Miscellaneous

I have been wanting to write this post for awhile, but a couple things have prevented it from happening, including my first trip to Rome last week (more on that later).

Celebrating Our Independence

You might have been wondering how the Brits acknowledge America’s favorite holiday, so here it is: they don’t. There was not one word uttered on the BBC or EuroNews channels. I am not sure what I was expecting, but after listening to them rattle on and on about Canada Day (which is July 1), I did expect at least a little something. Oh well, I guess they aren’t quite over it yet!

Pat and I celebrated by going to dinner at a BBQ joint with a group of Americans (and one Spaniard). Thanks for the invite Cars & John! It was a great night, watching baseball on TV, feasting on American food, and making fun of Brits. Haha! Everyone was sharing stories about how their co-workers observed the 4th of July. Here are the highlights:

* Two generous (or hungry?) Brits went out in search of a cake to buy for their American colleagues. They couldn’t find anything fireworks or star spangled banner related, so they returned with a caterpillar cake.

* One elderly male (read crotchety) colleague mumbled something about our “temporary independence” on his walk past an American’s desk.

* John (part Irish, part American) saw a fellow American in the office that day and asked him why he was not sporting his red, white & blue. The guy answered with “I don’t have to wear the colors to show my pride . . . I took all the tea from the break room!”

I hope you all had a great 4th and enjoyed the fireworks for us!

Wimbledon

I am not sure how many of you are tennis fans, but around here tennis takes over during Wimbledon. I definitely got into the spirit and became an overnight expert. Even though we didn’t make it to the hallowed grounds to see any matches live, I did get a couple fun pictures to show how the locals pay homage.

This is the window of a woman’s clothing store:



This is a café/restaurant in our neighborhood:

Venezia!

A month ago today, we were in Venice. Ahhhh. And about the time that I write this, we were enjoying a lovely lunch in Piazza San Marco, soaking up the warm sun. Here I am savoring a bellini (my favorite!):



Pat was lucky enough to have a break after his project in Russia and since those don’t come often, we wanted to make the most if it. Italy was the clear choice and my dad suggested Venice for its laid back atmosphere, as opposed to Florence & Rome, where we would feel the need to run around and see things. We wanted to just chill for a couple days and not have an agenda. Venice was perfect, thanks for the great advice Clark!

The weather was perfect – sunny and warm, but not quite hot – which always makes a trip better. We opted for a boutique hotel near the train station, about a 30 minute walk from Piazza San Marco and the center of town. I am really glad we stayed out there, it gave us a chance (ok, 3 days full of lots of chances) to wander the narrow streets & canals that makes up of the maze of Venice. It was so fun! You turn a corner and have no idea what you may find! Here are a couple shots:





After our long, lingering lunch in the square by the orchestra (see pic below), we wandered along the waterfront.



We had heard that Venice can be a bit smelly due to the water, but let me tell you, it has nothing on Moscow! We didn’t notice anything. And we even investigated. Check out this close look, it’s cleaner than Lake Shafer!



We found our way into a little church and sat in there for awhile to admire its simple beauty (and to cool off). We found out later that it is know as Vivaldi’s Church, as he was the concertmaster there from 1705-1740.

That night we committed the fatal hungry tourist error and allowed ourselves to be lured into a restaurant bc it looked nice and we were very very hungry. Ugh. All I can say is that it was a big disappointment. And to make it worse, we were eaten alive by mosquitoes while sitting in the garden. And little green things kept falling on our table, in our glasses, etc. It was just not good. At least there were plenty of gelato stands our on walk home to make sure we went to bed with a full tummy & a smile on our face!

The next day we wandered over to Piazza San Marco and the Rialto Market again and did a little shopping (notice I said “we”!). Then we found a little pizza place on the water and enjoyed some yummy Italian pizza and watched the boats coming & going. It was awesome! We even found a table where Pat could be under the brollie & I could be in the sun. Perfecto!

