Russian River Cruise - Day 11 - May 22

A few more photos from the city tour and then a few from the Hermitage. When you are on a tour of this kind, it is difficult to get good photos. One must keep up with the group and try to hear as much as possible of the information while trying to get good photos without tripod or time. The Hermitage is spectacular, awesome. Our night at the Ballet here, was the most treasured time of the Russian trip, for me. Our tour group left at 8:00 am so as to have an early start in the museum. This worked, to a certain extent, although there were other tour groups on the same schedule.
From the daily log of the Uniworld tour: Gaugin, Picasso, Monet, Degas. All great masters are represented in this fine museum. The tour lasts 2 hours. Photo and video fee applied. Big bags and water bottles are not allowed. Wear comfortable shoes.
Morre from the daily log: One of the world's great art galleries, set in a magnificent palace from which tsars ruled Russia for one and a half centuries. The State Hermitage fully lives up to its reputation as one of the country's chief glories.
The State Hermitage consists of five linked buildings along riverside the Palace embankment. From west to east they are the Winter Palace, the Little Hermitage, the old and new Hermitage (sometimes grouped together and called the Large Hermitage) and the Hermitage Theatre.
The present Baroque/Rococo Winter Palace was commissioned from Rastrelli in 1754 by Empress Elizabeth. Catherine the Great and her successors had most of the interior remodeled in classical style by 1837. That year a fire destroyed most of the interior, but it was restored virtually identically. It remained an imperial home until 1917, though the last two tsars spent more time in other St.Petersburg palaces.
The classical Little Hermitage was built for Catherine the Great as a retreat that would also house the art collection started by Peter the Great, which she expanded. At the river end of the Large Hermitage is the Old Hermitage, which also dates from her time. At the south end is the New Hermitage, which was built for Nicholas II to hold the still growing art collection and was opened to the public for the first time in 1852. The Hermitage Theatre was built in the 1780's.

Now.... John the Painter was in and has accomplished much his first day. The ensuite is patched and ready for its new paint. There is one wall in the master bedroom finished and the others are ready for another coat. Closets are done as is the woodwork. I absolutely love the new color... very light mauve.. gives the room a lovely warm glow. The guy from Hourigans has put down some filler on the floor at the entry way... it needs 2 coats and this has had to dry. He put the lino down in the storage closet and it looks great! This man is a perfectionist. I must get him back to do the rest of the flooring! John is doing a super job of the painting also. I spent part of the day sorting stuff to keep, send to goodwill, send to dump or the shredder; carrying things back downstairs. We really don't have that much space used up by our old archives. It is just time for some stuff to go.. the old Christmas decorations and tree are going to goodwill... they seem to have taken up most of the space. I called a person to come to give me a quote on new draperies all over the house. Joanne will be here on Thursday. I had a look at their website, and it really is pretty awful. They could use some good photos of their products, and a new design with better colors. Hope their actual draperies are better than the website. I should probably get another couple of quotes for comparison. I will see after Thursday, if we can work together, and she understands what I want. We are sleeping in the guest room, so I did not get much sleep in the strange bed, as well as worrying about the workmen arriving at 8:00. I am a night person, so this change of schedule, necessitated my having a nap this afternoon. Hope I am not up half the night again, as there is another early start tomorrow.

Russian River Cruise - Day 10 - May 21

More bad photos from our bus tour of the city. The people in costume were standing around the square inviting tourists to have their pictures taken with them. An informative link to many of the attractions.

We have been doing up post cards in our spare time.

Now... John the painter was in yesterday and I chose colors and he gave us some idea of how he would be starting work on Monday. Hourigans are to come at 8:30 Monday morning to put down a layer of stuff before the floor covering goes in the entry way and the laundry room. Today Pat got some rollers for under the washer and dryer and we installed them. He also got a number of items for the van and added them, also. I have spent most of today sorting photos for this blog of our Russian Trip.

On Friday, Arthur and Rosemary were over for lunch and we spent an enjoyable afternoon. They helped me with some of my decisions on the renovation of my kitchen and hobby room. Now, I need to find a carpenter to do the work.

Last week I spent quite a few evening hours after dinner till dark cleaning up the little garden in front of the hedge. I took a few branches off the plum tree. The magnolia tree has several large trunks that are dead. I have to get them taken out yet, too. I also did some serious pruning of the plants by Parmar's sidewalk. I have yet to weed all of the front... there are violets again! This area always looks so good when its cleaned up, so I must get back to it soon. The roses need dead heading as well as a lot of the perennnials. Thursday evening I found that the pump in the water garden had quit. I spent a bit of time getting a slug out of one of the hoses. Good thing it was not up the hose to the waterfall, or I would never got it out. Now the pump is running a bit faster and I will probably need to top up the pond more often. The water irises look terrific, if you can find them.

I have been busy!

Russian River Cruise - Day 10 - May 21

From my notes: We have breakfast while the ship is stationary. We are on the Neva River, and since it is foggy we are allowed to move to our dock only at a certain speed. So, we start our bus tour an hour late. I was on deck to shoot at the bridge as we moved closer to our berth.
The bridges are mostly draw bridges and at one time they would be drawn up at mid-night and put down again in the morning. They are no longer doing this. A list of bridges.

From the Litvinov information: Bus tour - Architecture, monuments and canals await your cameras. A brillian blend of western style and Russian character. Stops will be made at the Smolny Monastery, Vasilievsky Island and St. Isaac's Square.
Note: The weather in St. Peteersburg is very changeable. Sometimes the weather forecast varies from what we have, in fact. Most of the tours involve a considerable amount of walking.

We are back on the ship for lunch. There is a shuttle to downtown and back in the afternoon. We have signed up for the optional Ballet performance "Giselle' by Adam at the Hermitage Theatre in the evening. A most enjoyable performance.