freda's world adventures

Planes, Trains, Ferries, Subways, Trams and Taxis: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Helsinki and Tallinn – September 2017 December 6, 2017

Posted by freda in Uncategorized.
trackback

We flew out Friday night, August 31st, and landed in Moscow late on Saturday afternoon, September 1st. After settling into the very lovely Marriott Aurora hotel, brilliantly situated a few blocks from Theatre Square, and Red Square, we took advantage of our access to the executive suite for a light dinner and glass of wine, and then set out for a walk to shake off the long day of travel.  We walked for a full two hours, around the perimeter of the Kremlin and Red Square, because we couldn’t walk through Red Square due to a weekend festival of some sort.  Here are a few pictures from our evening’s stroll, when we didn’t know exactly what we were seeing, but with which we were already enthralled, (and a reminder that most of our pictures look best full-screen, so just click on any one you’d like to see that way. Yes, it’ll take longer.. just do it for a few…)

The next day, after a long sleep and good breakfast, we set out to explore on our own. Don has a master’s sense of direction (I definitely don’t), and an amazing ability to figure out any subway system in any language. He treated the Russian language like a code, something fun to crack. Because the Cyrillic alphabet is based on the Greek alphabet, and he studied math, making him familiar with some of the Greek alphabet, he managed to brilliantly figure out where we needed to go. It was all Greek to me! 😀

The Moscow metro stations are works of art, a true tourist attraction, and one of our goals on our first day was to see as many of them as we could. Our other destination was the Tretyakov Gallery, which houses the largest collection of Russian art.

So, a bit of an overview on the Moscow Metro: The Moscow Metro is still expanding, but currently has 194 stations and 325 km of track. Almost 10,000 trains operate every day, carrying 8-9 million passengers per day – more than the London and New York systems combined. During peak periods trains arrive at stations every 90 seconds. The stations are spotlessly clean, apparently swept every hour, and with no garbage cans anywhere, because bombs can be left in them.

When the idea of an underground railway was first proposed for Moscow in 1902 it was rejected… but by the 1930s, the need for better transportation had become urgent as the population of the city more than doubled to meet the demands of rapid industrialization. Two young communists, Nikita Khrushchev and Lazar Kaganovich, were entrusted with building a metro that would serve as a showcase for socialism and the achievements of workers and peasants. Construction began in December 1931, during the period of Stalin’s first Five Year Plan. The Communist Party decreed that “the whole country will build the metro,” so workers – both men and women – were drafted from all over the Soviet Union. They were assisted by soldiers of the Red Army and by over 13,000 members of the Communist Youth League, called Komsomol. This latter groups’ work was commemorated by named Komsomolskaya after them. Some of the Soviet Union’s finest artists were employed to decorate the metro. Working within the confines of Socialist Realism, many dealt with themes such as the Revolution, national defence, and the Soviet way of life. 

Armed with a metro map, and a list of the best metro stations, we began our underground adventure at the station closest to our hotel, Teatralnaya, which is in the theatre square. It is decorated in the theme of theatre arts, with the figures, representing music and dance, dressed in national costumes from the various nationalities of the Soviet Union.  The columns are faced with labradorite and marble; the lights are crystal in bronze frames…

Next stop: Ploshchad Revolyutsii, one of the most famous stations, named after Revolution Square. The main hall has a series of marble-lined arches; on either side of each arch is a life-sized bronze figure representing the “everyday heroes” who made the Revolution possible, or helped to build the subsequent Soviet State: Red Guards, farmers, sailors, sportsmen and women, parents and children…

Our third stop was Novokuznetskaya, honouring Russian military heroes, particularly from WWII. The decorations include seven octagonal ceiling mosaics on the theme of wartime industry and a bas-relief frieze running along the base of the ceiling depicting the soldiers of the Red Army in combat. (wiki)

At this third station we actually went out, and walked to the Tretyakov Gallery, but I’m going to keep all our metro station photos together… they are like galleries unto themselves.

Kropotkinskaya station, sporting clean lines and simple colours, flared columns faced with marble, and a floor of grey and red granite, was named after the anarchist, Prince Pyotr Kropotkin.  I loved the way the columns were lit at the top.

Park Kultury station is at Gorky Park, which we visited a few days later.  (Touring the stations, we didn’t often go above ground…) Niches in the walls of this station hold white marble bas-relief medallions which depict sporting and other leisure activities of the Soviet youth.

Kievskaya station features large mosaics, with ‘idealized’ scenes of Russo-Ukrainian friendship… in some, portraying healthy, happy peasants celebrating agricultural abundance, which ignores the terrible famine that resulted from Stalin’s forced collectivization policy of the early 1930s.

The next station, Vystavochnaya, was opened only in 2005, and is completely different from the old-world stations… very modern!

Some stations have two halls because they are on two lines. After viewing the modern station above, we returned to Kievskaya, but transferred to a different line, and discovered this side of the station is completely different from the ostentatious mosaics…

Belorusskaya has a central hall with octagonal mosaics depicting rural Belorussian life…

Mayakovskaya station: the name as well as the design is a reference to Futurism and its prominent Russian exponent, poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. Considered to be one of the most beautiful in the system, it is a fine example of pre-WWII Stalinist Architecture and one of the most famous Metro stations in the world. It was designed by Aleksey Dushkin in 1938 and won the Grand Prix at the New York World’s Fair. It is most well known for its 34 ceiling mosaics depicting “24 Hours in the Land of the Soviets.” (wiki)

Don and I thought the next station rather plain. Partizanskaya is dedicated to the Soviet partisans who resisted the Nazis in the “Great Patriotic War,” as they call WWII.  Two statues adorn pillars closest to the exit…

We saw the two most beautiful stations the next day, but I present them now… Komsomolskaya station is one of the busiest as well as the most ‘palace-like.’ Its lead designer, Alexey Shchusev, designed it as an illustration of a historical speech given by Stalin, in which Stalin honoured military leaders of the past. These people appear in the ceiling mosaics.

