Russia Trip Report, Day 4: Sapsan train ride, St Petersburg

DAY 4. JULY 30, 2012:

Sapsan train ride:

Got up at 5 am, packed the breakfast offered by the hotel, checked out at 5.40, dragged our bags to the Pavletsky metro station, did a lot of walking, climbing stairs, escalators inside the metro station to get to the Koltseva circular line, boarded the metro, got out at Komsomolskaya station. 

Ran into Leningradsky Vokzal and reached the Sapsan platform with just 10 minutes to spare. 

Since our tickets had been bought online 40 days ago, we just had to show our passports to board the train.

The Sapsan started off at 6.45AM from Leningradsky Vokzal, Moscow.

 It sped thru the lovely Russian country side at 200 km/hour and covered the 800 km distance in 4 hours flat...the return tickets for 2 had cost US$300; time saved and the convenience was worth it... other overnight trains cover the distance in 8 hours and are of course very nominally priced.. the trip advisor site had a traveller article regarding booking tickets online for Sapsan.. otherwise it is a little tough to negotiate the rzd.ru website of Russian Railways

Lovely Country side seen thru the sapsan windows...on our way back, our seats did not have such a full window... we noticed passengers ahead of us with no leg room and sitting cramped in the seats that face each other...bad design... in fact we loved the Russian suburban trains we took to Petergof and Pushkin... they had ample leg room, old spacious seats and a 360* view....Sapsan reached Moskovski Vokzal, Petersburg by 10.40 am, from there it was a short 500m walk to our hotel Roses

Czar Peter the Great (1672-1725) grew bored with courtly life in Moscow and spent many years traveling in Western Europe (including an undercover stint in an Amsterdam shipyard). Upon his return, Peter declared that Russia needed to become more like Europe. He decreed that men shave their beards (a symbol of the old Russian ways), and built a brand new capital — where the Neva River meets the Baltic Sea — to give his new Russia a fresh start. St. Petersburg was, and remains, Russia's "window on Europe."

We checked in at Roses, had some lunch and started off on our sight seeing agenda boarding a trolley bus to St Isaac's.

Walked thru this park near the Admiraltry at ST Petersburg...

This is the temporary exhibition on these grounds which would have moved off to another country on Aug 5th. ...

These UNITED BUDDY BEARS promote living together in peace and harmony on their global tour.

Around 140 Buddy Bears (each 2 m tall) represent the countries recognized by the United Nations. Each Buddy Bear shows the individual design created by different artists on behalf of their native countries.

The Message: The Buddy Bears stand together “hand in hand”, symbolising the future vision of a peaceful world.

Since the first exhibition in Berlin in 2002, this has been touring the globe and we are glad we got to see it...

These buddy bear statues had intricate designs and people were hunting out specific ones of interest to them. ...

The sun was blazing at 30 C and we were taken aback after the pleasant weather at Moscow...

This is the Admiralty, North end of Nevsky Prospekt (Next to the Hermitage). The Admiralty building we see today was built between 1806 and 1823.

The original Admiralty was one of the first structures to be built in St Petersburg.

 It was designed to be a dockyard, where some of the first ships of Russia's Baltic fleet were built (some with the participation of Tsar Peter himself who was an expert in shipbuilding). The Admiralty was also fortified to be an extra defense for the newly acquired territory of the Neva delta.

The Admiralty was Russia’s Naval Headquarters until 1917, and now serves as a naval college. The gilded spire of the Admiralty (and particularly its weather-vane korablik - "the little ship") is one of St. Petersburg’s famous landmarks. The Admiralty tower, topped with its golden spire, is the focal point of three of the city’s main streets; Nevsky Propect, Gorokhovaia Street and Voznesensky Prospekt, and can be seen along the entire length of each one.

The gardens in front of the Admiralty are particularly beautiful in summer, and we walked through them on our way to the "Bronze Horseman" and St Isaac's...

The Alexander Garden was laid out in 1872-1874 in Admiralty Square, as part of the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Peter the Great. The Garden was formally opened by Alexander II, and named after him. A fountain was installed in 1880 - it is a dancing fountain

At the end of the 19th century, statues of great Russian cultural figures - the poets Vasily Zhukovsky and Mikhail Lermontov, the writer Nikolai Gogol, the composer Mikhail Glinka and the traveler Nikolai Przhevalsky - were installed.

