everyone take a nap as we sat in horrible traffic, she said she would be quiet, but she just really didn't know how to do that.  Rob timed her, she literally stopped talking for 3 minutes. This is a picture of Rob and Amelie waiting in an appalling line to get into the Hermitage.

The museum was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great.  And the public was allowed in to see it in 1852. There are six buildings in total, and it is one of the largest museums in the world.  We visited four of the buildings, starting with the Winter Palace. From 1732-1917, this was the residence of the Russian Czars.  I took this photo in the Jordan Staircase, or main stairway.  It was as big as many ballrooms we have seen.

Fun note about the Hermitage: it has no air conditioning.  Even though the high outside was in the low 60s, inside as the museum became more and more crowded, the temperature reached the 90s.  Also, Charlotte informed me that she would like one of these little chandeliers for her bedroom.

Czar Nicholas II was killed by a bomb while he was wearing this uniform.  They saved it.  And displayed it.  And I took a picture of it.

Bring on the DaVinci paintings!  
Benois Madonna, approximately 1478. It is little and there was a massive line to see it, but it is beautiful.

But I like this one the best!  Madonna Litta with Mary nursing the infant Jesus.

And you know, an unfinished Michaelangelo. And there were so, so many more.  We saw some El Greco, VanEyck, Rembrandt, Tizian and we didn't even go to the building containing the Impressionists!  We zoomed around in the crowds, nearly losing children, in sweltering heat for an hour and a half.  Near the end all of our kids needed a bathroom and Rob said he might pass out.  It was kind of awful.  But we went to the Hermitage!!



Our last photo stop on the way back to the ship was at The Church on Spilled Blood.  Remember that uniform shirt I took a picture of?  Well this church was built by Nicholas II's son and named because this is the place where his father died.

We were so exhausted, we could barely muster a smile.  It had been ten hours since we left the ship.

I read that the tallest spire is off center because it is directly over the place where Nicholas II died in 1881. The church had been closed in the 1930s when many churches in the USSR were forced to close.  It only reopened in 1997 after 30 years of restoration work.  It is now a museum.

I am so glad we went to St. Petersburg.  It was really different, and amazing to have the opportunity, but I won't be sad to never go to Russia again.  The smog, crowds, traffic.  It was really overwhelming and exhausting.  Though, that's partially because I chose such an ambitious travel day.  Sometimes there is a bit of pain involved in making amazing memories.

Rainy Day in Tallinn

I had heard from others that had taken this cruise that Tallinn was a disappointment, so I tried not to be too excited about it. But I was really excited to go here. In college I read a book called War in the Woods: Estonia's Struggle for Survival as part of a History of Civilization class. And I found Estonia's history really fascinating. When I first met Rob, he randomly owned a clock decorated with the Estonian flag,  a roommate had given to him, and he was interested in Estonia as well.  The city of Tallinn was founded in 1248 and was originally called Reval, but the earliest settlements in this place were about 5,000 years ago. Also, Tallinn's Old Town is one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe.

It was raining pretty hard when our ship arrived (and off and on throughout the day,) so we altered our original plan of walking and hailed a cab to take us to the furthest point we wanted to visit.  We then worked our way back throughout the day, visiting things on our way back to the port. Our first stop wasn't open yet, so we roamed around the block and saw the National Library.
And also this church.  It isn't noteworthy or historical, just a nice looking church.


In front of our first real stop, The Occupation Museum, stands a piece of the Berlin Wall.  Apparently it was gift from Germany about ten years ago... a sort of, "sorry about that whole occupying your country and then leaving you behind the Iron Curtain for nearly 50 years" gift.

Estonia has had it rough for the last 80 years.  In 1939 Stalin took control of Estonia as part of an agreement with Germany, who then in 1941 invaded Russia and said, "thanks for hanging on to Estonia for us, y'all."  When World War II ended, Estonia was re-occupied by the Soviets and was made part of the USSR. Fully a quarter of the population of Estonia died in World War II.  Through the 1950s the Forest Brothers (a band of resistance fighters) continued to fight against Soviet rule, expecting that at any moment the Western nations would come to their rescue.  But that never happened.  It wasn't until 1994 that Soviet troops finally left Estonia.

The Occupation Museum is small but interesting.  They also had hot chocolate for only a Euro, so our kids were happy there.  Amelie is standing in front of a boat used by refugees attempting to flee Soviet rule.  Between her and the boat is a Naval mine.  In addition to the frigid water temperatures, the Soviets used these to discourage people from leaving across the sea.

After the museum we headed into the Old Town. The first sight we came to was the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.  This Russian Orthodox church was built around 1900, when Estonia was part of the Russian empire.

Charlotte posed like that, and then Jake and Amelie copied her.
 
St. Mary's Cathedral with the Estonian flag in the foreground.  St. Mary's was built by the Danes in the 13th Century.  It is the oldest church in Estonia, and was the only building to survive a 17th century fire in this area.

From the top of Toompea Hill, you can see our cruise ship.  
Also the highest steeple in this picture is St. Olaf's church.  It may have been older than St. Mary's originally but apparently the tower has been struck by lightning at least ten times, and the entire structure has burned down and been rebuilt three times throughout its history.


Toby near a little waterfall by the city walls.

Estonian wet hair selfie.

Charlotte is always cold, so a day in the drizzle was a little torturous for her.  She ended up buying a wool scarf as a souvenir.  (With polar bears on it.)

In the market square.  Mostly these were tourist stalls selling woolen items.  Along one side of the square though we found an Indian restaurant with a lunch special.  It was so good!  And the kids enjoyed eating naan bread and watching the tv.  It was a wonderful break from both the drizzle and  mediocre cruise ship food.

