Thursday – 21 June 2007

Earl’s up early and off to the stamp show. I decide to stay and sleep in. Earl came back around noon. I ran into Lana in the hallway and she was heading off to the Anthropology Ethnographic Museum which also contains Peter the Great’s personal collection of oddities (Kunstkamera “Art House”) founded in 1714. So we all decided to walk together over the bridge and to the museum where we split up.

There were school groups clogging the museum, but once we got off the first floor the crowds thinned out. Earl couldn’t take the deformed babies and other pickled body parts in the Kunstkamera. I was surprized by the multitude of jars. Also noted that Peter the Great played being a dentist – there was a display of teeth pulled by him. Earl found an exhibit on the Karelia which interested him since he wrote his masters thesis about that area. I would have liked to have spent a little more time in the ethnographic area as there were some things I hadn’t seen before. Had lunch in the museum basement – pastries stuffed with potatoes and mushrooms and cranberry tarts for dessert.

We continued onto the Naval Museum which Earl had expressed interest in seeing. However, he noted that it would cost $18 in entrance fees and decided he wasn’t desperate enough. We continued to walk over to Peter and Paul Fortress. Looked at the church where all the tsars of Russia are buried. Again a separate entrance fee so we kept walking.

Resting place for the tsars of Russia

Earl also looked at the Military Museum entrance fees and again deemed it not necessary for life.

Click here for pictures from the walk

Went back to the Stamp Show to see if there was anyone to meet for dinner. The one fellow we saw was just too tired.

We ended up going to a Turkish Restaurant and I had lamb kebabs and mushroom salad while Earl had lamp chops and herring salad with a yogurt drink. Also got a pot of tea. Cost about $26 which wasn't too bad for two entrees, 2 drinks, and 2 salads.

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