The Palace of Catherine the Great

For me, a highlight of our trip to Saint Petersburg 

  
.......Was touring Catherine’s Palace.  

I’ve read Massie’s biography of her amazing life, much of it based on her personal memoirs, and I’m thrilled clear down to my  little pink toenails to be standing here gazing at the ballroom she describes.

We are told about popular parlor games of the time.  Harmless flattery and flirtations were not only allowed, but encouraged.   A woman would paint a mole on her face, to the right of her lips if she was available for flirtatious games, or to the left if she was not available or not in the mood to be available.  (Guys, don’t you think a PMS signal like this would be helpful??)   Single people, of course, indulged; but husbands and wives were granted permission to participate with someone other than their spouse, also. 

And sometimes the woman would go to the powder room and change her mind (and her mole) mid-stream in the evening!  

All this to produce two results:  One, the end game for the guy was to see if he could get the woman to meet him “in the garden”, which was actually surrounded (purposely) by a high enough hedge to conceal a secret rendezvous, hopefully ending in a stolen kiss.  

Two, to produce outrageous gossip about whom was meeting whom, and right underneath her husband’s nose, enough fodder to feed the flame of local gossip until the next ball.  I'm fascinated by this ~ although it also might be indicative of a fairly boring lifestyle, for this to be the highlight of their lives.

The tour is fairly extensive, we get to wander much of the palace.  Well, that's not exactly accurate.  When you're with a tour group, it's more like being herded than wandering.  Still.  It's awesome.  Each room is filled with splendor and glamour and ornate fittings and furnishings. In this truly beautiful formal dining room, I was particularly taken with the gilded corners and trimming. Not sure if I'd be crazy about the dead bunny portrait (!), but the white peacock is nice.



The dining room is set as it was then, with one of the many (many many) sets of china.  I think it's lovely, and it calls to my dinner-party-loving heart to think of it being laden with food (albeit the dead bunny) and surrounded by friends.  

While these ceramic "heaters" are beautiful, they are more practical than ornamental.  They were much more efficient for heating each room than an open fireplace. As it's stoked with wood or coal from service hallways behind, it has the added advantage of the ceramic exterior heating up and then "radiating" the heat into the room.  Look at those inlaid wood floors!

Breathtakingly beautiful details are everywhere.
Even in the ceilings.

This "portrait style" room was a new rage back then.  It was considered a fashionable way to display great works of art in a concentrated format. Personally, I found it very stiff and dark, sort of foreboding.  Can't imagine a good party here, it must have been used for more formal events.  Or funerals.  

Here’s her writing desk, where, according to her memoirs, she spent hours in official correspondence, writing state policy, working on education initiatives, and struggling to find a way to release those bondaged in the serfdom of the day.  (Actually, we viewed several beautiful desks scattered throughout the Palace;) 

But here is where I can envision her ~~ sitting here at the very desk where she scribed those very memoirs; what a gorgeous piece of furniture!  You'll notice they set it far enough back that you can't touch ~~ no matter how much I wanted to run my fingers across that beautiful wood.Tickled clear to my toes, I’m telling you.

This is the embroidered wallpaper room.  

Yes.  I'm not kidding.

  

And the green "ivory room".  I know, right???  Maybe dinner in here on Tuesday / Thursday, the main dining room on Monday / Wednesday, and room service in my chambers on every other day that ends in a "y"  ??

 

Amazing detail where ever you look.  Even the doorknobs.

I don't have pictures of the "Amber Room", it's the one room that photography was not allowed.  An entire room studded with Amber, every inch of every wall, in all it's variant colors and qualities and radiance.  Makes me cherish my keepsake amber necklace (thank you Mr. C!) even more. Google it, if you want to take a peek, it's unbelievable.

I can't get over these inlaid wood floors.  Or the fact that they allow us to trod on them.  Booties over our shoes not withstanding, seriously?  Put down some runners or something.  I wanted to lay face down on the floor and just soak it up.  

Works of art, every floor, each unique from the others.  

And as we take a backward glance, you can see that the palace architect (purposely) designed a "mirror image" sort of matrix.  We are looking back through identical door frames that extend throughout the entire palace.  

That's a wow.    

And as we exit, now, to the grounds and gardens, she tells us this is where Catherine used to watch her soaps.  A little Russian humor there..........

Next, we stroll the lovely, well-groomed grounds.
Everything looks like a piece of art to me.  

All the more amazing when we are shown photos of the damage done in the fire of 1820.

Where pretty much everything, in certain chambers, was destroyed.

Luckily, though, her Grandson thought it should be restored. And what's a few million rubles among royalty, after all?

 And today, we are the benefactors of this beautiful 
work-of-architecture's full restoration.



We stroll the pathways and the gardens, soaking up the beauty of the flowers and enjoying the peacefulness of the walkways and the lake.  

These lilacs smelled like heaven ~~ and my Iowa childhood, where we had them in yard in every color...........The fragrance still takes me back there.......

And sure enough, here in the garden, is the secret hedge – Mr. C & I  tried to sneak away for a secret kiss, but…….it’s really hard to dodge the eagle eye of our most diligent Russian tour guide……

Plus all these guys..............

