St. Petersburg, Days 3 and 4 (June 30 and July 1)

Cathedral and Ducal Burial Chapel inside Petropavlovsk Fortress

On our itinerary for the day was Petropavlovsk Fortress across the broad Neva River on Rabbit Island.  The views of the fortress as well as the expansive classical buildings lining the southern embankment as well as the fortress from the Troitsky Bridge.  It was a gloriously sunny and warm day, a Saturday, and many people were out enjoying the weekend and the weather. 

The fortress was Peter the Great's first encampment in the city he had planned based on European styles, using architects and designers from Western Europe.  Started in 1703, he stayed here while the swamp was being drained and canals were being built across the Neva in the area that is now the historic heart of St. Petersburg.  The fortress walls are built of red brick, although the southern side facing the river was reconstructed with granite and the 1800s.  Inside the fortress are the barracks, the commander's house, the mint, burial grounds, the Grand Ducal Burial Chapel, Peter and Paul Cathedral, and a prison.  Some of the buildings are now museums; one houses a collection of Rodin sculptures.

Romanov tombs in Peter and Paul Cathedral

By far the most interesting building is Peter and Paul Cathedral, with its gold dome and spire.  Inside are the tombs of the Romanov emperors and empresses and their immediate families.  (Uncrowned members of the Imperial Romanov family are buried in the Grand Ducal Burial Chapel.)  This is where the remains of Nicholas II and his family were moved after they were recovered in the late 20th century from Ekaterinaburg, where they were murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918.  Peter the Great and Catherine the Great are also entombed here, although the body of Peter the Great was placed elsewhere when he died until the Cathedral was completed.   I stayed longer than the rest of the family, working out the lineages and appreciating the architecture and interior design.

Gorky's cell

We strolled around the fortress and came to Trubetskoy Bastion Prison, which was used for criminals and political prisons for 200 years, until 1918, housing inmates in individual cells which seemed quite large if stark and cold (although they were heated).  The Bolsheviks used it to imprison royalists and enemies, putting many inmates in each of the former solitary cells.

Beach on Rabbit Island

We exited the fortress on the south side unto the beach.  The sand was pleasantly warmed, and I enjoyed walking across it in my bare feet.  A couple hundred locals were sunbathing.  The cold Neva, close to the Baltic Sea, did not seem to be attracting swimmers, though.  Leaving the sandy beach, we walked all along the northern side of Petropavlovsk Fortress and walked through a park on Petrogradsky Ostrov (Island) to see the St. Petersburg mosque, with stunning mosaics in various shades of blue and turquoise decorating the outside.  Although Katya and I had head coverings, we were wearing capris, so way too much skin was showing and we were not allowed to enter the sanctuary. 

fence and mosaic detail at St. Petersburg's mosque

Artillery Museum

Walking back on the south bank of Petrogradsky Ostrov, we passed the Artillery Museum, where the grounds were full of cannons, weaponry, tanks and other armored vehicles as well as an intercontinental ballistic missile and launcher as well as the tracking and launching machines which accompany it.  Further along we passed the zoo, then we reached Birzhevoy Most.  Near this bridge and on Birzhevaya Ploschchad, there were vendors selling cheap souvenirs and a couple wedding parties.  (We had seen many brides and grooms in the parks the previous day, drinking toasts and having photos taken.  I'm sure White Nights is the preferred time for nuptials.)  One couple was serenaded by a couple old men playing brass instruments.  Further along, they stopped by a man dressed in Soviet era military attire by a small cannon, from which they fired small projectiles out over the Neva, which burst into small fireworks.  The atmosphere was very congenial and lively.

Wedding couple getting ready to fire a cannon

The period of White Nights seems to draw everyone out to stroll and celebrate the long summer days after months of darkness and cold which last from October through early May. 

Buskers by St. Isaac's

We returned to our hotel to rest.  Peter and I went back to the Vernisazh bazaar and purchased a few more small gifts.  We then strolled through the Mikhailovsky Sad, where summer flowers were still being planted along the large swaths of fresh green grass bordered by concentric circles of trees.  We stopped by St. Isaac's again to listen to buskers, two men traditionally dressed, in white calfskin boots, one playing an accordion and the other a zither-like instrument called a gusli.  The crowd was enjoying their folk-singing, and some people were singing along to what must have been well-known traditional songs.

