St. Petersburg, Russia II

See Catherine's Palace and the Hermitage Winter Palace

Our second day in Russia, we primarily saw Catherine's Palace at Pushkin and the Hermitage at the Winter Palace. Unfortunately, there were 3 cruise ships in port that day, and about 50 bus loads of people were trying to get into Catherine's Palace at 9 am. It was close to chaos, and even tho we had an 'entry time' of 9:30, we waited about 2 1/2 hours to get inside for a 45 minute tour. (This was after an hour's drive to get there, also.)

The Hermitage was founded by Catherine the Great in 1764. It is closed on Monday (the day we were there), however it is open to groups. There wasn't a wait there, but we were rushed through a small part of it. There are 2,800,000 paintings here, including 2 rooms of Picasso's. 45 minutes does not do it justice. So these few photos are just a sample of what could be seen.


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