We say good-bye, now to Catherine's Palace, with the glint of the peaks of Catherine's Cathedral glimmering between the trees, and the haunting sounds of a lone violinist wafting on the breeze.

Our day is coming to a close.  A quick stop at a (cheap) souvenir shop (another downfall to being on a tour --  you  don’t really get to the nice shops so much, as everybody wants the cheap junk to take home); and now it’s time to head back to the ship.

Here’s where it gets really interesting, though......Mr. C has graciously, generously, selflessly booked us for the ballet tonight, at the famous Mariinsky Theatre.  We’ve been at several of these historic landmark theatres now, on our travels ~ an evening concert in Vienna, a sketch at the Opera House in Sydney;  even an afternoon children’s theatre performance (just so we could get inside!) the famous Estates Theatre ~  so it’s kind of become our thing. Tonight it’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and I’m practically shivering with anticipation.  But this is a story for another day....

St. Petersburg, Russia

Today we woke up in Russia.  That's amazing to me.

It's the real end-goal destination of this trip.  Even though we have not really bonded with our cruising lifestyle, this is, hands down, the best way to get to St. Petersburg.

We have a tour guide booked here; indeed, it's required, unless you have a private visa (which we do not).  I'm told an independent visa can be difficult to obtain, and takes months to acquire.

So we are required to show confirmation of our tour booking when we go through customs.  It seems this tour company will act as our temporary "day pass" visa, and we are not to part company from them for this reason.  I'm not even tempted, trust me. The idea of being on our own in Russia without proper papers and without knowledge of the language is not that appealing.

The groups are small, just 14 of us in our group.  However, we timed it badly, and ended up in the very back of the bus.  Photos through the windows are bad enough, but now I do not have windows.   Still.  We're in St. Petersburg, and I could not be more excited.

The city itself is a bit drab, very functional, not much fluff.

It's a young city, not much older than the US, formed by need of access to the sea, declared the new capital of Russia by the founder, Peter the Great, and set upon the soil that he fought and earned through persistent warring.

Imagine the flurry -- an entire government seat is uprooted from Moscow and transplanted to a new, self-declared Capital.  How brilliant, really; the resulting flood of building Government buildings and the ensuing mansions for the Statehood's ruling families, and schools for their children and roads to get from their homes to the State Buildings to the Schools and back again.  And all the other needed infrastructures.  

To say nothing of the Winter Palace.  There's always a Winter and Summer Palace for Royalty.  The Summer Palace is (always) in the countryside, to escape the city; and the Winter Palace is (always) in the city, where there is ready access to incidentals like food and supplies and -- heat.

It's the Big Bang version of populating a city, thus creating a stronghold on the Baltic Sea -- which is still effectively the case today.

Our first stop is the River Neva, just across from what was the Winter Palace back in the day; now converted to the 
famed Hermitage museum.   

I'm mesmerized.  After reading "Catherine the Great", I'm completely mesmerized to see the Winter Palace that she talks about.

She  was not Russian, by birth. She was a "minor" Prussian 
princess, and was "selected" to be the wife of Peter III who was......let's just say he was a child when she wed. She talks in her memoirs of their wedding night, while she, nervous and inexperienced, found that he just wanted to play with his toy soldiers in bed.  For the next many months and years to follow.

She captured the hearts of the Russian people though, when she became ill with what sounds like modern day pneumonia. Which was the result of her walking those cold, stone castle floors, night after night, books in hand, bare of foot, struggling to teach herself the Russian language.   

Once she came back from death's door, she was totally accepted, even revered, as she had won the hearts of the Russian people through this story -- which they interpreted to be her total dedication to them and her new country. At least, so goes the legend.

And today we get to see her mansion, the palace where she lived and thrived; those floors that she strode, night after lonely night, separated from her family and loved ones; so determined to be fully immersed in her new, totally foreign, country and destiny.

I so adored it. All of it.  Everything I'd read, now coming to life.  I absolutely recommend reading Robert Masie's books (he has several) before taking this trip.  History will literally jump into your lap, when what you've read comes to life in front of  you.  And that's an amazing experience.

Cruising the Baltic Sea

On the ship. Checking in reminded me of why I hate cruises. Our driver got us here an hour and a half late; they did not give us our expected priority boarding, so we waited in line for hours instead of getting on and having a cocktail on our patio......

But.  I have never had a suite before.  It's bigger than some (many) of our hotel rooms, and has a full balcony.  My butler unpacked for me (why not?!?) while we sipped champagne.  

Then a lovely gourmet dinner in the private (suite only) dining room.   

Next is room service in the morning on the patio.

I just might like cruising after all.......

And tomorrow I wake up in Belgium!   

What a life I lead ~~ 

Night night from the Baltic Sea ~

Come Follow Me In 2016 !

We're looking forward to lots of new adventures in 2016 ~ starting with New Year's Eve fireworks in Waikiki; then an Anniversary Island Hop to the island of Kauai, followed by another couple of months on the island of Oahu.

Next, we'll be heading to London for a week; followed by a two week Scandinavian & Russia cruise.