Russia 2012: St. Petersburg City Treasures

Enjoying an unusually sunny day on the Neva River outside the fort's walls.

Inside Peter and Paul Cathedral - notice there are no seats. Tombs of Tsars on lefts.

Nicholas II and family rest here inside Peter and Paul Cathedral. The last Tsar and family were murdered by Bolsheviks in July, 1918.

Statue of Peter the Great.

One of the entries to the fort - note the double eagle emblem above the arch.

Tombs of Russian Tsars inside Peter and Paul Cathedral.

View of Peter and Paul fortress from across the Neva River.

Tomb and Peter the Great.

Peter and Paul Cathedral.

Cruiser Aurora.

Theatre for National Dance show - formerly a palace.

The girls enjoying refreshment before the show.

Ready for the show!

Peter and Paul fortress was constructed at the height of the Great Norther War and was a bold move by Peter the Great considering it was built on land that, at that time, was under Swedish control. Charles XII of Sweden allegedly commented that Peter could go ahead and build it so the Swedish could enjoy using it. Well, Peter and his armies took care of that at the battle of Poltava. While the fort never fulfilled its true military purposes, it does contain Peter and Paul Cathedral - the final resting place of Russian Tsars following Peter the Great, including a special room for Tsar Nicholas II and his family - the last Russian Tsars. Its prisons also held notable Russians including Peter's son Tsarevich Alexis, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Leon Trotsky.

St. Petersburg was at the heart of the October Russian Revolution of 1917, which ended with the storming of the Winter Palace. The takeover of the palace was started by the firing of a blank round from one of the guns of battle cruiser Aurora. We visited Aurora. Our tour guide has been giving tours of that ship for over 25 years, but her passion is undiminished. In addition to its role in the Revolution, it is one of only two Russian ships to escape Russia's naval disaster at the battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War of 1905.

Traditional Russian folk dancing is legendary and seeing live is amazing. Now I can see why Russians are known for ballet - it probably started in the countryside with these dances. They are incredibly demanding for both male and female dancers.

Russia 2012: Novgorod

Russian forest - Just as we thought it would look like.

Dacha's on the road to Novgorod - typical 2nd homes.

Churches in the former Yaroslav's Court and market center. St. Paraskevi (not white) in background. 

Touching St. Paraskevi is a tradition of Novgorod women - it brings them husbands if they circle the church and touch it. There is a path around the church today - the tradition still observed.

Novgorod city walls and River Volkhov.

Novgorod city walls; Cathedral of St. Sophie in the background

The Russians are known for their bells - they all have names.

Novgorod administration building - typical of many administration buildings we saw.

The Russians made buildings from wood using no nails - easier to take them down, move them and build them again. Amazing craftsmanship.

Traditional Russian lunch. 

Cathedral of St. Sophie - built between 1045 and 1050. Full of icons and relics, it is the oldest functioning building in Russia.

Celebration of Novgorod's millennium - built in 1862 it depicts Russia's great leaders, fighters, artists and clergy.

The mote and city walls of Novgorod.

Traditional Russian village made from wood and no nails.

About 3 hours from St. Petersburg by car is the city of Novgorod. As Steve's dad said "For the Russians, this is where it all started." Written history mentions the city as far back as 859. From that point, its history is not unlike other cities in Russia - full of economic development, war, rebuilding, more war, and rebuilding. Still situated on the Volkhov River, it is now a city of over 200K people. We were fortunate that some of the older churches and city walls survive. Steve studied Russian history in college (taught by Steve's dad) so both he and his dad were in their element. For Steve, to be in the city that hired Alexander Nevsky to defeat the Teutons - an event depicted by Sergei Eisenstein in his 1938 film, one of Steve's favorite movies - was truly special. It was a day of churches, walls and traditional Russian wooden architecture - those buildings were made without nails!! We finished the day with a traditional Russian meal where Kate and Anna discovered Russian dumplings. Natasha came with us on the trip - it was her first time to Novgorod. She was excited to go and we were happy to have her along. A great day.

Ski Week 2012: Austria

A proper Austrian lunch - hillside.

