NORTHERN ISLANDS

On Friday, we stepped out and headed toward the Russian Museum, and we were gladly heartened to discover the sun shining, the temperature mild and the wind calm – all quite contrary to the wet and blustery weather forecast posted on weather.com.

So instead, I persuaded Andrea to ditch museum research on a sunny day and to accompany me on my twice delayed boat trip to see the Northern Islands of St. Petersburg.

You see, after having missed the boat trip Wednesday and rudely being told Thursday that the boat trip was cancelled because of miserable, rainy weather, I decided it was a perfect day to visit the Kunstkammer.

The Kunstkammer was just one other of Peter the Great’s many great ideas. The more I learn about this guy, the more I like him. He was a true Renaissance man in the best sense.

He established the Kunstkammer in an effort to bring reason and science to Russia and to dispel the myths and superstitions rampant among his people.

Peter had traveled to Holland, France and Germany as a young man in the early 1690s. There he witnessed an “enlightened” way of life and studied a wide variety of subjects from the masters of the time: from geometry and algebra, shipbuilding, architecture, engineering, biology, physiology, to even dentistry (on display are teeth Peter himself actually extracted.)

The main attraction at the Kunstkammer are Peter’s “rarities” in the Cabinet of Curiosities. Peter had issued a decree across the land, rewarding people who brought him strange human and animal abnormalities in an effort to demonstrate that these “monsters” were not caused by demons and evil spirits.

The other exhibits at the Kunstkammer get short shrift, even though they comprise the vast majority of space and are very interesting and educational.

But who wants to see anthropological dioramas of Pueblo Indian life or Malaysian houses when you can gawk at encephalitic fetuses in formaldehyde? That’s what the Cabinet of Curiosities is: two-headed calf; skeletons of deformed children; the brain and lung of a French giant…

The Kunstkammer website and onsite signage explicitly states no photography, and I was not about to pay another 200 rubles, therefore no photos from the hellish place. (That did not stop others from snapping shots left and right.)

While I was not able to see the Holstein-Gottorp Globe on the very top of the Kunstkammer (one must pre-arrange a tour of at least 10 people), on the third floor is an interesting exhibit devoted to the development of Russian science and Mikhail Lomonosov.

As mentioned in an earlier blog, Lomonosov was Russia’s first world-class scientist conducting myriad experiments with electricity and elements. However, he also helped formalize Russian language and grammar and co-founded Moscow State University.

With a rich history and tradition in the sciences, I couldn’t help wonder how different this country might be today if the Bolshevik Revolution and decades of command-driven economics under a politically perverse system had not happened.

Anyway, here are some photos from Friday’s boat tour of the islands of northern St. Petersburg. This is an area I have yet to set foot on, but plan to visit. On some of these islands are where the very rich once lived, the communist elite moved in, and now SPB’s “oligarchs” reside.

Kunstkammer (again). This building just photographs well, even on rainy Thursday. The second level is dedicated primarily to anthropology displays and Peter's Cabinet of Curiosities. The fourth level is the Lomonosov exhibit. The sixth level just under the cupola sits the famous globe given to Peter I.

Once again, the rostral columns and the former stock exchange, current museum of naval history.

Once again...Saints Peter and Paul Fortress. One day, I shall actually go there!

Summer Garden from the Neva River. This is the ornate Felten Gate on the north side of the garden.

Naval Academy on left. Cruiser Aurora on right.

Gazprom: the natural gas company of Russia. This monolithic company also sponsors the St.  Petersburg Zenit soccer team. The club's jersey prominently displays the Gazprom logo on the front and uses the company's colors.

The New Russia under construction.

The national TV tower near the school of electronics.

Approaching Kamenny Island with the Stone Island palace near the tip.

One of the grand new houses on Kamenny Island.

Some very nice houses on Kamenny Island.

The ultra-modern Lazarevsky Bridge with an ultra-modern apartment complex on  Krestovsky Island.

SPB construction is booming.

New apartment and retail complex under development on Petrogradsky Island.

The yacht club. There were a lot of really big motor and sailing vessels.

Kirov Stadium first built in 1950  Camera ran out of battery juice at this point, but this stadium is undergoing vast reconstruction.

Tonight, Andrea bought us tickets for Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake ballet. 

Tomorrow, the plan is to have brunch out and to then go in search of a book Andrea saw at the Hermitage at a neighborhood market (more like a flea market or swap meet based on what we saw after our unsuccessful trip to the place after it closed Friday.)