Quality Time with Lemurs

We are in Stockholm, back to the normal Europe.  Stockholm is much bigger than Helsinki, and parts of the the downtown fell victim to urban renewal schemes of the 1960's.   But other parts are pleasurable to walk around.
Today we went to see the 17th century warship, "Vasa", which sank on its maiden voyage after less than a kilometer of travel.  It was raised in the 1960's and restored, and is now Stockholm's #1 tourist attraction.   It is quite a sight, a huge ship, and decorated extravagantly to assert the power of the King Gustavis II.  He appears to have been a nasty, war-mongering character... maybe he deserved to have his prize warship sink.

Then Ada and I went to see the monkeys, and Vera went off on her own.  We spent almost an hour with the lemurs, who were in a large closed-in area that we were in too.  There were virtually no other people there, and the lemurs were completely comfortable with our presence, sometimes as close as a foot away.   They were fascinating to watch, and we were completely absorbed.

And then there were the sloths, who eat hanging upside down.

Tonight, Vera went to an opera (by Cavalli) at the 17th century theatre at Drottingholm (as seen in Bergman's Magic Flute), while Ada and I rested in our hotel room.

Swedish meatballs and pickled herring....

Russia

We left Russia today.   I can't help but reflect on the fact that for people my age, we learned growing up that Russia was the enemy.  I still remember practicing in school for a nuclear attack from Russia by hiding under our desks.   Now, of course, we don't feel that way (except for Mitt Romney..), and as an adult I understand much more about what was going on in Russia at the time.  I find it very moving to see the city of St. Petersburg as a prosperous European city, emerging from the dark years of the 20th century and all the trauma from Stalin to WW2.  While certainly all is not perfect under Putin's thumb, it is certainly a thriving city; everywhere you see restoration and construction, and new things emerging.  It is also curious that the magnificence of the city emerged from the policies of two totalitarian regimes, the tsars and the communists.   The broad, open public spaces and civic buildings of all kinds in St. Petersburg contrasts with the feeble uninspired urban fabric of a place like Vancouver, planned by a railroad company with real estate speculation in mind.   What is also interesting is that one still senses the "otherness" of Russia; it is different, and not wholly European.   I got a feeling that people have a great deal of pride in their Russianness.

Today I went to Vladimir Nabokov's house, which was down the street from our hotel.  A few of the rooms in the house have been turned into a museum.   The rest are offices, etc. It is quite a house!

A very cool typewriter:

Some Nabakovian notes:

I also went to the apartment building where Stravinsky grew up; unfortunately, there is no plaque on the building, and his family's apartment is still a Soviet-style communal apartment.

A last picture, taken about 11:30 PM, of the wires which seem to cross randomly from one building to another in St. Petersburg.

St. Petersburg 4

Ada was feeling overtouristed and worn out today, so she slept in.   Vera and I went to the Russian Art Museum. Most interesting were the late 19th century and early 20th century.  Malevich, Kandinsky, etc.   A highlight for me was the work of Pavel Filonov, whose large , visionary and complex paintings I didn't know.   A detail from one:

In the 20's, suddenly we are in the land of Stalinist aesthetics, and we get lots of worker heroes.   The caption is very elliptical:

Also the icons, some dating from the 12th century, were fascinating to see.


In the afternoon, I took a very long walk for 4 hours.   Started in a very long escalator with very cool lights:

Then I saw a mosque:

and a flying saucer:

(actually a metro station)

And then I found my favorite building in St. Petersburg:

It is some kind of school, I think.  It is fairly old, but some architect clearly loved Mondrian.  All schools should look like this.

A close up:

Every other block in St. Petersburg contains some magnificent palace or edifice, or a new view of a block of interesting buildings.  It all feels very lived in though; some buildings are elegantly restored, others in a pleasing state of decrepitude.   The different colors of the buildings are nice, too.   One last example:

Onwards to Stockholm tomorrow..

