The Hermitage (Day One)

The Hermitage is absolutely amazing! This is just a very BRIEF glance at the Hermitage. In fact, if you only spent thirty seconds in every exhibit, you would have to go every day for 8 years! This is what I managed to see in one day.

To go to the Hermitage, we had to get off on the deepest part of the metro. The escalator was a 5 minute ride up! And there are two separate escalators to get up.

THE WINTER PALACE!!!

People dressed up walking around the Palace Square

The left side of this building is owned by the Hermitage. This is the army headquarters.

This monument was erected after the battle between Russia and Napoleon. (A french man made this statue.) Also fun fact, it stands erect by itself, no supports.

Top of the headquarters

Part of the Naval port

Entrance to the Winter Palace

The group! (Left to right: Andre, Marina, Michala, Jana, Me)

The magnificent and breath-taking entrance into the Winter Palace.

This chandelier weighs around 2 tons!

This is called the Admiral Room

So the big one in the from weighs 2 tons, but even the smaller on in the back weighs 1 ton!

The small throne room.

The Hero Room. These are soldiers who were heroes in the fight against Napoleon In this picture, you can see pictures with green felt. That means that the soldiers died before a painting could be produced, but they have their name on a plaque on the wall.

The ceiling and lamps and floors were enough to take someone's breath away!

The floor designs actually match the patterns on the ceiling.

The Throne Room

The group! (Andre, me, Jana, Michala, Marina)

All of these pieces move. The peacock raises its feathers, the rooster crows and the the mushrooms go in circles.

This garden is actually on the second floor. Queen Elizabeth had knee problems, so they devised away to make a garden on top of the stables without challenging the integrity of the stables roof.

It is extremely difficult to tell, even in person, but all of these tables are mosaics! So beautiful.

 

More mosaics.

This door is made out of tortoise shell, ebony and is gold leafed.

The Boy and His Dolphin. This statue is a story about a boy who is really good friends with a dolphin. Every day they go and swim together. One day, he is gored by a fish. The dolphin swims the boy to shore and dies on the shore with him.

Cameos

The statues are holding up the balcony. This is the main entrance to the Hermitage. The street that this pictures shows is called Millionaire road because the land is really pricy next to the Winter Palace.

The Gold Room (Appropriately named, I think)

This beautiful piano was Alexandra Feodorovna's. Beautiful piece of work.

Really an amazing day! So many beautiful things and so little time.