Last, but definitely not least, Novoslobodskaya is best known for its 32 stained glass panels, which are the work of Latvian artists. Each panel, surrounded by an elaborate brass border, is set into one of the station’s pylons and illuminated from within. Both the pylons and the pointed arches between them are faced with pinkish Ural marble and edged with brass molding. (wiki)

Well, as mentioned earlier, we also went to the Tretyakov Gallery, with the world’s largest collection of Russian art.  Along the way:

Pavel Tretyakov began collecting art in 1856 and in 1892 donated it to the city of Moscow. It is housed in what was his home. The collection has expanded over the years as “numerous private collections were nationalized by the Soviet regime.”

Inside, we wandered the galleries, looking for a few paintings that our Eyewitness Guide to Moscow highlights, and stopping to enjoy what struck us.  Of course there were an abundance of paintings on religious themes, but my favourites are always the more personal, like this one of a ‘family.’

The Russian Orthodox church uses icons for both worship and teaching.  Every Orthodox church we went into was *full* of them (as you will see in photos to come). They serve(d) to tell the stories to the people who couldn’t read. The first icons were brought to Russia from Byzantium. Kiev was Russia’s main icon painting centre until the Mongols conquered it in 1240. Influential schools then sprang up in other areas. The Moscow school was founded in the late 14th century, and its greatest period was during the 15th century. The Tretyakov Gallery has a large collection.

We enjoyed a late lunch at a restaurant right beside the gallery, and then continued our metro station tour, (as already shown), and did some more walking…

That evening we had dinner at Café Pushkin and ate in the Library Hall, of course. 😉 This lovely lovely restaurant was recommend by American author Amor Towles, when I went to see him, and others, at a reading. He was talking about his book A Gentleman in Moscow, which my book club had read and loved, which takes place almost solely in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow. When I got him to sign my book, I mentioned we were headed to Moscow, and that we would have a drink at the Metropol. He then recommended this restaurant.  It was a fantastic meal in an old-world-charming ambience.  Please click on the above link to see the details because our pictures did not turn out, except for this next photo.

The next day, Sunday, we met our private tour guide in the hotel lobby at 10:00. I had booked Alina from home, through a company called Tours By Locals, which was started several years ago by a couple of Vancouver fellows – how could I *not* choose this company 😉  We had two 5-hours days with her. We started by discussing what we had already done, and what we would do today, and then we set out.  Because our hotel is so close, we started at Theatre Square, with the Bolshoi, and learned about the other beautiful theatre buildings.  From there we walked to Tverskaya Ulitsa, which links Moscow to Saint Petersburg and which was the street, during imperial times, along which the tsars arrived from the Northern capital to stay at their Kremlin residence. At the end is Resurrection Gate, the entrance into Red Square, which is called such not because the building are red (though many are), but because ‘red’ means ‘beautiful.’

As we walked through the square, Alina imparted history and other details. We passed by the Lenin Mausoleum, but did not go in.  Next stop, the iconic St. Basil’s Cathedral, into which we did go.

Inside was not what we expected…a gallery around the central chapel leads to the other chapels found under each dome, and it feels like you’re wandering in circles. The intricately painted walls seem to add to the confusion. It’s all quite stunning, and best of all we happened upon a singer demonstrating the lovely acoustics…

the end of an ethereal performance..

From St. Basil’s Cathedral we walked to the famous GUM shopping mall. It was built in the late 1800s, and used to have more than 1,000 shops. For a period during the rule of Stalin, however, GUM’s shops were requisitioned as offices. Now it is a shopping centre that houses many Western chains. The fountain in the middle changes its theme regularly. During our time there, it was watermelon season, and thus it was the watermelon fountain:

Right across the street from the former KGB headquarters, now the Federal Security Service, is Russia’s largest toy store –maybe the world’s largest toy store!– of which the Eyewitness Guide to Moscow says, “With a customary lack of irony, the Soviet authorities built Russia’s largest toy store directly opposite the KGB headquarters in 1957.” We went inside, and up to the roof top, which has a great view over the city.

We stopped for a light lunch at a Georgian restaurant – salads and this dumpling that is much like Chinese dumplings, with the soup inside, though these ones are bigger…

After lunch we stopped in at the gorgeous Eliseevsky Food Hall, a Neo-Baroque building showcasing imported and Russian delicacies…

It was nearing the end of the tour. We expressed an interest in checking out Russian shawls and other souvenirs, so Alina took us by subway to the Izmailovsky outdoor market, where she left us to wander the stalls on our own…

After wandering through the market, but not finding anything we couldn’t live without, we went back on the subway to our hotel.  We utilized the executive lounge for some wine and light dinner, and then went back out, to the Ritz Carlton roof top, for drinks and fantastic views over the city – the perfect end to our day…

On Monday morning, Alina was back at 10:00 and off we went, first to take the subway to Gorky Park, Moscow’s most famous park, named for the writer Maxim Gorky. It’s huge (297 acres), lies along the banks of the Moskva river, has beautiful gardens, winding paths, boating lakes, an outdoor theatre, fairground rides, and in the winter months becomes a skating rink, when some of the paths are flooded.  (A bit of trivia: the movie Gorky Park was not filmed here but, rather, in Finland.)