Tsarskoye Selo

Today we went to a town on the suburbs, Tsarskoye Selo, to visit the summer palace and gardens of Catherine the Great.   Described by Ada as "Versailles on crack", it is yet another monument to the excesses of the Romanovs.   This is the palace with the famous Amber Room, recently reconstructed.  In fact the whole palace was virtually destroyed by the Nazis in WW2, and has been gradually reconstructed over the years, with work still in progress.  I find it amazing that the Soviets would dedicate so much time and money to the recreation of the excesses of the Tsars.  Lots of gold trim and ornate decoration everywhere, and a beautifully laid out palace grounds, with follies of all kinds, as in a Turkish bath.

The church attached to the palace:

But half the fun was getting there, via the Metro and minibuses through the suburbs.   We saw the House of Soviets on the Moscow Prospekt, a grand Stalinist avenue, which eventually becomes a wide avenue of mega-malls, Russian style.

Also interesting to see the smaller villages, in varying states of upkeep, including these Potemkin windows:

The window frames are fake...

The metro is quite an experience as well; the escalator ride down lasts several minutes, and marble is everywhere.



We had an excellent dinner at a Georgian restaurant,  with things like eggplant stuffed with walnuts.   A bit in the older Soviet style, as in they didn't have any beer left.

Happy Birthday, St. Petersburg!

Yesterday was St. Petersburg's 309th birthday, and there were all kind of celebrations.   (The city has a real birthday because there was actual moment when Peter the Great stood on a swampy, uninhabited island on the banks of the Neva River, and said, there will be a city here, and there was.)   The main street, Nevsky Prospect, was closed to traffic, and crowds ambled up and down the avenue.

Vera and Ada celebrating with their Russian flag.

There was also some kind of re-enactment of the Battle On the Ice between the Swedes and the Russians, complete with bits of Prokofiev's music from the film "Alexander Nevsky"   Even simulated cannon shots.

The building in the background above is across from the Winter Palace.  An interesting view inside the passage in the same building,  leading to the square.

We also saw the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood, built to mark the spot of the assassination of Tsar Alexander in the 1880's.   Flamboyant Russian orthodox...  From the outside:

The interior is covered with mosaics and every kind of rare minerals and rocks.  The spot where the Tsar was killed:

More interiors:

One of the pleasures of St. Petersburg is just simply walking around, where every street corner reveals another astonishing vista.  In general, things are very well restored and maintained.  Women dress elegantly enough to outdo Vera, and the streets are full of life and energy.  I get a general impression of prosperity; whether that is really true I don't know.

Here is the view out the window from a Russian version of Starbucks (there are no real Starbucks here), to the Singer (as in sewing machine) Building on Nevsky Prospect.  The stuff in front has something to do with the birthday party.

In the evening, we went to the opera at the Mariinsky Theatre to hear "Boris Godunov", which was premiered in this very same theatre in 1874.   A beautiful old fashioned opera house, with great acoustics.    The production was a new one in the European style, updated to modern times.  The inn near the Lithuanian border was a strip club with neon signs and pole dancers, and Tsar Boris is escorted by security men with cell phones, etc.

Ada was pleased to see that the Tsarevitch slept in a bunk bed very much like her old Ikea one.  While the production does work in some spots, as when the people are pleading for help from their oppressive leader, the presence of monks doesn't really make a lot of sense and a lot is jarring with the real plot of the opera.   But, in any case, a stirring performance of the opera, well sung and played, with a genuine air of authenticity.

Oh, and the pre-opera dinner, Beef Stroganoff.    When in Russia...

And when the opera was over, at 11:00 PM, a beautiful walk home along the canals in bright daylight.   I haven't seen darkness since we got here.   There were fireworks on the way home (birthday), but they don't work quite as well in the daylight.   All this daylight, though, makes me want to see St. Petersburg in the winter, when it is dark and snow-covered.   

