A Summer Cottage in Tsarkoe Selo

Of course no visit to St. Petersburg is complete without embarking on a visit to some of the royal palaces that the city is famed for, and the jewel in the crown is the Catherine Palace at Tsarkoe Selo 25 kms. outside the city.

Nothing prepares you for the splendor and history that lies beyond the facades of some of these palaces. One has seen everything from the Chinese Imperial Palaces of China, to the magnificence of Versailles, and the almost provincial charm of Kensington Palace and Hampton Court in London. However the series of palaces in St Petersburg will leave you gaping not only for the splendor, but for the tumultuous past of which these structures have risen like phoenixes from the ashes of history. They have been witness to it all, from wars, revolutions, famine and destruction.

(Note, with this post I have included so called ‘before’ and ‘after’ photographs of the palace. The before photographs were taken in 1931 and the after my own.)

It has long been a dream of mine to visit Tsarkoe Selo the home of the summer residences of the Romanovs. There being two main palaces in the area, The Catherine Palace and the Alexander Palace (which I dearly wanted to visit, however due to time etc. could not)

The palace by architect Rastrelli in the Roccoco style with a 325 meter long façade is dazzling! It takes your breath away when you first see it.

From the amazing façade, with its sugar coated frosting to the gold gilding, one cannot help but be impressed (along with the many 1,000s of people, who seemed to arrive just before us). One cannot quietly wander through rooms or the grounds without the ever present hordes of tourists and tour groups jostling for space or that ‘perfect’ picture.

The interiors of the Catherine Palace are no less spectacular.

The Great Hall, also known as the Hall of Light, measures nearly 1,000 square meters, and occupies the full width of the palace and one gets more of an impression of light and grandeur than the fabled Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.

However primarily all come to see the legendary Amber room. (unfortunately photos were not allowed, however the before shot is below)

To create this extraordinary chamber, Rastrelli used the panels of amber mosaic originally destined for an Amber Cabinet at Konigsberg Castle and presented to Peter the Great by Friedrich-Wilhelm I of Prussia, and surrounded them with gilded carving, mirrors, more amber panels created by Florentine and Russian craftsman (comprising a total of 450kg of amber), and further mosaics of Ural and Caucasus gemstones. The room was completed in 1770. Due to the fragility of the materials used, a caretaker was employed constantly to maintain and repair the decorations, and major restoration was undertaken three times in the 19th century. The room was used to house a substantial collection of amber-work and Chinese porcelain.
In 1941, when German troops took Tsarskoe Selo, the Amber Room was dismantled in 36 hours, and shipped to Konigsberg in a tawdry pretence at historical fidelity. As the Nazi war machine crumbled, the panels were crated up and moved out of danger, but their eventual fate is unknown. The room has been re-created in a process that took over 20 years working from photographs and drawings. While impressed with this room, it was all a bit too much for me, as I thought there were much other nicer rooms we visited.

When the German forces retreated after the siege of Leningrad, they intentionally destroyed the palace slashing canvases, burning tapestries and looting everything of value. What they could not carry off they burned, leaving only an empty shell behind.

Prior to World War II, the Russian archivists managed to document a fair amount of the contents, which proved of great importance in reconstructing the palace. Although the largest part of the reconstruction was completed in time for the Tercentenary of St Petersburg in 2003, much work is still required to restore the palace to its former glory.

Year after year, the work continues. That the palaces have been rebuilt seems even more startling that their original construction. The renovations speak volumes about Russian passion, spirit and national pride. Peter (the great) would be proud.

A Mixed Bag of Savoir Faire

Here is a little something to wet your appetites of our sojourn, until I can put together some more substantial posts.

Post Office Helsinki

Peterhof St, Petersburg

Guess Where?

Tallin Estonia

Royal Palace Copenhagen

Selfridges London

I have Returned

After a fabulous 2 weeks touring the Baltic capitals, I am now in back in the land of reality! I have lots to report, and also lots to catch up on from my fellow bloggers!

Just give me a few days to get organised. In the interim here I am on the Lido deck departing Dover!

Bon Voyage To Me!

Just about to leave for our European sojourn, so am checking out for approximately 2 weeks! Look forward to sharing our European adventure with all on Savoir Faire.

