LAT Post
9-27-2013
This was a loooooonnnnng day! lots to see and very overwhelming. Our first trek after breakfast was to the Hermitage. Oh my you have no idea. The lovely thing about this place which is five buildings and their buildings are not small is that they let us in early before the public and we for quite awhile had it to ourselves. They said it would take ten years to see all the items that are in the museum. We didn't have quite that long. There were rooms with paintings by Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, Degas, and Matisee just to name a few. You could take non flash pictures and could get your nose up close without someone running over and pulling you away. We went on a private tour of the collection of gold items they have and that was ok... all ana all we walked, and walked and walked....up and down stairs until I have lost my fear of going up and down without a hand rail! We then took off to the Hermitage Storage building ..a 25 or minute bus ride. We had lunch with one of the better salads I have ever had to eat, Linda didn't like it so I ate both of ours. It was served with borsch soup which was good and then chicken and rice... way too much food. then we went on another walking trek thru the "storage" which was all the stuff they could not fit into the main buildings. Very carefully stored in climate controlled rooms with glass viewing.. the rooms are sealed with a wax type thing that they could tell if someone had entered. We came back to the ship and had a quick snack changed our clothes and took off to the ballet. The performance was SWAN LAKE! It was good but I have to say I closed my eyes a couple times for more than a blink. Every time we go anywhere by bus you can plan on a long ride as the traffic is pretty bad here.
LMR Post
Walking - stair climbing and more stair climbing.That's the story of our 8 hours i at the Hermitage. Beautiful art, gorgeous furniture - Gaugin, Monet, VanGogh among the treasures ...lots of guards, even closed in and locked in the gold room.
Special-visitor at the hermitage - the Kong of Sweden!! Mary Lou was in the room with him and all is protectors. Our group was allowed one person in there and Mary Lou was the lucky one. We tried to pick him out of the crowd of men, but couldn't. But still it was our brush with royalty.
Pretty tired upon returning to the ship, but went to the dinner buffet. Then on to Swan Lake. Turned out the same way it always does, the swan died. They had hot snacks (what ever that is) for us when we got back, but we chose not to participate.
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