Across the main entrance of Gorky Park is Muzeon Park of Arts, formerly known as Park of the Fallen Heroes, or Fallen Monument Park, an open-air sculpture museum, which reminded us a little of Memento Park in Budapest.

Walking along the river from this sculpture park, we could see a very large statue of what looks like Christopher Columbus on a boat.  The artist who made this statue was making it of Columbus for his own personal benefit, when the city of Moscow commissioned him to do a statue of Saint Peter to give to the city of Saint Petersburg.  He changed the head of the statue, but several symbols of Portugal remain. Saint Petersburg rejected the statue, so it remains in Moscow…rather meaningless.

We now headed to the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. This cathedral was only recently rebuilt (within the last 20 years), on the grounds of what used to be an outdoor swimming pool. The original cathedral, built to commemorate the miraculous deliverance of Moscow from Napoleon’s invasion in 1812, begun in 1839, completed in 1883, was blown up on Stalin’s orders in 1931. From the Eyewitness guide: “The reconstruciton of the city’s pre-Revolutionary buildings (including this one), is evidence of a growing nostalgia for Russia’s past, and a renewed interest in the nation’s architectural heritage.” This cathedral is where Putin goes to celebrate Christmas and Easter, and is also where the Pussy Riot protests took place.

Then through a lovely little park, whose name we can’t find, which includes a monument to Russian writer Mikhail Sholokhov, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1965 for his novel, And Quiet Flows the Don.

Next we passed by the Russian State Library, largest in the country and fourth largest in the world for its collection of books. A statue of Tolstoy sits in front…

From here we walked to the Kremlin, where Alina helped us to buy our tickets, and then we said thank you and goodbye to her, as we went to tour the Kremlin on our own…

The name “Kremlin” means “fortress inside a city” and is the fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River. It is the best known of the kremlins (Russian citadels) and includes five palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Kremlin Wall with Kremlin towers. Also within this complex is the Grand Kremlin Palace. The complex serves as the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation. (wiki)  From the Eyewitness guide: “Citadel of the Tsars, headquarters of the Soviet Union and now the residence of the Russian president, for centuries the Kremlin has been a symbol of the power of the State.”

We had already walked 22,000 steps with Alina, (our feet were getting tired!), so we explored the complex, and several of the cathedrals, but chose not to go into the Armoury, which is a whole museum unto itself.

The Cathedrals were all built for different reasons: The Assumption Cathedral, erected in 1479, was the major church of the state in which all Russian Tsars were crowned; The Archangel’s Cathedral, 1508, was used as a burial vault for Moscow Great Princes and Russian Tsars; Dormition Cathedral, 1485, was the burial place of Moscow Metropolitans and Patricians; etc. We didn’t take photos inside any, of course, and I seem to have captured only one fully. However, the domes and spires gleaming in the peak-a-boo sun, inspired a few shots…

We walked back to our hotel for a rest, passing Marx along the way..

…and after resting and cleaning up, headed to the Metropol Hotel for drinks in their bar… As I mentioned earlier, my book club read A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, most of which takes place in this hotel. We loved the book, and of course I had to go here!

After enjoying a couple of drinks, we went for a refreshing walk, mainly to capture St. Basil’s Cathedral at night…

…and then went to Gogol Café, a ‘funky’ little bar/restaurant with eclectic decor…

and then encountered this young street trio, with a clarinet rocking Smoke on the Water…

The next morning we woke to rain. I had a relaxing morning in the hotel while Don went off for a work morning. I’m going to let him “guest” and explain what he was doing.

Thank you….

I was invited to visit the Skoltech campus – the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology – a private graduate research university in Skolkovo, Russia, a suburb of Moscow. Established in 2011 in collaboration with MIT, Skoltech educates global leaders in innovation, advance scientific knowledge, and fosters new technologies to address critical issues facing Russia and the world. It is the only university in Russia with a fully English curriculum. I was the guest of Lawrence Stein, a Calgary native and their VP of International Business Development, whom I met through a work colleague here in Michigan, and I was also honoured to meet the president, Alexander Kuleshov, a prominent Russian mathematician.

While the primary purpose of my visit was to meet Dr. Kuleshov and see, first hand, the scope of their operations, the Skoltech team was anxious to talk about a possible collaboration with my motormindz team (www.motormindz.com) in helping Skoltech commercialize some of their technologies – particularly in western markets. It was all very impressive, and we (motormindz) have planned a follow up trip for 2018 (when Moscow warms up!)

Once Don was back, we grabbed a quick lunch at the hotel, and then set off, with our umbrellas, to take the metro to the Novodevichy Cemetery. We have been to several pretty cool cemeteries, but this one may be the best.  It’s like an outdoor sculpture gallery… forgive the *many* pictures, but it was truly atmospheric (even better that it was raining) and amazing…

You see what I mean about evocative and atmospheric… I’ll end with just one more (but we took many more!)…

Back at the hotel, we got ready to meet Lawrence and his wife Irina for dinner at a fantastic restaurant called Dr. Zhivago.  Irina is from Moscow, and she did all the ordering of the food – and champagne: several different speciality dishes from various parts of Russia, that we all shared.  Amazing food and wonderful company to end our Moscow visit!

The next day was a travel day: we had a leisurely morning to pack, and then took the 1:45 train from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, a four-hour journey. We had booked our seats before we left home, in first class. The compartment was comfortable, the service good, the meal very fine.