During the Siege of Leningrad in the Second World War when Germans occupied Petersburg for 900 days, not one tree in the Garden was cut down, although the city's inhabitants were in desperate need of firewood. The Garden was severely damaged by air-raids and shelling, but was restored and opened to the public after the 900 day Siege.

Saint Isaac's Cathedral:

This is Saint Isaac's Cathedral, built in 1818

It is the third highest cupola cathedral in the world.

The dome is gilded with 100 kilograms of gold.

And St. Isaac's is ranked as number one in the world for the richness of its interior decoration!

Inside, there is a large iconostasis.

Most of the icons are mosaics like this one.

They look like original paintings after which they were made.... but are made of tiny little squares of stones...

And it took two masters one year to create only one square meter of these mosaic!

As explained in previous posts, the video setting in our camera had inadvertently been set to low res, so only these grainy grabs are available of this awesome church..

St. Isaac's is called "the museum of natural stone" – 16 different kinds of marble from all over the world, malachite, lapis-lazuli, granite have been used. This is the elaborately carved bronze doorway.

The construction of this cathedral began in 1818 and lasted for 40 years!

The architect was commissioned from France by Nicholas I.

He came to Russia aged 30 and died at 70 the same month the cathedral was consecrated.

So it was the work of his whole life

We climbed up the steps to the observation walkway at the base of the cathedral’s dome and enjoyed the breathtaking views over the city.

The steps are beautifully designed--quite ergonomic and easy to climb and the number marked is that of remaining steps....quite nice

The ardorus climb of 267 steps was totally worth it...the views were awesome.

 

For entering the church and the colannade we had bought tickets at the vending machine at the entrance.

When we opt for English, it automatically charges us the higher foreigner rates!!

We walked around the deck and had 360 degree views. The view from the colonnade (observation deck) is one of the best views of the city, for those who are willing to climb 267 steps.

Son's sunglasses fell down on the roof on the way up--no way to retrieve...

From Isaac's we took trolley bus no 7 to go to Peter And Paul Fortress.

Overshot the target and ended up having a tour of the residential parts of Vasilievsky Island. Wasted time retracing our way...

then visited  Peter and Paul fortress cathedral

This is a restaurant anchored to the shore--with the exterior/interior of a ship, has menu to match...probably..

The cold waters of the river brought down the temperature and made it easy on us...

Spent 1/2 hour sitting on the steps on the banks of the river, soaking tired feet in the icy waters and seeing the jet skis zoom by

Winter Palace and St Isaac's on the other side of the river

Crossed the bridge and took a walk in the Peter and Paul Fortress island...the sandy beach in front of the fortress teemed with sunbathers

The Peter and Paul Fortress is an island fortified with a brick wall.

In the middle, surrounded by parks and marked by a skinny golden spire reaching high into the sky, is the cathedral where members of Russia's royal Romanov family are entombed

When Peter the Great re-claimed the lands along the Neva River in 1703, he decided to build a fort to protect the area from attack by the Swedish army and navy.

The fortress was founded on a small island in the Neva delta on May 27, 1703 (May 16 according to the old calendar) and that day became the birthday of the city of St Petersburg.

The Swedes were defeated before the fortress was even completed.

From 1721 onwards the fortress notoriously served as a high security political jail. Among the first inmates was Peter's own rebellious son Alexei.

Later, the list of famous residents included Dostoyevsky, Gorkiy, Trotsky and Lenin's older brother, Alexander. Parts of the former jail are now open to the public.

In the middle of the fortress stands the impressive Peter and Paul Cathedral, the burial place of all the Russian Emperors and Empresses from Peter the Great to Alexander III. The Cathedral was the first church in the city to be built of stone (between 1712-33) and its design is curiously unusual for a Russian Orthodox church.

Other buildings in the fortress include the City History Museum and the Mint, one of only two places in Russia where coins and medals are minted.

On top of the cathedrals’ gilded spire stands a magnificent golden angel holding a cross. This weathervane is one of the most prominent symbols of St Petersburg, and at 404 feet tall, the cathedral is the highest building in the city.

We sat at this scenic locality till 9 PM and then took the bus back to our hotel

The next post covers our day trip to the lovely Paterhof:

http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2016/12/russia-trip-report-day-5-peterhof.html