Dvortsky Most

We ate spaghetti in our hotel apartment that evening and took turns getting a bit of sleep or rest, with plans to go out about 11:30 p.m. to take part in White Nights activities.  A staff member at the hotel had recommended a boat tour with an English-speaking guide which set off from the Nevsky Prospekt crossing of the Fontanka.  I am so glad that we did this, because it was wonderful to be out on the water in the prolonged twilight.  The lit city and bridges are lovely at this time of day (or night by the clock) in the summer.  The boat tours are a major attraction; hundreds of tour boats are on the Neva, jockeying for space, trying to get as close as possible to the first drawbridge to open, the Dvortsovy Most.  Horns sounded and great cheers went up as the spans started to lift.  The boat traffic then moved upstream toward the Fontanka, passing under the Troiksky Most and then waiting on the other side to watch a single section near the southern bank of the embankment rise.  The drawbridges are left open from approximately 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. to allow commercial shipping along the Neva to and from the Baltic Sea. 

Setting off fire balloons over the Neva River from the southern embankment

Matthew fell asleep for part of the hour-and-a-half boat ride, and Katya, never one to enjoy just sitting and enjoying the view and the ambiance, re-read Pride and Prejudice with a book light.  Walking back toward the Moika Canal along Nevsky Prospekt, we passed couples and small groups of people.  Peter and I decided to stay out a bit longer and walk the couple blocks from the Moika Canal to the Neva to see the ships, while the kids were tired and turned right to get back to the hotel.  As we got closer to the river, the number of people increased, as did the amount of empty beer and vodka bottles, cigarette butts and litter.  At Palace Square, people were in the process of setting up tents and equipment for an upcoming event--we couldn't tell what.  A few macho young men on loud motorcycles were racing through the plaza on motorcycles standing up on the seats with only the back wheels making contact with the ground.  Drummers, guitarists and fire-twirlers had cohorts walking about with hats, seeking money from everyone, even people like us who were not even stopping to listen because the quality of the entertainment was so poor.  The closer we got to the river, the more unkempt the people and the more trashed the environment became.  By the Neva River, we encountered people launching fire balloons, which we had delighted in seeing float overhead from the boat earlier.  Perhaps not entirely sober, they prematurely launched some, which quickly sank down to the cold flowing water below the quay.  Those that floated away glowed against the dark sky--dark because it had become overcast, not because there was no sunlight still lingering.

fire balloon floating over the Neva River

We didn't stay long and walked the few blocks back to the hotel by 3 a.m.  When we first came to St. Petersburg a few days before and walked about Palace Square in the early morning, the streets were clean and there was no litter.  We wondered when the municipal services began cleaning up and where the few drunken people passed on the street were taken and how it was possible for them to remove all signs of the debauchery in just a couple hours every 24 hours.

Apparently, they are efficient and organized, because when we returned to Palace Square on Sunday morning, after a bit of a lie-in, it was clean again, and finishers of St. Petersburg's International Marathon were crossing the finish line and enjoying refreshments.  The square had entertainment and vendors to amuse the racers and the public.  After a last stroll around this area of the city, we returned to the hotel, collected our luggage and took a taxi to the airport.  The supposed one-hour drive took only 25 minutes (even though it was not the thrill ride we had in Moscow to the train station).  Security, checking-in, and immigration were not as tedious as we had anticipated, although Katya was delayed by the immigration agent checking on her because she no longer looks much like the photo of a just-adopted 9-year-old on her Kazakhstan passport (which we had used to avoid paying visa processing costs for her).  He finally released her when I went to the window and claimed her as my daughter and showed her more recent photo in her American passport.

The flights to London, via Stockholm, were uneventful, and we arrived at Heathrow Airport just before 8:00 p.m., cleared customs and immigration yet again, picked up a rental car and drove west to stay with Catherine and John Hartz, old friends (well, they are not old; Peter has just known them since university) of Peter's, and their family in their recently acquired "pile of stones" on 95 acres in west Berkshire.