In the meantime I hope all have a wonderful beginning of summer!

Andaz in London with Savoir Faire

Well as the days are flying past and we will be off to Europe, our first few days of vacation will be spent in London at the Andaz Hotel in London. Andaz is Hyatt’s new brand which means in Hindi “personal style”. What better place for Savoir Faire to spend the first few days of our little sojourn.

Now of course we know that Savoir Faire does shun corporate branded hotels that tend to be cookie cutter representations of each other. One likes a bit of history and character with at least hot water running somewhere in the building (which does pose some problems sometimes).

On the edge of East London next to Liverpool Street station, the Andaz was the former Great Eastern Hotel, one of the original London railway hotels, built by the London and North Eastern railway in 1884-87. (So we have the history right). Designed by Charles Barry the grandson of the other Charles Barry who designed the Houses of Parliament, it is a wonderfully beautiful gothic revivalist red brick Victorian building, which has been beautifully renovated to take one into the future of the 21st century.

Having seen better days before being taken over by Hyatt with rooms rented by the hour, it was a perfect candidate for renovation. Now a listed building the integrity of the building has been respected after refurbishment by Conran & Partners.

The result is a wonderfully modern interior with sleek cool furniture, modern architectural details blending with the old and some hidden gems that came to light during the renovation that had been forgotten for years.

Somehow the lobby does not look like a lobby and I believe that Hyatt have dispensed with the traditional front desk in favour of lounges etc. where guests are seated and served drinks while checking in.

The Great Eastern Hotel originally had 160 bedrooms but only 12 had bathrooms and trains brought salt water from Harwich on the Essex coast for the hotel baths. By 2006, the hotel had 267 bedrooms and obviously all are en suite. To solve the problem of antiquated plumbing and replacing sewage drains for the toilets they use vacuum drainage. When you flush the toilet in the Great Eastern Hotel the waste is sucked upwards, not down, and goes through the roof to leave the building! (God forbid should there be a problem). I like the fact that the bathrooms retain an old world luxurious feeling with these modern updates.

The Aurora was originally the hotel's ballroom and opened in 1895. The architects took color samples of the paintwork and matched it when redecorating. It certainly does look the place to be back in the days gone by!

There is an amazing glass domed ceiling which was protected during the Second World War by wrapping it in mattresses and blankets. Surprisingly it did survive and only one small piece of glass had to be replaced, which they've marked with red glass.

Rooms are decidedly minimalist in decoration, appearing highly functional, can only guess what they were like when they used to rent by the hour!

I am going to reserve judgement until after our stay, however it does look wonderful and just the thing Savoir Faire will need after 7 hours up the back of the plane in economy class!

See You on the Lido Deck!

As we are getting ready to for our summer vacation and Baltic Cruise next week, my thoughts of course swing back to the vintage age of cruising. Previously ocean travel was a means to an end. Primarily used as a means of transport before aviation took over, the industry has changed. Now it is not the destination that counts but the ship itself. This is even reflected in the fact that ships are no longer called Ocean Liners, but Cruise Ships.

Previously, because of weather (especially on the transatlantic run) few Ocean Liners had large outdoor deck spaces or even swimming pools. Pools were allocated to spaces deep in the bowels of a ship, and the lido deck was virtually non-existent!

Think lido deck today and we are cast back to re-runs of “The Love Boat” or the huge multi-pooled and crowded decks of modern cruise ships.

However during the 1930’s and right through to the 1960’s one European line went to great pains in promoting the outdoor spaces and particularly the Lido decks of their liners.

The Italian line which plied the Southern route through the Mediterranean which was much warmer than the Northern route serviced by other companies, had huge outdoor spaces and pools on their liners.

Always glamorous by day or by evening, this was a major selling point of the line. Instead of being cooped up inside on the Northern Atlantic, one could spend the 5 days at sea, sunning and swimming on the lido deck around the pool.

Nights were also spent outside, with couples in their elegant evening wear dancing or engaging in tete a tete’s around the pool.

This tradition on the Italian Line carried right through until the late 1960’s until the jet airliner eclipsed ocean travel completely.

As we embark on our cruise, I will definitely be thinking of those sun filled days and star filled nights spent on the Lido deck of an Italian liner!