On Saturday Sveta taught us how to make a Russian apple pie. As it turns out it is more of an upside down apple cake or apple bread than it is a pie, but if was super easy to make and really delicious to eat, so no complaints there.
After we finished our pie, she took us into the city to see the Menshikov palace. Just outside of the metro station she pointed out this nice little monument for the first trolley-type car, though it was pulled by horses.
We had to walk a ways to the palace, so we saw some lovely things on the way there, one of them bing this pink church.
We walked along the Neva river for part of the time, which has a beautiful view. Here is our whole group just loving Russia:
The view across the river was incredible with the cathedrals and palaces that lined the other side of the river. Also, I was pretty excited to see that the ice on the river is melting!
Right by the palace are two sphinxes that face each other. The sphinxes were brought here from Egypt, so they are legit. Apparently it is bad luck to hang around them for too long, but I wouldn't mind because they were gorgeous.
This little mythical creature was at the foot of the sphinx. If you pet its head three times and then put your hand in its mouth you can make a wish. Obviously I did.
He is just so precious.
The other sphinx:
Group hug.
We couldn't take pictures throughout most of the palace, but it was beautiful. It was nowhere near as grand as the Winter Palace at the Hermitage, but it was still pretty incredible and it is much older. Menshikov was really into Dutch things, so most of the palace was constructed and decorated in a dutch style. The best part was that there were several rooms where the walls and ceilings were completely covered with hand painted dutch tiles. They were white tiles painted with different designs on each on painted in blue. It was stunning.
We were allowed to take pictures in the large room upstairs, so I definitely did. Here we are near the entry of the room:
They seemed to be pretty concerned about the floors, so we all had to wear these lovely felt slippers over our boots. Embarrassingly enough, I barely found some that fit.
The whole room:
The group with the clock at the end of the room:
Not too shabby, eh?
1 comment:
The pie looks delicious, I want to learn how to make it, the palace is gorgeous as are YOU! Those are quite the felt slippers!
Post a Comment