The Hermitage

Today we went to the Hermitage, which is both an art museum and a palace.  The palace is certainly a monument to the wealth and extravagance of the Tsars; endless rooms, decorated with every possible inch covered in carvings, gilt, tapestries, paintings, marble, wood, and whatever else they could find.  It is interesting to imagine how people actually lived there, and the little signs tell you that this is where the leaders of the provisional government met just before they were all arrested.

The art museum is equal to, if not better than the Louvre and the Met.  Catherine the Great and her heirs seem to have bought up every single available art collection in Europe.  Or if they could't buy it, they would copy it, as in the copy of the Raphael Loggia in the Vatican.    They had Italian painters copy everything in the original gallery, and recreated the entire thing in the palace.  Here it is:

I loved the room full of Rembrandts.

My favorite part was the third floor, with the rooms of Matisse, Gaugin, Cezanne, Picasso. etc.  (All confiscated by the state from private individuals after the revolution.)   For some reason, virtually no one was in these galleries when I was there.   For example, the famous Matisse "Dance", all to myself.

And here is a question;  opposite the Dance painting is the painting "Music".  Why are all the people in "Music" not touching each other and looking rather grim?

We also took a boat ride through the canals to rest our feet, and then visited St. Isaac's Cathedral.    Splendor in marble, malachite, lazulite and gold.

Dinner at a restaurant featuring food from Uzbekistan and Japan.   We went Uzbeki:   dumplings, fermented cheese, etc.  Not that good, really.

To the Finland Station!

We arrived in St. Petersburg today via a fast, deluxe train from Helsinki. St. Petersburg is truly amazing!   Though I was here 45 years ago (!), it is still a revelation.  The sheer grandeur of the layout of the city and the extraordinary quality of the architecture are without peer in any city I have ever seen.   The cityscape basically has the same buildings that it had 100 years ago.   In the meantime, of course, a lot has happened in Russia, but the city seems to be both locked into the past and thriving in the present.   The streets are full of people, looking cosmopolitan and energetic, in the way that Paris does.
We walked around the city after checking into our hotel, and because Vera was hungry, we stopped at a fast food blini restaurant, and Vera had a blini filled with salmon caviar at a place that looked like MacDonalds.  Chicken Kiev and borscht for dinner and a stroll around the streets in broad daylight at almost 11 PM after a late dinner.
Vera is reviving both the Russian language and patriotic Russian songs of her youth, and Ada somehow has learned to read Cyrillic, and amuses herself by reading signs.  Both are equally excited by the city, and ready for more tomorrow.

Helsinki 2

Today's highlight was the Rock Church, which is basically carved out of a large boulder in the middle of Helsinki.   The bottom half of the walls are from the boulder, and it is covered by a beautiful copper roof.   The only defect was the Christmas music playing in the background...

Pictures:

We took a long tram ride through various parts of the city, and had lunch in the market by the water.   Vera found her happiness in some sort of fish thing, washed down by a glass of vodka.

I found happiness in the train station, designed by Eliei Saarinen, and finished in 1919.
The waiting room:

Two guys out front....

I also went to the Finnish National Art Gallery, to see what Finnish painting is all about. Interesting, in that I know nothing at all about it, with no preconceptions.   Most paintings date from the early 20th Century onwards, and, no surprise, feature Finnish landscapes.  Some interesting Symbolist paintings, including this one, which is apparently Finland's favorite painting.  The Wounded Angel:

An excellent dinner at a Nepalese restaurant; there are a lot of these in Helsinki.  No reindeer curry, luckily.  

It's off to Russia tomorrow, by train.

Helsinki

We are in Helsinki, the beginning of our 5 city trip.   The same five cities, in fact, that I visited on a family vacation when I was 16 years old.  (I still have the itinerary from that trip, which my father saved.)
(I forgot to mention that the business lounge in the Dusseldorf airport had 3 different kinds of eau de vie available (for free).  Europe sure is different.)

