We were on a 12 day river cruise from July 26 to August 6 to Russia, starting from St. Petersburg, going through the Russian internal waterway, visiting the towns and cities along the way and ending in Moscow.<\/p>\n
This is the second time we visited St. Petersburg.\u00a0 The last time was in 1995 when we took the cruise to the Baltics.\u00a0 The city surely looked better. There were less pot holes but more cars on the roads, the public transportation vehicles were less dilapidated, and the number of young vendors selling pins and medals in the streets was much smaller.\u00a0 It did appear that there was a change for the better.\u00a0 Putin no doubt has done a credible job, even though Russia is still poor by comparison.\u00a0 We understand that unemployment rate is 6% but it is not evenly distributed.\u00a0 While there are jobs in the big cities as in St. Petersburg and Moscow, people elsewhere are still hard done by.\u00a0\u00a0 Wealth is in the hands of a very few.\u00a0 Pension age is 55 for women and 60 for men.\u00a0 The average life span of a Russian man is however only 59.\u00a0 No wonder we did see a lot of elderly women selling small baskets of fruits and flowers from their own back yards to make ends meet.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, the palaces tell another story.\u00a0 Anybody who has visited them do not have to dig very deep to get to the causes for the<\/strong> 1917 revolution.\u00a0 We saw three of their most famous palaces, The Hermitage, Catherine\u2019s Palace and Peterhof and had a glimpse into the past glory and decadent life style enjoyed by the Czars and their families.\u00a0 In our minds, the Russian palaces are unrivalled in the world.\u00a0 \u201cGlittering with gold\u201d is to be taken literally as the palaces are plastered with gold leaves everywhere. The numerous paintings and artifacts displayed in the Hermitage which used to be the Romanovs\u2019 winter palace and is now a museum are not only national but world treasures; the amber room in Catherine\u2019s Palace dazzles and boggles the mind and the many glorious and magnificent fountains in Peterhof provide us with an insight into Peter the Great\u2019s vision as an architect of the Russian Empire.\u00a0 We come up short with words to describe with justice the richness of these palaces and hopefully the pictures and videos will do a better job.<\/p>\n From Russia with Love \u2013 Hermitage video<\/a><\/p>\n From Russia with Love \u2013 Catherine\u2019s Place video<\/a><\/p>\n From Russia with Love \u2013 Peterhof video<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We were on a 12 day river cruise from July 26 to August 6 to Russia, starting from St. Petersburg, going through the Russian internal waterway, visiting the towns and cities along the way and ending in Moscow. This is … Continue reading