This blog will take you to places you’ve always wanted to see and to some you may only have heard of. Its purpose – to immerse you in extraordinary tastes and colors, smells, sights and experiences, infecting you, or perhaps aggravating, an already serious case of wanderlust.
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Russia – St. Petersburg – The Hermitage, at last
Our first day in St. Petersburg, and our first stop is the Hermitage, the principle reason we’re in Russia. Peter the Great lived and died in a relatively modest palace here, on the banks of the Neva, and it was his his extravagant daughter, Empress Elizabeth, who in 1754, ordered the creation of a Winter Palace. Her son Peter III died there under suspicious circumstances, with the connivance of his wife, Catherine the Great, who succeeded him. Catherine had several insatiable appetites, but it was her lust for masterpieces that was responsible for the birth of one of the world’s great art collections. What a home it has!
In the summer of 1941 Hermitage staff and many volunteers packed up all these treasures. Two trains carried 1,118,000 works of art to the safety of the Ural mountains to save them from the approaching Nazis.
We pass through the royal reception rooms to get to the vast collection (there are 23 Rembrandts alone) displayed in 120 rooms. Here is a tiny sample. You owe it to yourself to see Alexander Sokurov’s “The Russian Ark”, a film shot in one continuous take, a tour of the Hermitage narrated by a resident ghost.
Click on the links to see videos.IMG_1425 IMG_1421 IMG_1426
Catherine the Great’s throne
Pavilion Room with Peacock Clock
Loggia of Raphael (copy of a Vatican gallery)
Rembrandt – Danae
Rembrandt – The Return of the Prodigal Son
Rembrandt – Flora
da Vinci Benois Madonna
Russia – St. Petersburg – A Jewel Survives
We wake up in St. Petersburg.
In 1700 Peter the Great succeeded in kicking out the Swedes. To defend his gains, he ordered a city built on the swampy uninhabited land at the mouth of the Neva, using the forced labor of thousands of peasants. In 1712 he moved his capital here. Between 1741 and 1835 Empress Elizabeth, Catherine the Great, and Alexander I turned it into one of Europe’s grandest capitols, building elaborate palaces, government buildings, and churches.
It was here, in 1917 that a workers’ protest turned into a general strike that toppled the monarchy.
It was here that, seven months later, the provisional government was taken over by Lenin’s Bolshevik party in an audacious coup.
It was here that the Nazi’s, vowing to wipe the birthplace of Bolshevism from the face of the earth, set siege to the city on September 8, 1941, a siege that took 1 million lives, not ending until January 24, 1944. (Total combined U.S. and British WWII casualties were 700,000 dead.)
Somehow, the city survived, defiant. Concerts were held, plays performed, poetry read, though there was so little food that the population resorted to boiled leather and the paste from the back of wall paper for nourishment.
Those days are long past, and the city glitters once more, its palaces and churches, grand boulevards and elegant packed cafes, testament to its claim to be the jewel of Russia.
We can’t wait to see it all!
Russia – Kizhi Island – 22 Domes!
As we eat breakfast, we’re cruising across Lake Onega, 2nd largest lake in Europe. (Russia also contains #1 – Lake Ladoga.) It’s like a small sea – we can’t see either shore.
Our next stop is Kizhi Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, largely because of its two fabulous churches. The island is an open-air museum – buildings from this part of Russia have been brought here to complement the two churches which are the island’s main attractions.
The most amazing is the Church of the Transfiguration – with 22 domes. Tradition holds it was constructed without a single nail – all wood joinery – and that the unknown builder – upon completion – threw his axe into the lake with the words “There was not – and will not be – another one to match it.” It’s being laboriously restored and we could only admire it from the outside.
Not so with its neighbor, the Church of the Intercessions. It’s 9-domed, and the ‘winter’ church because it’s small enough to heat. It dates 
from 1764.
More gorgeous icons.
We loved the farmhouse not far from the church and the workmanship that made it so
beautiful.
Our guide is a stunning Russian – there are so many.
Next, back to the boat for a lesson from our chef in making pelmeni – ear- shaped dumplings filled with minced meat. Because they are freezable, historians have deduced
their origin. In 12th century Siberia, hunters living in the rugged Ural Mountains filled their packs with frozen pel’nyan (ear bread) before an expedition. When it was time to eat, they boiled the dumplings in melted snow. Now it’s a staple of Russian cuisine.
