Saturday, September 3 ~ Hermitage Museum and Folk Show

This morning we met out city guide, got on a small bus, and she pointed out a few highlights of St. Petersburg. There was very little traffic because it is Saturday. St. Petersburg was built in the 18th century by a Peter the Great because he wanted to create a Russian capital to rival the splendor of Paris. Before the Russian Revolution, the tsars and tsarinas built opulent palaces and lived the high life.  
We stopped to get closer to a statue of Catherine the Great. Then we saw the outside of Our Church of the Spilled Blood where Alexander ll was assassinated.

Next we went to a restaurant which served us borscht soup and Beef Stroganoff for lunch. The Duke of stroganoff had bad teeth so all of his meat and vegetables had to be cut up for him. That was how Beef Stroganoff was created.

This afternoon we were guided through the best of the best of the Hermitage Museum. According to our guide, it would take eleven years to see everything, so she expertly showed us paintings and sculptures by artists like Leonardo DaVinci, Michelangelo, and Goya. There was a room of knights in armor on horseback. It made me think of the Stibbert Museum in Florence, Italy. I was very impressed with the collections in the Hermitage.
This evening we went to the folk show. We had originally thought that we would like to see the ballet, but the ballet company that was performing tonight is supposedly not very good. The folk show this evening was excellent! Linda and I found perfect seats in the front at the side. We could see the instrumentalists playing traditional instruments like a huge bass balalaika, accordion, and some unusual small percussion. The dancers certainly had beautiful costumes and a lot of energy!
At the intermission we sipped champagne, ate tiny canapés, and multilayered white cake. Linda and I each bought a large square flowered scarf with fringe that was like the female dancers wore. Linda also bought a CD made by the excellent male singers. What a fun evening!