After a smooth journey, we arrived at 6:00, grabbed a taxi to our hotel, another Marriott, though not as fancy as the one in Moscow. After settling in, we set out on foot, to stretch out after traveling, see a little of the city, and find a place to eat.

We chose a Rick Steves’ recommendation for dinner, the Zoom Café, with a “lively atmosphere and fresh menu.” The decor was ‘playful’ (as they say on their website), and the food was very good and very reasonably priced, perhaps why it’s a young people’s hangout. We were the oldest people there!

The next day, Thursday, our tour guide, Roman, picked us up at our hotel, for a 4-hour overview of the city, by car and walking.  It was raining, and the city turns out to be quite spread out, so we were very thankful for the car.  Roman is a young man with a degree in history and Russian-American relations, so he has some great knowledge, and is very proud of his city.

As we drove around the city centre, we tried to absorb the details. Our first stop was outside the Mariinsky Palace, also known as the Marie Palace, the last Neoclassical palace to be constructed in Saint Petersburg.

We also saw the main post office (no picture) and learned that all distances between cities in Russia are measured from post office to post office, rather than from city centre to city centre.

One next stop was at the Grand Choral Synagogue of St. Petersburg, which is the second largest synagogue in Europe, after Budapest (to which we have been).

Then to St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral, a Baroque Orthodox cathedral, closely associated with the Russian Navy.

We went across the Neva River, to the University Embankment, in front of the Imperial Academy of Arts, to see the oldest monument in Saint Peterburg, sphinxes that were brought to Russia from Egypt in 1832, but which are about 3500 years old.

From here we went to the Peter and Paul Fortress on Hare Island. Peter and Paul Fortress is the original citadel of St. Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built from 1706 to 1740. In the early 1920s, it was still used as a prison and execution ground by the Bolshevik government. (wiki)

There is a fascinating monument to Peter the Great within the fortress – controversial for it’s interesting features…

The Peter and Paul Cathedral, is the first and oldest landmark in Saint Petersburg, built between 1712 and 1733. The cathedral’s bell tower is the world’s tallest Orthodox bell tower. The cathedral houses the remains of almost all the Russian emperors and empresses, from Peter the Great to Nicholas II and his family, who were finally laid to rest here in 1998. (wiki)

We stopped for a small refreshment…

…and then drove back across the river, past other significant buildings, including the Church on the Spilled Blood, and got dropped off at the National Library of Russia, which I wanted to tour. I have mentioned in other blog posts that I have a book entitled The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World, and whenever we travel, if where we are going has one of these libraries, I make a point to go and see it. Well, it turns out you can not go into the National Library of Russia without being on a tour. 😦  We took down the touring information and left the building.

Across the side street from the library is a park with a monument to Catherine the Great. On the pillar, among other statesmen, is Prince Grigory Potemkin, with whom Catherine collaborated and consorted. Interestingly, Potemkin is the namesake of the term, “Potemkin Village:” any construction (literal or figurative) built solely to deceive others into thinking that a situation is better than it really is. (wiki) After Potemkin conquered the Crimean peninsula during the Russo-Turkish War, Catherine visited to survey her new domain. To convince her that “Russification” of the Crimea had been a success, Potemkin created artificially perfect villages, with stage-set houses peopled by “Russian villagers.” (Rick Steves)

We walked to the Church on the Spilled Blood, built on the place a suicide bomber killed Czar Alexander II in 1881. As decorative as it is from the outside, the interior mosaics are stunning (you *must* click on the interior pictures to see them full screen).

From here we walked to St. Isaac’s Cathedral, to climb the 262 steps of the colonnade, for a view from the roof.

Down on the ground, we went inside St. Isaac’s…

When we got back to our hotel, we realized the ballet that evening, for which we had bought tickets from home, started at 7:00, not 8:00, so we quickly changed, had a lovely quick dinner in our hotel, and walked to the New Mariinsky Theatre.  We were in Russia too early for the “season,” but we had learned the newer branch of the Mariinsky, which usually performs more modern pieces, had a few performances of Cinderella during our time in the city.  Ballet, practically invented in Russia, is a type of performance dance that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. (wiki) It seemed that if we were to attend a ballet, Saint Petersburg was the place to do so.  It turned out to be a modern interpretation, with great costumes, which we really enjoyed, though I found Prokofiev’s music to be rather boring.

After the performance we walked back to the hotel to enjoy a glass of wine in the bar before bed.  On Friday, we *had* planned to tour the Hermitage, but first we asked our concierge to phone the National Library to inquire about a potential tour. She managed to arrange for us to have a private tour in the afternoon, for a not-insignificant fee, to which we agreed. We postponed the Hermitage for Sunday, and set out to follow Rick Steves’ walking tour around the city. (Everything in italics is a quote from his book.)

Our first stop was to take note of the memorial to the Siege of Leningrad, as the city was named during the Soviet era. As you know, during WWII, Nazi forces encircled the city and bombarded it for 872 days (Sept 1941-Jan 14944). At the outset, the city’s population, swollen with refugees, was at 3 million, but the the siege’s end, a million or more were dead, mostly civilians who died of starvation. The assault claimed more lives than any other siege in world history.  We just happened to be here for the anniversary of the beginning of the siege, September 8th, and thus the two young people flanking the memorial.

Next stop, the Stroganov Palace: the aristocratic family left their mark all over Russia – commissioning churches, financing the czar’s military agenda, fostering the arts – but their lasting legacy is the beef dish, likely named for them, that has made “stroganoff” a household name around the world.

