Today we got to spend over 3 glorious hours in the Hermitage.  One of the oldest and largest museums in the world, it was founded in 1754 by Catherine the Great and has been open to the pubic since 1852. Its collections comprise over 3 million items including the largest collection of paintings in the world.  The collections occupy a large complex of 6 historic buildings along Palace Embankment and 5 of them are open to the public: the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, New Hermitage and Hermitage Theatre.  Together the adjoined complex is called The Hermitage.  We got to view collections in 4 of the complexes.

The Museum has approximately 35,000 guests daily. If you spent one minute on each piece of art and visited 8 hours a day for 365 days per year, it would take you 11 years to see all of the art in the Muesum.

And we managed to get the BEST TOUR GUIDE EVER!  Our guide had a real sense for what our group wanted to see and managed to leave just enough time at the end for a brief stop in the gift shops. She was funny, always telling cute, relevant stories. And she moved us along – we covered a lot!   When she picked us up at 8:30, the first thing she did was teach us some Russian words. After we repeated them, she asked what we thought they meant and we all said “Good morning?” “No,” she replied, “I am in this country to seek political asylum.”

We arrived at 9:30, an hour before the museum opened to the general public.  Giddy with anticipation, our group headed right down to their famous Gold Room.

The Hermitage is HUGE!

One of several entrances. Originally the palace was supposed to be pink but pink paint was unavailable so they painted it green and it will probably stay green forever.

These earrings in the Gold Room are from 400 BC.

Our guide took us aside and said she wanted to show us something and we must stay calm and not show any reaction. Then she took us over to this exhibit where she was surprised to find the dog is missing. She claimed she wanted us to see it because the face of the dog looks exactly like Putin. No one managed to stay calm or not show any reaction. (I guess you had to be there.)

Tonight we say farewell to St. Petersburg and set sail for Tallinn, Estonia.