The family on top of the world.

Skiing at Hochjoch. 

More Hochjoch.

Ready for some fun.

Hard to get tired of this.

Taking a break. 

Local restaurant in Tschagguns - traditional Austria cooking.

We tried snowshoeing.

Ann tries it too.

Appetizer at dinner - the food was fantastic.

Kid table - Anna and Kate with friends Daisy and Hamish Evans.

Adult table with Kylie and Mark Evans.

Tschagguns church - we welcomed the bells each morning.

Our home in Austria - we loved this place and its people.

One of the many things we like about Switzerland is ski week - the time off from schools for families to go skiing. This year we headed to the Montafon area in nearby Austria. Maria found us a nice (very nice!!) hotel nestled in the small village of Tschagguns - Montafoner Hof. From our hotel, we had access to the ski areas of Golm, Hochjoch, Grasjoch, Nova, Versettla and Valisera. Except Golm, all these areas were connected. Montafon is a family friendly area offering many groomed runs for beginners and intermediates, and some off-piste fun for more advance skiers. We had snow early in the week and sun at the end - we couldn't ask for better conditions. In addition to the skiing, we met really nice people. The hotel staff went out of their way to make us feel welcome. We think they purposefully put us next to the Evans family, the only other English speakers in the place. Aussie's now living in Luxembourg, we quickly made friends with them and Daisy, their 11 year old, became friends with the girls. We plan to visit them in Luxembourg. In addition, Kate and Steve took the snow bus home from Hochjoch and met Karin Sander, a lovely local woman, who helped them navigate the buses back to Tschagguns. The next day we ran into her and her husband Hubert on the slopes. Steve joined them for wine Friday night and the families will stay in touch. We love Austria, the people, the skiing and the food and look forward to coming back.

Kate Turns Eight

The cake - homemade with red hots and other yummies.

Freshwater pearls.

And DS games.

Of course another stuffed animal.

Making Cub Cakes.

The grass project at the kid party.

Finishing up the grass projects - looking good.

Now on to decoupage.

Kate at work.

Anna and Camilla.

Time for presents.

Happy friend and happy birthday girl.

Let the arranging begin. Maria with Jenny Brown.

Kate and her buddy Anne Marie.

Finished!!

Birthdays for kids are a big deal, and for the right reasons. In Woolley/Vittone family tradition, we spread the joy over multiple days to accommodate for family birthday and kids birthday. For family birthday, we went to a water park in France. It was during our unusually cold snap (we had temps of -14 c), which made swimming in the outdoors pool interesting as the mist came off the warm water. Because Kate's actual birthday fell on a weekday, we had family present opening in the morning before school. For her kid birthday we had a florist theme. Activities included planing grass in a design (like your name, a shape, or just any old way), followed by decoupage on a glass vase, and then actual floral arrangements. Cake eating happened while the decoupage dried. Maria did a fantastic pulling it all off. And as an additional treat, Dubai buddy Crosby Brown joined the party after driving up from her new home in Genoa, Italy. Amazingly, only one grass project dumped over in the house.  Maria was absolutely the super mom making this all happen and leaving Kate with warm memories of another birthday surrounded by happy people big and small wishing her well. 

New Addition to the Family

What fish doesn't come home in a bag?

The girls anxiously awaiting time for Bubbleiscious' water to reach room temperature.

The release.

Welcome home Bulbbleiscious!

Getting used to each other.

One downside to our travels is that we haven't had the stability and lifestyle conducive to getting a dog - the pet we all want. Next best would be a cat, but Maria is allergic to cats (and many more things, we recently discovered). She is currently getting weekly shots to help with the cat allergy in hopes of brining home a Suisse rescue kitty, but in the meantime we decided to try fish again. Together with our third daughter Camilla Trentini, we adapted Beta fish in early February. She was quickly named Bubbleiscious and has adjusted to life at our home. We hope she will be with us for a long time, but the girls still remember are troubles keeping fish alive in Minnesota and have prepared themselves for the worst. But in the meantime, Bubbleiscious is a happy, fin-waving fish.