Last week was our last long break of the year and hence our last opportunity for a longer trip within Russia. Though there are many places we wish we could have visited while living in Russia, it seemed like visiting St. Petersburg was a must. Simon and the kids had never been and I hadn’t been since the early 90s when I went on a high school trip with my friend Kate, her dad, and other teachers and students from our school. We made plans with our colleagues and friends the Clovers, who have three girls who get along well with our kids. We rented an apartment in St. Petersburg for most of the week and did a short trip to nearby Karelia to enjoy some nature.

Our first day in St. Petersburg we spent walking around downtown, across frozen canals, up St. Isaac’s Cathedral, and around the Peter and Paul Fortress. We joined the locals in rubbing statues and posing for glamour shots in all the scenic spots we could find. By the end of the day, we had walked over 9 miles.

Despite some groans from the kids, the next day we continued our walking tour, this time with the kids taking turns donning a horse head. It was an interesting social experiment- as we strolled Nevsky Prospekt, hardly a soul turned their head or cracked a smile as the horse strolled past. We saw impressive mosaics in the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood and also a fun courtyard located off the beaten path near an artist’s gallery.

The next day we visited the Russian State Museum. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel at an indoor attraction during Covid, but we decided to give it a try and found it to be quite well managed. The combination of it being the off-season and the Covid precautions (timed entry, one-way paths, enforced mask policy) made it easy to social distance during our visit. We were able to see the main collection and the Benois wing which included a special exhibit of art related to World War II and another special exhibit of works depicting natural events like storms, moonlit nights, and sunsets.

Finally, our family went to visit the apartment building where Simon’s grandma, Baba Sima, lived when she was young. We walked around the neighborhood on our way to the Grand Choral Synagogue and tried to imagine what it must have been like when Baba Sima was there as a young girl. We were hoping to buy some matzoh for our Passover Seder at the kosher store by the Synagogue, but had to make due without the matzoh as the synagogue and grocery were both unfortunately closed. We improvised with some crackers and had a fun, non-traditional Seder with our friends back at our rental house.

We headed to the Hermitage the next day, entering Palace Square towards the Winter Palace through the triumphal arch of the General Staff Building. It’s quite an impressive sight, surrounded by such grand architecture. The Hermitage collection is enormous! We read that if you look at each object in the Hermitage for 1 minute and spend 8 hours a day there, it would take you 15 years to see everything. Since we had seen quite a lot of art the day before, we opted for the route that had more of a mixture- palatial interiors, cultural objects, British and French art, the Picture Gallery, and Ancient art. One of the highlights was the peacock clock (photographed by Mila). Though not fully working, we were able to see a video of its mechanics and it was truly impressive. We also witnessed a wedding photoshoot, which was quite glamorous. We really wished we had brought the horse head so we could have snuck into the background of one of their shots. Our kids were tired of walking around by the end of our visit, so they opted to stay home and watch Indiana Jones while the adults went for a night time stroll to see the city at night.

Before we left for our trip, we were feeling a bit disappointed by the forecast- mostly rain the whole week. However, the weather cooperated and the only really rainy day we had was our last day in St. Petersburg. We had arranged for a mini-bus to take us to Catherine’s Palace in Pushkin. We had planned to just explore it on our own, but ended up bumping into our friend Vicki, a fellow ISK teacher, who invited us to join her and the guide that she had hired for a private tour. We are so glad that she included us, as we learned a lot more on the tour than we would have if we had just looked around ourselves. Particularly impressive were the porcelain-tiled fireplaces which we learned were hand-painted blind- the artist could not see the image until after it was fired. And of course the Amber Room was as stunning as you would imagine. Though the palace is over 300 years old, much was destroyed in the war and has since been reconstructed. We saw a children’s ballroom dance “masterclass” which was quite adorable, though a bit questionable as masks were required for entry to the palace yet as you can see from the photo, no one was wearing one in the class. Apparently, the instructor’s hand fan was serving as a mask.

For the last leg of our trip, our guide Ivan picked us up in a mini-bus and we headed North, stopping first at the Korela fortress, built in the 14th century, which guarded the entrance and exit to Lake Ladoga and played a role in various wars and conquests over the centuries. Now it holds a small museum with interesting archaelogical finds of the area and information about local history and nature.

After another couple hours in the mini-bus and a stop in Sortavala for lunch as well as tasting and buying some local spirits, we arrived at the cottage complex where we stayed for two nights. We transferred to an off-road jeep truck which took us on a tour of the area’s many waterfalls. Though small, they were roaring with freshly melting snow and the rusty color (due to high iron content in the soil) was an interesting contrast to the white ice and snow (our kids said it looked like pee poo water).

We ended our tour at a garnet mine, where the kids got a chance to try their hand at mining garnet with hand tools. There were a handful of locals there who seemed to be having quite a bit more success than us newbs. The guide and locals were sympathetic and we left with a pocketful of garnets, including a few that we managed to find ourselves.

Upon our return to the cottage we were treated to a campfire, Karelian pies, and hot tea. Then Ivan grilled us some shashlik which we enjoyed with shots and blini with roadside jam. We wrapped up the night with a visit to the hottest, smokiest banya that any of us have ever experienced.

After an ENORMOUS breakfast at the restaurant at our cottage complex (each kid was given an omelet, oatmeal, and pancakes), we headed back in to Sortavala to catch a vintage style steam train to Ruskeala canyon. We enjoyed some tea and forest views on the hour long ride. After getting off the train, we got to watch the train turn around on the railway turntable — making Alden nostalgic for his Thomas the Train days.

We walked around the canyon, a former marble quarry that was in operation in the second half of the 18th century until the early 20th century and supplied marble to decorate architectural structures in St. Petersburg. Alden, Simon, Chris, and the older Clover girls decided to try out the zip line, cruising across the frozen canyon. The park included a geodesic dome filled with curious large wooden sculptures.

After a quick stop at a site with rusty waterfalls and bouncy bridges, we came to a Husky farm where we got to visit with the friendly dogs and pet some adorable puppies. We assumed that dog sledding was off the table due to the slushy conditions, but the owner went to assess the trail and decided that it would be ok to do short loops with the kids. When the dogs saw the sled and knew a ride was coming, the whole place erupted in excited barks- “pick me! pick me! pick me!” After the sled took off, there were mournful howls from those left behind. The main problem was that spring has brought new and distracting smells and the dogs would pull off to the side of the trail to sniff some grass or mark a spot with some pee.

In Sortavala, we visited a small museum dedicated to the work of a local carver named Kronid Gogolev. Though he started out as a painter, in his forties he discovered wood and spent the next 50+ years carving wooden images inspired by nature, Russian village life, and the Bible. His work was impressive and when I asked Mila about her favorite part of our trip, she mentioned visiting this museum.

Our last stop before returning to the airport was at a Viking village set up somewhat like a living history museum. There was not a ton of historical information presented, but the kids had fun dressing up like vikings, shooting bows and arrows, and working with the blacksmith to forge a coin. At the same site was the workshop where the statues we had seen in Ruskeala were created. We were able to view some works in progress and speak to some of the carvers.

Though we remembered to pack Mr. Smart, we only took one photo with him- the horse seemed to steal the show this trip. Did you spot Mr. Smart? We are now back in Kazan for two more months before we pack up and say “до свидания” to Russia.