We come now to the “Singer House,” which was the Russian headquarters of the American sewing machine company. The Art Nouveau building is topped by a globe, at the base of which is an American bald eagle, wings spread, grasping a laurel wreath in its talon and wring a stars-and-stripes shield on its breast. The building is now a bookstore and café.

This next photo is of a spire that was part of an early 19th-century optical telegraph system that stretched more than 800 miles from St.P to Warsaw (then part of the Russian Empire). Each tower in this line-of-sight chain across the empire winked Morse cold signals at the next with mirrors.

The Grand Hotel Europe opened in 1875, its opulence attracting the likes of Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Debussy, and H.G.Wells as guests. We wandered into this old-world-charming place to take a look…

Next, the glass-roofed “Passazh” arcade, an elite haven for high-class shoppers since 1846, making it one of the first shopping malls in the world. The communists converted the Passazh into a supermarket and, later, into a “model store,” intended to leave foreigners with a (misleadingly) positive impression of the availability of goods in the USSR.

Across the street, Gostiny Dvor, (an historical Russian term for ‘market’), a huge yellow building that has a quiet outside arcade with beautifully symmetrical arches on the 2nd level:

Don also spotted a shop selling hockey sweaters and souvenirs, and just had to check it out..

The Aurora Cinema, the first in Saint Petersburg, opened in 1913, and is still in operation today. It is ‘old-world’ grand…

It was time to head to the library for our tour…

Our tour guide met us with forms to sign, and then off we went, for a *very* comprehensive tour of behind-the-scenes of the National Library of Russia, the oldest public library in the nation, and the eighth-largest library in the world by number of items (36.5 million). It was established in 1795 by Catherine the Great. (wiki)

Catherine the Great was a friend of Voltaire, and they corresponded regularly. When he died she purchased his entire library, which is housed in a lovely, locked, temperature-controlled room, along with some of their correspondence.  The French, no doubt, would like it back.

Last, but definitely not least, the most beautiful neo-Gothic room, full of the oldest books…

With huge thanks, we said good bye to our excellent guide, descended the beautiful staircase..

…and made our way to the exit, and the street, to find a late lunch…

After our late lunch, from 5:00-6:30, we took a canal and river boat cruise, which confirmed that our tour guide had given us a great overview of the city… It was freezing on the boat, we wrapped up in blankets, enjoyed the narrator’s highlights of the city, and snapped a few photos…

We walked back to our hotel, to warm up, stopping in at a jazz bar to reserve for the next night, and stayed in that evening for a light dinner in the hotel.

On Saturday morning our guide, Roman, was at our hotel at 10:00, to drive us to Peterhof, the Summer Home of Peter the Great, where we walked the full grounds of fountains and gardens, at least 6 km.  The fountains are stunning, so here are a LOT of photos, first from the very grand entrance…

From the stunning grand entrance, we walked the park…

Roman drove us back to the city and dropped us on Vasilyevsky Island, so we could follow Rick Steves’ back-streets walk. First we grabbed a delicious lunch of borscht and goulash and a couple of very good ciders at Dr. Inki Bar & Restaurant. Fortified, we set off along the back streets, about which Rick Steves says, While these are a bit sterile, you can imagine how they originally served as a mews (stables). Throughout the town, formal parade entries to grand buildings face the front, while the rough “back entries” are for servants and the poor. With the 1917 Revolution, larger buildings were divided up to house many families – Dr. Zhivago-style. Vast blocks were divided into a series of courtyards, with apartments becoming cheaper the deeper they were buried. Walking around town, you can see how fine 19th-century features survive on some buildings, and other buildings – shelled in WWII -were rebuilt more simply in the 1950s and 60s.

The House of Academicians was where big brains lived in the 18th century, and in Soviet times it functioned as a residential think tank. Each of the black plaques between the windows honours a great Russian scientist. The blue plaque by the door identifies the former apartment of Ivan Pavlov, who was the first Russian to win a Nobel Prize.

We crossed back over the river to head to our hotel…

That evening we enjoyed an excellent dinner while listening to a jazz quartet at 48 Chairs.

The singer sang in English, but sometimes it seemed it was a Russian translation of the words… Here they perform Georgia on My Mind, one of my favourites…

When the evening was over, they brought the bill in a top hat. 🙂

On our last day, Sunday, we toured the Hermitage.  We had bought our tickets before leaving home, and with those we breezed by the line of waiting people, entering just after the palace opened.

We followed Rick Steves self-guided tour, up the Ambassador’s Stairs… The Winter Palace, the czar’s official city residence, was built by Italian architects between 1754 and 1762 in the style called Elizabethan Baroque – named for the czarina who popularized it. At this time, all of St. Petersburg – like the staircase – drew on the talents of artists and artisans imported from Western Europe. The palace is designed to impress, astonish, and humble visitors with the power of the Romanov dynasty. 

At the top of the stairs, the Malachite Room: This drawing room, which dates from just after the 1837 fire, is decorated with malachite, a green copper-based mineral found in Russia’s Ural Mountains.

The War Gallery of 1812 hall, displays over 300 portraits of the generals who helped to expel Napoleon from Russia in 1812. The large portraits show the most important figures, and the squares of green cloth represent the generals who weren’t available for sittings.  At the end of the hall is an equestrian portrait of Czar Alexander I, the czar who pushed out the French.