In front of the town hall.

On our way back to the ship we passed by a part of the city walls that could be climbed.  Rob and the boys went up to see the views while the girls and I shopped for souvenirs.

Toby patrols the perimeter.

Another one of Toby because he is such a cutie.

On the edge of town we stopped for a photo in front of Fat Margaret. All of the towers have names that sound funny to us, (Kiek in de Kök for another example,) but this one is named because the walls are up to 5 meters thick.  It was built in the 1500s.

So long Tallinn! We were not disappointed.  In fact, we kinda loved it, even with the drizzle all day. 

Stockholm!

I had low expectations for Stockholm. I had a couple of places in mind for us to visit, but I didn't think it would be awesome. I was wrong. When we got off the ship, we hailed a taxi to take us to our first stop, the Vasa Museum. (Though Rick Steves warns against taxis in Stockholm, we compared the price to the cruise's shuttle, and for six of us, the taxi was cheaper. The city bus may have been cheaper still, but required more work and would have taken longer to get there. The taxi got us there ahead of the crowds, accepted euros, and was totally easy.)

The Vasa Museum is Stockholm's most popular museum.  In the 1620s King Gustavus Adolphus commissioned a warship.  Partway through the building process he told the builders to make it longer, but not wider.  He also told them to include not one, not two, but three gun decks... with the heaviest cannons on the top deck.  Now, I'm no ship-builder, but even I can see that this was not going to go well.  The ship builders did not wish to argue with the King, so they built the ship to his specifications.  And on its maiden voyage, the Vasa almost immediately tipped over and sank.  And there she sat in the Baltic until rediscovered around 1950.  In the 1960s a huge effort was made to recover the incredibly intact hull and preserve it.  And now millions of people come to see this awesome, non-seaworthy wreck.  (Elder Dale G. Renlund gave a talk at BYU in 2014 where he used this story as a metaphor for constructing spiritual stability.)

The museum is built on seven floors around the ship and you can see it from under, beside, and above.  The exhibits cover everything from the history of this ship, to Swedish shipping in general, from life on board, to the people who died in the sinking (including their bones and reconstructions of their faces and bios about them.)  There is also a lot of information about how the ship was raised and preserved.  Anchors come in multiple sizes, just like Andersons.

Jake thought this was awesome!  As soon as we left the museum he was asking me for paper and pencil to draw some pirate ships.

Here is a gun hole. (Clearly I don't know proper shipping terminology.) It is hard to see in the photo, but there is a wood carving to the right of the hole of a warrior standing on a lion's head with a puppy by his feet.  This was supposed to symbolize that warriors were to fight to protect the innocent from attack.  (Paraphrasing obviously.)

Here is a reconstruction of a part of the ship for you too see what life was like on board.  By this point, Amelie had had all she could take of this museum and Rob had taken her outside for some fresh air.

We finished up our tour around the Vasa and headed outside to walk to our next stop.  On the way we saw this- the Nordic Museum.  It was built in 1907, and looks like a cathedral.

We also passed by this photo op.

And then we reached Skansen.  This is an open air museum, begun in 1891, to preserve historic buildings from around Sweden.

I like the gardens.  This one is an example of a little land plot that was given out during World War II on which a city resident could grow food to supplement their rations.

Bear on the farm.

These are actual old buildings, moved here from around the country.  This one had original paintings covering just about every surface, it was very beautiful, and I imagine it helped pass the time during the long, dark, cold winters.

A view of the city from the top of the hill.  Stockholm is actually a group of islands connected by bridges and ferries.  Both the Vasa Museum and Skansen are on the island of Djurgården.

This is a Sami dwelling. The Sami people (sometimes called Laplanders) are an indigenous group that live in the northernmost parts of Scandinavia. Their traditional livelihoods include fishing, sheep herding, and fur trapping.

But what they are most known for is reindeer herding.  And in Sweden, reindeer herding is legally reserved only for the Sami people. Toby did not believe us that these were real reindeer.  He's a skeptic.

Beautiful day to squint into the sun.

After watching the birds and seals in the zoo area for a few minutes, we realized that it was lunch time!  We found a picnic table and enjoyed some potato pancakes with lingonberry jam, and some regular pancakes with strawberry jam and whipped cream.

Really old windmill. 
We only saw about a quarter of Skansen, but we had another place to visit before getting back to the cruise terminal so we had to hit the road.

We walked downhill to the sea and caught a ferry to Gamla Stan.  This island is the oldest part of Stockholm.

First view of Gamla Stan from the ferry.

The Old Town dates back to the 13th Century.  And it is so cute.

More Swedish cuteness in Stortorget square.  And tourists... we had done a pretty good job of staying ahead of the crowds up until this point, but they caught up with us here.
The Church of St. Nicholas, commonly known as Storkyrka, is first referred to in written records in 1279.  It is the oldest church in Stockholm, and it is also cute.(We didn't go inside.)

And finally, on our way to the bus stop to make our way back to the port, I got a reluctant Charlotte to pose for me in front of the Royal Palace. Still the residence of the King and Queen of Sweden, this was built in the 1700s, to replace a former palace that had burnt down.  Charlotte is cranky because I made her wear Pippi Longstocking braids to celebrate being in Sweden.  She refused to hold them out to the sides for me. 

Getting back to the ship was a bit of a hassle as we had to find the right bus stop, going the right direction, and then learned the buses don't accept cash!  So I stayed with the kids while Rob found a place to get a transit card and then we finally made it back!  Still, Rob and I both really liked Stockholm.  It is very green, and you are never far from the water, and we both commented that we were surprised it was so lovely and we wish we had more time to explore it.