Saint Petersburg

For those of you who aren't familiar with the story, Peter I ("The Great") wanted to connect Russia to the west and create links to the Baltic Sea. Construction of the city (mostly on swamplands) began in the early 1700s and it became the new capital of Russia (from 1703-1918).

I took the night train (13 hours in a sleeper cabin) arriving early Friday morning in time to beat the line to the Hermitage Museum.

The train sleeper cabin.

The Winter Palace.

This is the Jordan staircase where guests would enter the Winter Palace.
Here is the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood. It was constructed on the site where the carriage of Alexander II was attacked and the Tsar's resulting injuries led to his death.

The interior is all mosaics; quite impressive.

The canals running through the city are so charming!

There were many buildings overwhelmed by signage; this one was particularly bad and a little amusing.

This is Saint Isaac's Cathedral, one of the largest domed buildings in the world. It was designed in 1818 in memory of Peter I whose birthday was on Saint Isaac's Day, but the building was not completed until 1858.

While there are so many gorgeous buildings in Saint Petersburg, the streets are covered in soot and with a layer of snow it is pretty muddy. The debauchery is evident on a Sunday morning just looking at the canals filled with empty bottles (you can drink on the street- and most do).

This is the Singer Sewing Building.

This is another Art Nouveau building where an indoor market operated on the first floor amongst amazing Nouveau display cases.

There are some very nice boulevards with central pedestrian promenades.
The main boulevard is Nevsky Prospect. While the finest shops line this street and the sidewalks are almost always full of people, it isn't the most pleasant place because the four lanes (in each direction) of busy traffic make it very noisy and car exhaust fumes waft down the street.
In general, I was surprised to see such a large problem with traffic in most areas. It is not delays in particular, but the noise and pollution along main roads.
In many areas there are underground pedestrian tunnels to cross busy streets. Here you can see pedestrians crossing over the green light because the wait times for pedestrians can sometimes be quite long.
This is looking across the Neva River towards the Kunstkamera museum.

This nice roundabout is lined with identical buildings curving along the traffic circle. There is not, however, any apparent route for pedestrians to access the central green.

On Saturday night, I enjoyed a wonderful performance of Bizet's Carmen at the Mariinsky Theater.
This is one of the city's five train stations, the Moscow Station.

There is a modern addition in the rear of the station with a huge indoor plaza lined with shops and the train route map displayed on the wall.
Most of the buildings are in desperate need of cleaning as the years of car pollutions have covered them in a layer of gray film. But I suppose that adds to the character of the debaucherous city!
The last day the weather was rainy and we opted for a metro station tour on the red line. I wish I would have been able to take photos, but it is strictly forbidden.
The stations were palaces for the people, a very Soviet notion that the most expensive materials and best designs should be reserved for public spaces: etched glass columns, extravagant lighting fixtures, marble monuments to Pushkin, and marble colonnades. Check out this link to see some photos!

Here is a link to my favorite station, Mayakovskaya. It is decorated with simple red tile and features "horizontal lift" doors appearing like elevator doors to access arriving trains. The base of the vaulted ceiling features deco style metal light shades.

Here is a monument to Puskin, a famous Russian poet, in a lovely park in front of the Mikhailovsky Palace.
On my last day, there was a gorgeous sunset that filled the sky with shades of pink and purple. Here is the Admiralty, which is under renovation (see scaffolding) and houses the Russian military naval college. The plan of the city is such that several major streets have terminating views of the building's iconic golden spire.

The trip to Saint Petersburg was overall quite enjoyable. It was definitely difficult to navigate through the city without being able to read/speak Russian. I hope to return in the summer when the days are longer and will definitely catch another opera performance or maybe see a ballet at the Mariinsky Theater.