Into the Pavilion Room, which is actually outside of the Winter Palace, in the original Small Hermitage, founded by Catherine the Great in 1762, to house her original art collection is a fascinating timepiece made by British goldsmith James Cox, purchased by Catherine the Great. There’s a video in the room, showing how this mechanical masterpiece tells the time. You can check it out on youtube…

Of course the place is *full* of art. Rick Steves does a wonderful job of summarizing a few key pieces without overwhelming with information. The palace houses more religious pictures than we cared to see, but there were a few interesting-to-us works., including two depictions of Danae, one by Titian (1554) and one by Rembrandt (1636), worth a look, for the different ways this character from Greek mythology is portrayed.

The Loggia, a long narrow hallway – more than 200 feet long, and only 13 feet wide – is a an exact replica of painter Raphael’s Vatican Loggia, though the paintings here are tempera on canvas. The ceiling tells the Christian history chronologically, starting with the Creation and expulsion of Adam and Eve and ending with Christ’s Last Supper.

I was thrilled to learn there is a Michelangelo sculpture here. Prior to our trip to Italy two years ago, I had read a great deal about him, and we searched out as many of his sculptures as we could, as well as visiting Carrara, where he got his marble. Here, the Crouching Boy, c. 1530, not fully finished, apparently, but evocative anyway.

We were also taken with The Three Graces by Canova (1813-1816).

In addition to the Old Masters and newer Masters, there was an exhibit of a contemporary porcelain sculpture-artist, Vladimir Kanevsky, who creates stunning work.

From the Winter Palace, we went to the General Staff Building, across Palace Square, to see the Modern Masters collection of paintings – our preferred era.

This section houses Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, Gauguin, Matisse, Cezanne, 3 rooms of Picasso, etc., etc.  It’s a huge collection, which came to be ‘owned’ by the museum when the original owners fled the country in 1917 and the Soviet Union nationalized their collections.  A sample few favourites:

There was a great view of the square and palace from this part of the museum..

We had dinner in a funky little restaurant Rick Steves recommends, called Obshhestvo Chistyh Tarelok… which apparently means “Clean Plates Society.”  Again, we were the oldest people there!

And then walked home on our last night in Saint Petersburg…

On Monday we took the train from Saint Petersburg to Helsinki, another 4-hour journey, in first class, with a nice meal.

We arrived in Helsinki at 4:00, took a taxi to the AirBnB we had rented with Whitby friends Ed & Lori, who had already arrived from their travels to Iceland and Stockholm.  We stocked up on groceries, did some laundry, and cooked dinner in, for a wonderful first evening of catching up with each other.

We woke to rain on Tuesday morning, so had a leisurely breakfast in our lovely apartment, finally leaving at 11:00 to start our first day of sight-seeing. Don and Ed figured out the tram system, which we took to the downtown Market Square.  From here we followed Rick Steves’ walk, with several shopping stops along the way…

At the heart of the square is the Czarina’s Stone, with a double-headed eagle of imperial Russia.  It was the first public monument in Helsinki, erected in 1835 to celebrate the visit by Czar Nicholas I and Czarina Alexandra. The blue and white City Hall building was the town’s first hotel, built to house the czar. The large building behind the Stone is the Swedish Embassy, and the yellow building to the right is the Supreme Court.

Also in the square, the fountain, Havis Amanda, designed by Ville Vallgren and unveiled in 1908, it has become the symbol of Helsinki, the city known as the “Daughter of the Baltic.”

Up the hill, to Senate Square: It was once a simple town square but its original buildings were burned when Russians invaded in 1808. Later, after Finland became a grand duchy of the Russian Empire, the czar sent in architect Carl Ludvig Engel (a German who had lived and worked in St.Petersburg), to give the place some Neo-class.  Engel represents the paradox of Helsinki: the city as we know it was built by Russia, but with an imported European architect, in a very intentionally “European” style, so Helsinki is, in a sense, both entirely Russian…and not Russian in the slightest. The statue in the centre of the square honours Russian Czar Alexander II. He was not popular in Russia (assassinated), but he was well-liked by the Finns, because he gave Finland more autonomy in 1863 and never pushed “Russification.”

Across the side street from the cathedral, the National Library..

Wandering up The Esplanade, Helsinki’s top shopping boulevard, full of flagship stores of top Finnish designers.. passing the Canadian Embassy..

I hadn’t realized how many Finnish designers there were that I recognized. It turns out this country is famous for design, and a few days later we would tour the Design Museum.

We lunched at Teatterin Grilli, within the Swedish Theater building, built under Russian rule to cater to Swedish residents of Finland. The food was delicious and the decor was delightful.

Continuing our walking tour, we came to the Three Blacksmiths: while there’s no universally accepted meaning for this statue (from 1932), most say it celebrates human labour and cooperation and shows the solid character of the Finnish people.

The train station was designed by Eliel Saarinen, and the four people on the facade symbolize peasant farmers with lamps coming into the Finnish capital.

Next we come to Kamppi Plaza and the Chapel of Silence. This is one of Helsinki’s newest and most surprising bits of architecture: a round, wooden structure, that is solely to enjoy a moment of serenity. As you can see, we were taken by the unique architecture.

From here we walked past Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, a Finnish war hero who frustrated the Soviets both in Finland’s “Civil War” for independence, and again later in WWII…

…to the area in and around the Helsinki Music Centre…

Next, Temppeliaukio Church, otherwise known as the “Church in the Rock”. Built in 1969, this church was blasted out of solid granite. It’s simple and stunning.

To end our city touring, we went to the Sibelius Monument: six hundred stainless-steel pipes called “Love of Music,” built on solid rock, as is so much of Finland, shimmer in a park to honour Finland’s greatest composer, Jean Sibelius. The artist, Eila Hiltunen, was forced to add a bust of the composer’s face to silence critics of her otherwise abstract work.

