Like a Hop-On, Hop-Off bus tour, today we were visiting multiple locations in and about St. Petersburg. Our first stop? We disembarked at Seven Bridges Point (or Semimostye in Russian), an intersection of two major canals and the bridges that cross over them. Here, if you stand on the Pikalov bridge and turn around slowly, you can see the other six bridges that, along with the Pikalov, engendered the official name for this spot.
But, there’s a nickname, too. In numerology, “seven” symbolizing universal harmony. That tenet gave rise to the tradition of making a wish here at what has been unofficially christened the “Wishing Bridge.”
And if you really want to double-down on that wish, it is suggested that your invocation be made at 7 AM or 7 PM on July 7th. Unfortunately, our petitions probably fell on deaf ears as we were off by 1 day, 1 hour and 28 minutes according to my camera’s clock. But, wishes aside, the area offered spectacular views down serene canals, reflecting several prominent landmarks.
With our wishes made, we were back on the bus for our next stop: St. Isaac’s Cathedral. The current building was commissioned by Alexander I to honor the patron saint of Peter the Great. It served as an Orthodox cathedral until the communist revolution, when it began its socialist existence as a museum. First, it was the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism; and, later, it became a cathedral museum — which it still is to this day. Religious services are sometimes held here…but only on major ecclesiastical occasions.
We hopped back on the bus for a “moving” tour of the architectural highlights that could be seen through a bus window on our way to lunch. After lunch (I have no record of where or what we ate), it was off to the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, south of St. Petersburg.
The Catherine Palace
We arrived at the former summer residence of Catherine the Great’s court too early. It was not open to the public yet. Across from the ornate palace gates were the Alexander Gardens. Most of our group decided to explore them to fill in the extra time. Me? I walked around them a bit…then settled down by the gates to patiently wait for the palace to open.
Exterior views
Inside the Palace
The palace was a wonder to behold. Visually stunning from room to room, it was difficult to capture the exquisite details in photos. At the expense of sounding like a pinko commie, they really knew how to live the good life…off the sweat of their workers and peasants.
But a real shocker came as we finished touring the rooms and started to exit through a long corridor lined with B&W photos. It turns out that the palace had been mostly destroyed by the retreating Nazis and that everything we’d just ooh’d and aah’d over was, for the most part, reconstruction.
I guess I should not have been surprised by this. I had learned on our first day from our local tour guide in St. Petersburg that many of the buildings we were admiring as we walked long the avenues were reconstructed facades built to look as close to what they had been before the siege of then-Leningrad.
Of course, the most famous loss and greatest mystery surrounding the Catherine Palace pertained to one particular room, the original Amber Room. A gift from the Prussian King to Peter the Great, the room was lined with amber panels, gold leaf and mirrors. It had been called the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” Too fragile to be move quickly, the Soviets had tried to conceal it behind wallpaper. No foolin’ these Nazis. They dismantled it and moved the room to Königsberg Palace in Prussia. After that, it disappeared and has never been seen since. Today’, it has been recreated’s Amber Room is a re-creation based on original drawings and old B&W pictures. (Photos were not permitted.)
Catherine Park
Once out of the building, we found ourselves in Catherine Park, behind the palace building. Here we spent time roaming among the structures and flowering gardens. (The surrounding area used to be heavily forested. The Nazis, while using the palace as a military HQ, cleared the entire forest for use as firewood.)
With our excursion to the Catherine Palace completed, our visit to St. Petersburg was officially over and we were taken back to the hotel for a final group dinner before we prepared for our early morning departure.
OAT group photo and a last dinner together
Our Baltic Adventure 