But dinner aboard is more than pelmeni. There is shrimp risotto.
And for desert, a chocolate covered mousse 
cake with raspberry sauce. A good day – any way you look at it.
Next – St. Petersburg!!!
Morocco – A Sneak Peak – Dar Roumana
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As I write this we’re in Morocco – Fes. Foreign Writes interrupts the Russia report for a sneak peak at our current adventure:
He’s at the door at 7:30. We follow him into the Fes night through streets and alleys, up ramps and around corners, until we wonder just where he’s taking us. He turns down another narrow alley and stops in front of a door. Sure enough, there’s a small plaque indicating Dar Roumana. He pushes the buzzer. A bow-tied, black-suited Moroccan opens the brass-studded door and leads us into an Arabian nights fantasy – the restored riad that is now one of Fes’s best restaurants.
Five white-clad tables sit on a geometric tiled floor in what was once the center courtyard of a wealthy Fassi’s attempt to recreate paradise. Candles burn around the central fountain.
An alcove lined with damask covered sofas, 
cushioned in scarlet, is topped by a carved cedar ceiling painted in reds and greens and golds.
The walls are an intricate tile pattern in green and blue and yellow, above the tiles, an impossibly intricate design in carved plaster. 
We’ve learned that the technique required master artisans to tease out their symmetrical designs of flowers and leaves with tiny knives in almost dry plaster – using no pattern but what they carried in their heads.
We are the only guests – it’s still early for dinner in Fes. We choose a table near the alcove and become aware that 20’s era jazz is playing. I immediately picture bead-dripping flappers, slim French beauties, dancing with their escorts, the colonial masters of Morocco from 1906 to 1956.
But here is our waiter, smiling, handing us menus. So hard to make choices between the four starters and main courses. I’ve learned my lesson – no first course if there’s to be any hope of finishing the entree – AND 
dessert. Mark has no such limitations and orders cuttlefish in a spicy tomato sauce.
We both decide we can’t forego the veal T-bone. We sip a good Moroccan Syrah, dip warm local bread in spicy olive oil, and nibble on addictive olives while we wait. The dining room of chef Yours Idrissi is starting to fill.
The veal is the best we’ve ever tasted and we finish every bite.
Mark orders a bitter orange 
and almond cake with lemon yogurt and orange sorbet.
I can’t resist the tart of
dark chocolate with vanilla bean ice cream. Altogether, a wonderful meal. Mark’s three courses set us back $30. My two courses – $27.
Our guide waits outside the heavy door to lead us back through the labyrinth of 10,000 streets that is the Fes medina.
Hope you’ll be here for more Morocco adventures!
Russia – Monasteries, High school – and Vodka
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The road skirts the border of a lake so pure that motorboats are forbidden. 
Emerging from the mist on the far shore is the Monastery of Krillo- Belozersky. If we hadn’t been told, we would have assumed it was another kremlin – a fortress. Two kilometers of 7 meter thick walls enclose what was once home to 900 monks, and one of the largest monasteries in Europe.
Its beginnings were humble, a cave dug by two monks in 1397. By the end of the 17th century, the complex consisted 
of two monasteries (one dedicated to the Assumption, one to St. John), 11 churches and a huge library. Ivan the Terrible kept a cell here, but gave up his plans to become a monk, castigating the inhabitants for their high living.
The Soviets shut it down in 1924, arresting and/or executing the monks, and turning the complex into a museum. The monks are back, 50 or so, but most of the complex remains a museum under extensive restoration.
The iconostasis – wall of icons – of the Church of the Assumption is glorious.
Next, on to the local high school where our 9th grade guide describes 
the school’s program in very good English, after which we are entertained by two 
students singing Russian folk songs. Jeans clad students racing through the halls, cell phones glued to their ears, would fit in anywhere.
The climax of our day is an introduction to Russian Vodka. There are six intimidating 
glasses waiting for us at our places, with vodka-friendly pickles and other snacks on the table to help absorb the alcohol.
Our hostess from the Viking staff introduces us to the various vodkas we will taste and the various ways in which we can impress those back home with our prowess.
IMG_1379Thumb on bottom of glass, first finger on top, holding the glass in the crook of your arm, and – best of all – the vodka waterfall – demonstrated in this video – two shot glasses, one draining into the other.
Don’t try this unless you’re in Russia!