We went back to the city the next morning, to tour different areas. We took the tram to the market square again, and shopped along a few streets…

and then went to the Old Market Hall, beautifully renovated and full of fantastic and enticing food. We bought reindeer meat sandwiches and pastries for our lunch…

We climbed the hill behind the market to eat our sandwiches overlooking the harbour, and then made our way back down again, to walk along the Peninsula Promenade…

We came to this unique pier, which is specifically for washing rugs, which is the job of Finnish men. Saltwater brightens the rag rugs traditionally made by local grandmas. After the scrub, the rugs are sent through big mechanical wringers and hung on racks to dry.

From the water, we headed up into the Design District.  I know you’ve been wondering, so here are some doors and windows spotted along the way.  🙂

The Design District is several blocks of streets lined with one-off boutiques, galleries, and shops highlighting local designers of clothing, jewelry, furniture and kitchen accessories – all great fun to browse in…

There were roving groups of university students… it was some kind of frosh week craziness…

That evening we went out to a local Georgian restaurant for a delicious dinner…

Thursday morning we were up at 5:30 to shower before our taxi picked us up at 6:15 to take us to the ferry terminal..

…and away we sailed at 7:30 for the 2-hour journey to Tallinn, Estonia. We had two full days and a night in Tallinn, with an all-day tour guide for our first day. Mati picked us up at the ferry terminal at 9:30, and we sat in his large, comfortable van while he showed us a map and gave us a geography overview of Estonia, and then a 10-minute overview of its early history. We then drove a quick perimeter of the old town, before heading to Kadriorg Park, where Peter the Great, after Russia took over Tallinn in 1710, built this summer home for Czarina Catherine.

Next we drove to the Song Festival Grounds (Lauluväljak), a large open-air theatre built in 1959, where the Estonian nation gathers to sing. Every five years, these grounds host a huge national song festival with 25,000 singers and 100,000 spectators.  Most moving, in 1988, 300,000 Estonians (1/3 of the population!) gathered here to sing patriotic songs in defiance of Soviet rule, an event called The Singing Revolution, and since then these grounds have had great symbolic importance. A statue of Gustav Ernesaks, who directed the Estonian National Male Choir for 50 years, through the darkest times of Soviet Rule, and who was a power in the drive for independence, overlooks the grounds.

We drove past the Forest Cemetery (should have stopped, but didn’t). Traditionally Estonians bury their dead in forests because of a deeply rooted belief that their spirit will live on in trees. I like that.

Next we drove to the TV tower, with its 1000-foot tall antenna, built for the 1980 Moscow Olympics (the sailing regatta took place in Tallinn). In front of the tower is a monument to the brave Estonians who faced off against a potential Soviet counterattack during the move for control by Yeltsin in Moscow in August 1991, when they prevented the Soviets taking over the tower and cutting off Estonian communications.  Yeltsin gained control, told the Russian troops to stand down, and just a few weeks later, Russia recognized this country’s right to exist.

We headed back into the town to tour the sites, stopping for lunch first…

After lunch we spent a few hours walking the lower and upper sections of the town, learning history as we went. The weather was very mixed – a little sun and a whole lot of rain, and when it rained, it poured, so we didn’t always take pictures, but here’s what we did capture…

The monument in Freedom Square is a memorial to the freedom fighters who lost their lives in the Estonian War of Independence, 1918-1920. The ‘cross of liberty’ at the top of the glass pillar represents a military decoration from that war, and every war since.

We walked up the hill to the upper town (Toompea), stopping to take note of the granite boulder memorial commemorating the date the Declaration of Independence was signed. At the spot, several rocks were placed across the road, as described (below) in the marker accompanying the bolder, and Mati was among the students who helped place the blockade.

“Estonia’s road to freedom from the decades long occupation by the Soviet Union was complicated and full of hazards. On 18 January 1991, after the bloody events in Vilnius and Riga, all access roads to Toompea were blocked with boulders and concrete blocks. On 20 August 1991, during the attempted coup d’etat in Moscow, The Supreme Council of the Republic of Estonia passed a resolution about the state sovereignty of Estonia. The Republic of Estonia was restored without bloodshed and casualties. This boulder was one of the blocks on the road to Toompea. It was turned into a memorial in August 1993.”

We stopped briefly into the Russian Orthodox Church. (40 percent of Tallinn’s population is ethnic Russian.) Don and I had seen several in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, of course, but Ed and Lori hadn’t been into any. Mati would not go in.

Mati did want to take us into the Lutheran Dome Church, though.  (Estonia is ostensibly Lutheran, though few Tallinners go to church.)  It is simple Northern European Gothic, built in the 13th century during Danish rule, then rebuilt after a 1684 fire. In its early days it was the church of Tallinn’s wealthy German-speaking aristocracy, and there are more than 100 family coats of arms, carved by local masters. Stunning!

It was our great fortune to visit during an organ rehearsal. In the clip I’ve included below, you can hear Mati’s voice in the background, though it’s rather impossible to understand what he’s saying.

At the top of the town, a great viewpoint..

After wandering through the old town, seeing highlights, discussing the differences between the medieval, Swedish and Russian architecture, which can be found side-by-side in the old town (all of which we photographed the following day when the sun was fully out), etc., we got back into Mati’s car and headed out of town to see some of the countryside and Baltic shoreline, none of which can be found in the tourist guidebooks.

Next stop, the Keila-Joa waterfall, with beautiful hiking trails and park surrounding.  We were the *only* people there!

