A Toe Rub Can Go a Long Way...
July 2nd, 2016
The Hermitage (Winter Palace) from the central courtyard.
After such a late night, we got a bit of a late start today. Around noon we made our way to the Hermitage to take in our second day, English audioguides in hand! We walked through the gorgeous palace rooms and learned about the history of the palace. It is insane how many palaces are in the city of St. Petersburg, but this one is by far the most ornate. This was Peter the Great's Winter Palace and included both a large and small throne room, because of course that's a necessity. There was gold in every room and views of the rivers, canals, or ornate gardens outside every window. We really enjoyed seeing all the artwork in the building and seeing just how much they possess. During our hour tour we only saw a portion of the palace and still saw more than most other museums.
Tour groups sure do take up a lot of room.
Oh yes, this is the same room!
Next, we headed across the square to the Hermitage's General Staff Building. This building has been more recently renovated and is much more modern. Here we were able to enjoy our tour of the impressionist art and were surprised that they had more pieces than many of the museums we visited in Paris and London last summer. Overall, these two buildings have the most paintings of any museum in the world!
General Staff Building
The Atlantes deserve a toe rub!
Back outside the Hermitage, we also heard that there is a portion being "held up" by ten Atlantes who bring good luck to those who rub their big toes. Having taken 5 years to carve and 3 years to polish, it was worth a see! Apparently they bring good luck to marriages so of course we had to make sure we took the opportunity to bless our soon to be marriage with a good toe rub :)
Next we made our way to Nevsky Prospect, the Main Street through St. Petersburg and definitely the busiest! Along this street we found the House of Books, a massive book store, which used to be the Singer Sewing Company. The building is gorgeous and is the city's largest bookstore.
House of Books
Then we had dinner at nearby Biblioteka, the food was just ok, but we enjoyed looking down at Nevsky Prospect and people watching. As we left, the hop on bus was just pulling up so we jumped on and took another tour of the city back towards our hotel. Lucky for us, it was taking a different route and we got to learn even more about different parts of the city!