Next we took a vaporetti (the boats that serve as public transport) to Murano, the nearby island where all the glassmakers are located. They were ordered to be transferred from Venice to Murano in 1292 due to the fire hazard posed by the open furnaces. For hundreds of years, the glass blowers' secrets (including how to make mirrors) were held on this island and Murano’s crystalware decorated villas in Italy and the royal palaces of Europe. Here is a picture of Pat on a bridge as we wandered through Murano:



That night we had dinner at a hotel restaurant with a dramatic terrace overlooking the Grand Canal. It was a wonderful meal (we tried the Venetian pasta e fagioli soup) and a gorgeous view. A great way to celebrate our last night in Venice! It was too chilly to sit outside for dinner, but we made sure to get a picture out on the terrace before we left:



We started our last day with another trip to the local coffee shop. Forget the breakfast buffet at the hotel, all I wanted was a cappuccino and doughnuts! We found this coffee shop on our first morning after sleeping through the breakfast buffet (moms – we were not being lazy! Our flight was delayed and we didn’t get to the hotel until after 1 am). Neither of us are doughnut lovers, but we needed something with our coffee, so we planned to share one to tide us over until we could find something a bit healthier. That was the plan. And then I sunk my teeth into that sweet, delicious, perfection. YUM! I immediately had a flashback to my previous trip to Italy to visit my Nana’s cousins in the hills of Fanano (outside of Bologna). I don’t know what they do to those doughnuts, but they are magnificent! And it tasted exactly the same as the ones I remembered from 22 years earlier. Thus, every morning we were in Venice we started our day at the coffee shop with 2 doughnuts each (then to the fruit market). Here I am, so excited about my little friends (wondering how many I can eat before getting sick):



Although we had walked around Piazza San Marco everyday, we still had yet to take the lift in the Campanile di San Marco for the breathtaking views of the city. Thankfully the queue was quite short when we got there on our last day and we were in right away. Here are a couple of our pictures from way up there:

St Petersburg (aka Petrograd, Leningrad)

After a week in Moscow, I could not wait to get to St Petersburg. Partly because I was ready for a change of scenery (and smell!) and partly bc everyone I spoke with in Moscow was so excited to hear that we were going to St Petersburg. They would gush on and on about how different and European and beautiful the city is. And the weather report looked great too. Bonus!

We started our adventure on an overnight train. Sounds glamorous, right? That is what I pictured, like an old Hollywood movie. I mean, we were in first class. WRONG! I admit it was not horrible, but not glamorous either. We had our own little (l-i-t-t-l-e) cabin with a bench on each side and a tiny table in the middle. There were 4 cabins in our car and 2 bathrooms (not bad for 8 people). The part that got me was looking at the fabric covered bench where we were to sleep. It was not like sheets in a hotel room that are (should be) cleaned and new for you. It was like the bedspread that you look at wondering if and when it had been cleaned, who had been there before, and what they had done on it. EW! Sorry Pat, but that is what happened to me after spending 2 years living in mediocre hotels while flying around the world as an air hostess! Admittedly, part of it was the germophobe in me, but part of it (and those of you with allergies will sympathizes with me here) was that it was a bit old and not well ventilated in there. And I just knew that after being in there for 30 minutes I was not going to be able to breath, let alone sleep. Ugh. [Sidenote: Pat rolls his eyes when I complain about my allergies and not being able to breathe. How rude, right? If you have allergies and feel my sinus pain, help a girl out! Send him an email and tell him IT IS REAL!]

I declared that I hated camping. Pat insisted that we were not camping. Whatever.

Regardless, we made it. He slept fine (of course) and me, well, not so much. We arrived at our hotel around 9am and luckily they were able to check us in right away so I could snooze while he worked for a bit (it was Friday).

Friday night we walked around and got a feel for the city. It is a canal city, similar to Amsterdam. Here is a pic:



We wandered onto the main Boulevard, then veered off towards a big church that looked interesting. Behind it was even more interesting – a new mid-rise building with lots of fab shops and a très cool café on the roof! Being prime time on a Friday night, I didn’t think we would get a table. But they took us to a great little table for two right away. Check out our view! That is the Kazansky Cathedral behind us.



Saturday we started at the Hermitage, which is the art museum in Saint Petersburg, if not all of Russia. Similar to the Louvre, it was originally built as a palace and thus displays not only great art, but beautiful interiors as well. Some of the rooms were absolutely amazing! Unfortunately it was very crowded (weekend tourists) and very sunny outside, so I was having a difficult time keeping Pat inside the museum. We made sure to hit the major must-sees (including the original golden peacock which was copied for the Marie Antoinette restaurant we ate at in Moscow). Here it is:



Here are a couple pictures of rooms. Check out all that gold!





The funniest part of the Hermitage was the gift shops. Instead of having just one main one by the exit like almost every other museum I have been to, the new (relatively) capitalists took it to the next level: they had mini gift shops in every little nook & cranny in that whole place! And whenever they saw a group of Asian tourists coming through, they would start holding up books & postcards. Pat & I got a few laughs out of watching that. It was hilarious!