We stopped at the memorial at Klooga Concentration Camp, where we learned something none of us had known: there were several concentration camps in Estonia during WWII. Virtually all Estonian Jews were exterminated, and Jews from other countries were shipped to Estonia’s camps, as well.

We drove through Paldiski, which used to be a closed town as the Soviet nuclear submarine training centre was located there, to the Pakri Peninsula. This area is where Peter the Great placed canons that could fire a 30 km. distance. There were also canons on the other side of the Bay of Finland, which is, at this point, a total span of 60 km., and thus these canons could prevent invaders from coming through the bay, to Saint Petersburg.

Thinking we were going to our hotel at this point (we were well past the 8 hour tour length we had expected), we made one final stop at the Padise Monastery, an architectural and historical site of importance. It was constructed in the 14th century by Cistercian monks, though extensions and improvements continued for over 200 years. It fell into ruin after a number of wars, with some restoration starting in the 1930s.  It would have been really lovely in a bit better light and on a warmer day, but we still appreciated it.

It was *now* time to head to our hotel. Mati had spent an amazing 11 hours with us, imparting information, answering questions, passing on his very strong views of Russia’s occupation and Estonian history. We were exhausted, but completely blown away by our day.

We checked into My City Hotel, which was really lovely (a recommendation by a friend), and too tired to venture out again at 9:00 p.m., we had a spectacular meal in the hotel dining room.

The next morning, after an excellent buffet breakfast in the hotel, we set out to wander the old town on our own, revisiting much of what we’d seen to take photos in the sunshine, doing some shopping in the lovely artisan shops…

We climbed the old city wall for the view over the town..

After a nice lunch in the square, we went to the Museum of Occupations, which tells the history of Estonia during its occupations: locals insist that Estonia didn’t formally lose its independence from 1939 to 1991, but was just “occupied” – first by the Soviets (for one year) then by the Nazis (for three years), and then again by the USSR (for nearly 50 years).

That evening we ate at Farm, which had been recommended by Mati.  The food was farm-to-table delicious….

…but the very best feature was the eclectic, delightful, window display…

After dinner we walked back to our hotel to pick up our luggage, and then walked to the ferry terminal for our late night  (10:00-midnight) trip back to Helsinki.

We woke late the next morning, dallied at home, bought groceries, and then ventured out, first to have lunch at that great market…

…and then to tour the Design Museum.

Design is integral to contemporary Finnish culture, and the museum offers a good overview, tracing the evolution of domestic design from the 1870s, when “applied arts” (merging artistic aesthetics and function) first caught on throughout Europe, through current times. The 1900 World’s Fair in Paris was when the design world became aware of this nation. After WWII, Finland entered a Golden Age of design, and I’m sure we all have at least one item in our homes designed by a Finn – such as the iconic orange-handled Fiskars scissors.  I found the museum fascinating: I hadn’t realized how much design work comes out of Finland.

Design is jewelry, design is art, design is furniture, design is games, design is innovative technology…

There were displays of works from new designers, including “Reflector,” a glass cube you can walk through. Quoting from the placard beside it, “While looking simple on the outside, it contains a labyrinth. According to designer Elina Elvio (born 1981), passing through the cube is like a journey in a dream where changing direction will change the script of the dream. The materials of the cube have been chosen to be simultaneously reflecting and translucent. The journey becomes mixed with the outside world, which is an aspect of dreams.” Here, Lori demonstrates:

There were a few videos, as well. This one was simultaneously simple and moving, called “Blood Field” by Anna Salmi:

Because it was the 50th anniversary of Fiskars Scissors, there was a lovely exhibit paying tribute to the scissors – art incorporating the scissors, or art creatively using scissors…

After the museum, we took the tram to the main shopping street, The Esplanade, to pick up some souvenirs. And then, ‘home’ to cook dinner and enjoy our evening together.

Sunday was a beautiful, sunny day, perfect for a walk. We took the tram to the ferry terminal and caught the 15-minute ferry to Suomenlinna Fortress, a strategic fortress built on an island guarding Helsinki’s harbour. Fortification began in 1748, under Augustin Ehrensvärd’s direction, when Finland was under Swedish rule, to counter Russia’s rise to power. With 5 miles of walls and hundreds of cannons, it was the second strongest fort of its kind in Europe after Gibraltar. It fell to the Russians in 1808, and remained in their hands until the Finns achieved independence in 1917. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its unique example of military architecture.

Back in the city centre,we climbed up the hill to see the Uspenski Orthodox cathedral, (built for the Russian military in 1868, a time when Finland belonged to Russia), only to find it had just closed.

So, we then took the tram to the area of Olympic grounds, for a brief walk around, though we didn’t see much as most of the area was under renovation…

We went back to the apartment for a dinner of leftovers and an early night.

On Monday we were up fairly early to pack and clean up the apartment. Then, we took the tram to the Helsinki City museum, which we all found interesting.

From the museum we walked to the metro station (which we hadn’t used yet), discovered an international food market by the station, which we wandered through, sampling some treats, and then took the subway to the stop closest to our apartment.  We wandered this largely factory area which is being rejuvenated, and ate a delicious lunch at a place currently catering to the construction workers.

Back to the apartment for a brief nap for the men folk and computer time for the women folk, and then we ‘checked out’ of our home-away-from-home and took a taxi to the airport hotels. We were in different hotels, but met up for dinner at ours…

Don and I flew out VERY early the next morning, with Ed and Lori following several hours later, after a truly excellent adventure!