Helsinki is our first step into Nordic culture.  The physical layout of the city is beautiful, surrounded by water and islands on all sides.   The city was laid out by a German planner, hired by the Russians after they conquered it, defeating the Swedes in 1809.  The most prominent architectural style is Art Nouveau, dating from the early part of the 20th Century.   An example is the apartment building we are staying in:

Decorations of all kinds:

Also, a Russian Orthodox church interior:

Then there is Finnish food.  Ever been to a Finnish restaurant in your neighborhood?
I had reindeer meatballs for lunch.   And special Finnish cookies:

And something to bring home to your friends...

One more picture, from the exterior of the White Church, the largest Lutheran church in town.  

Ada has survived a day with her parents, and Vera is determined to learn some Finnish, a language which is incomprehensible to us.   

Oh, and lots of people from Kaurismaki films walking the streets...

Dusseldorf

We are in the business lounge in the Dusseldorf airport at 6:00 AM Dusseldorf time.  My blogger page now gives me headings in German.  Vera is immediately happy because she is in Europe.  I have never seen someone so glad to see an airport at 6 AM.  She has disappeared into the shops, for the moment.   We are waiting for our plane for Helsinki, which leaves at 9 AM.

Our last few days in New York I tried to slow down a bit, so as to conserve some touristic energy for the next two weeks.  I did, however, spend a lot of time in the subways, taking photos and movies for my work-in-progress.   We did discover that, even with with more than 2 weeks in NY, it was still not enough time to feel totally at home yet, as in living a normal life.

Now the family tourism begins in earnest.    The paradigm for our method of tourism is exemplified by the time in Rome when we came to an intersection, and Vera wanted to turn right, Ada wanted to go straight, and I thought we should go left.   I don't remember what we ending up doing.   Stay tuned.

I am now going to press the Veröffentlichen button.   If the buttons turn Finnish in Helsinki, I may be in trouble..

Anything Goes!

Last night we saw the Cole Porter musical "Anything Goes"  in an elaborate Broadway production.  Wonderful music, of course, and razzle-dazzle choreography.   Since I rarely go to musicals, it is, needless to say, quite a contrast to our Wagnerian experience of the week before.  But in both cases, words matter.  Some of Porter's elaborate lyrics are lost in the singers amped and miked sound, all of which sounds a bit canned.   But overall, the performers were great, including the eighty year old Joel Grey, who can still tap with the rest of them.   And the crazy humor of the plot is a delight.

We got the tickets at half price from something called BroadwayBox.com, which saves you the standing in line for TKCTS in Times Square.


I also did something a little strange yesterday, and visited Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, which is a national historic site.  I have a memory of hearing that my grandfather was buried there, but there is no one left to confirm that, so I went to see if I could find his grave.   I didn't, but found my great-grandfather's grave.   The cemetery is huge; I expected it to be crowded like the Parisian ones, but it is actually full of open space.   Besides the beautiful old trees, though, it is not really very interesting.

And then there was the largest laundromat I have ever seen, with cool colors. (not in the cemetery)

Today Vera is at an all day symposium in honor of our musicologist friend Richard, and there will be a party tonight, as well.  (I go to parties, but not symposia.)

I saw an interesting exhibit at a gallery today of works by Andre Masson.  Three large rooms of paintings from 1925 to 1945, very colorful, in the Surrealist tradition, and eventually heading towards some kind of abstraction.   I was alone in the exhibition the entire time, and enjoyed the work immensely.  Next stop was the Whitney Biennial, which I hated.   The only parts I liked were the appropriated images from other artists.  It is all about concepts and ideas.  Even the one painter whose work I liked was accompanied by a blurb which admitted the need to conceptually justify the existence of painting, hence some little bit about the paintings being arranged so as to contextualize the architecture of the museum, or something like that.    End of rant.....

Tomorrow, our friends Krin and Paula are coming for dinner, and we have to get ready to fly to Helsinki on Sunday.