We left the Hermitage around lunchtime, without a plan of where to dine. This is a common struggle when we travel; dinners are easy to plan bc usually we make a reservation. Lunches are a different story. We usually have a loose plan for the day, but don’t want to have every second planned (a relaxing strategy). The problem becomes, do we just go into the first or second place we see once we get hungry, or do we stick our nose in our book to find a place that comes recommended? I usually think back to the GFL in Lisbon and try not to go into the first place we see. I digress, back to lunch in St Petersburg.

We left the Hermitage (take 2) and just a few blocks away stumbled onto very nice hotel with a restaurant on the roof – perfect! They had tables inside and outside and although no one was sitting outside, we opted to sit outside to soak up the sun, when it appeared from behind the clouds. They thought we were crazy and probably fought over who had to serve us. It was a bit chilly, but the view was worth it! Look!





After lunch we walked over to the Khram Spasa na Krovi (Church on the Spilled Blood). Its exterior is a near copy of St Basil’s in Moscow, but I like the color choice much better (see the turquoise everywhere?). It commemorates the assassination of Alexander II and the altar stands over the exact spot where the tsar was blown up by a revolutionary bomb in 1881 (hence “on the spilled blood).



We also found a great souvenir market across the street and loaded up on Russian goodies. Pat could not stop smiling after he found this special “Matryoshka” doll:



Then we walked over to the Marsovo Pole, a big open field that once served as an imperial parade ground. There is an eternal flame in the centre honoring those who died in the 1917 February Revolution, and the fallen in the October Revolution (Lenin’s) and the Civil War. Here is a pic:



Next we wandered over to the Letniy Sad and Letniy Dvorets (Summer Palace & Gardens). The garden was a great place to stroll on a sunny afternoon! Here is a shot of me checking out one of the hundreds of busts in the park:



Saturday night we had tickets to a must activity in Russia – the ballet! Yes, despite what Pat might say now, he really did enjoy it. The performance and costumes were beautiful. And we had great seats overlooking the orchestra. Check it out:



Sunday morning we headed over to St Isaac’s Cathedral, across the street from our hotel. The huge dome dominates the skyline of the city and the building of the structure, the fourth version, begun in 1818 following the defeat of the French (ironic since they choose a French architect to design it). We paid the extra fee to climb the 262 steps to the top of the colonnade, and despite the fact that Pat was unimpressed, I must post a couple pictures from the top. Hello, 262 steps!





Here is a shot of the inside:



Next we headed over to an island in the river which houses the Peter & Paul Fortress. When the fortress was built in 1703 (to protect lands won from the Swedes) it marked the establishment of the city. On the very sunny Sunday that we visited the island, there it was like a major party taking place! People were enjoying the beach and children were getting their pictures taken with their favorite cartoon characters. This is a picture of the beach & island from the bridge:



Then we headed to catch a boat to Peterhof (a woman I met in Moscow made me promise that we would go to Peterhof. It is about a 30 minute boat trip from the Hermitage and home to a beautiful palace, garden and foundations). Although getting on the boat was not an easy feat, we finally did and the ride was very nice. It was starting to get chilly, but we still enjoyed walking around the palace and gorgeous grounds. I have not been to Versailles, but I imagine it to be similar to Peterhof. Actually, St Petersburg’s European feel is due to the fact that Peter the Great traveled to Europe specifically to find stylistic inspiration for the new city he was building. Anyway, here are a couple pictures of Peterhof:





We had a couple hours before our train back to Moscow, so we enjoyed the beautiful lobby of our hotel and researched where to go for our next trip. Pat was going to have a week between projects so even though we were both missing our adopted home in London, we knew we had to take advantage. Our hotel in St Petersburg, by the way, has quite a history. It was built in 1910 and was the most exclusive hotel in the city. During WWII Hitler was so confident that he would take the city, he printed up invitations for a German victory party there. Ha ha Hitler! The joke is on you - we stayed there (and so have tons of celebs & politicans) but you never got the chance!

Then it was back to the train for another overnight ride back to Moscow (about 8 hours). Ugh. I was not very excited for it, but of course Pat was. I just kept thinking that the following night I would be sleeping back at home for the first time in almost 5 weeks! Here is a picture of us leaving the train in the morning. Can you tell that Pat slept on the train and that I am excited to be leaving?