The Hermitage and the ballet

We had a couple of days to explore by ourselves and we decided to use it to explore the Hermitage.

The State Hermitage Museum, located in St. Petersburg, Russia, is the world's largest art museum by gallery space, housing a massive collection of over 3 million masterpieces. Founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great, it features the stunning Winter Palace and spans six historic buildings.

The collections occupy a large complex of six historic buildings along Palace Embankment, including the Winter Palace, a former residence of Russian emperors. 

For some reason the Blogger app uploaded all pictures in reverse order and I am sorely lacking in motivation to fix  it for now. I am just going to explain what's needed in this order.

An Egyptian hieroglyph from 15th century BCE

Because when we see it, we have to 'Walk Like an Egyptian '

The absolutely beautiful parquetry flooring at the Hermitage.

The Hermitage museums collection off medieval armour.

My greatest question... How does the brother on the left scratch or wipe his note in an emergency?

The spectacular ceilings in the Hermitage.

Another question. In paintings like this, has anyone ever tried to play the music from the notations?

Beautiful ceilings and floors

This couple.was on a pre wedding photoshoot.

The poor groom's expression whenever we bumped into them was like ' are we done yet?'

I want to know why the photographer thought posing newlyweds against a scene from a gory battle made any sense...

The beautiful skylight rooms.

This one ... The worst elephant in art. I assume that Someone probably described an elephant to the painter and he did what he could.

More of the Hermitage's.gorgeour ceilings. I am so in love with them.

The great throne room.

The war gallery.. Wellington, I presume..

The Peter the Great throne room.

The grand staircase of the winter palace.

We walked around Nevsky Prospeckt and visited the Kazan Cathedral.

These two girls with the Cinderella like cart with the beautifully braided horse tried to get us to take a carriage ride with them.

Pictures of the Church of the blood in better light.

The highlight of this trip. The Mikhailovski theater.

We had huge plans to dress well for the ballet, but the hermitage took quite long and we headed straight to the theater..

The theatre itself was really beautiful.

Seating in front of the stage, and 4 levels of boxes around the main seating area

The performance itself was spectacular. Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

Initially the OH was grumbling about why I would pick a tragedy.

We were in Russia and Russians aren't really known for comedies, are they?

And just his luck, this was the version with the happy ending, with Odette and Siegfried not kicking the proverbial bucket.

The stage setup, the costumes, the music, beautiful acoustics and the fabulous dancers... Was a treat of a lifetime.

For some reason I woke up a little before midnight and the sky hadn't gone fully dark yet.

This is our last night in St Petersburg and we are going back tomorrow after one last round of exploring.

Till then 

From Russia... With Love