The second visit to the Hermitage was much better, as even B. was forced to admit. But the real highlight of St Petersburg for us was the Russian museum, which gave a foretaste of the art to come in Veliky Novgorod. Gorgeous Russian icons! St Petersburg was kind of a trip, overall. We ate great, but very expensive, food in Georgian and Azeri restaurants. We went for a long run on Sunday through the city that left B. with severe knee pain and me with serious pollution discomfort. I've stared at "Russians" until my eyes are popping out of my head. Not until coming here this time have I realized how strongly the stereotypes I grew up with and my short previous visit in '94 have affected what I expect to see and am attentive to.
Novgorod will, I suspect, be one of the highlights of our trip. It is a stunningly beautiful city with an absolutely astonishing collection of icons, including one of the Virgin protecting Novgorod in a battle with Suzdal, which is the first Russian painting to depict an event of Russian history. Novgorod lies on a plain along the Volkhov river and is surrounded by so much green, open space that all I wanted to do as we were arriving on a train was get off and start jogging! I did make it out for a run on our second day, and it was lovely. I ran along the river to a monastery that lies a few miles south of town, covered with distinctive onion domes and surrounded by lakes and forests. Beautiful. As we were trying to finish up our sightseeing with a few more churches later that day, we gestured to a caretaker to see if the church he was guarding was open. It turns out the church is in fact his house. How this artist ended up living in a 14th-15th or so century church (for the last 8 years) was something we could not decipher from his animated rendering in fluent and basically incomprehensible Russian of the events of Novgorod's history. We did get that the church had at some point sheltered refugees, but whether this was during WWII (when the Nazis trashed the city) or during the war with Suzdal was not clear. After sharing tea, we had to leave (with many embraces) for a boat ride on the river.
The artistic highlight of the afternoon were the frescoes by Theophanes the Greek in the Chuch of Our Saviour-at-Ilino. Rublev studied for a time in his studio. The frescoes are faint and many are destroyed, but the Pantokrator under the dome is still enough to strike fear into an erring sinner's heart.
Despite my worst apprehensions, no one smoked in the sleeping compartment on the train last night. In fact, it was all very comfortable once the train left and the ventilation system was turned on. We had a bit of a hassle getting to Vladimir today, as one of the guide books sent us to the wrong train station, but eventually we got tickets for the suburban train. We had tea with a surgeon from Tanzania, only the fourth black person we have seen in this country, who confirmed that it is getting more and more difficult for foreigners here. He is planning to return to Tanzania when he finishes his PhD in three years (after 15 years here in Russia).
We tried to get on the train, but it was a madhouse. Elbows out, old ladies sent flying (seriously!, but it was partly their own fault for starting the mad dash before the train had emptied): we were expecting seats to be impossible to get, but there seemed to be no reason why the pressure to get on the train was so intense.
We did finally arrive in Vladimir three and a half hours later (this for a 100-mile ride), and it can't quite compare to Novgorod, but we've seen the Rublev frescoes, eaten lunch (although that was difficult: although we specified two of each dish, the waitress only brought one tiny salad for me and a slender fish for B. Luckily, another attentive waiter eventually realized that if he gave us the English menu, we might get fed and he might get tipped), and checked into our reasonable and quiet hotel. Off to Moscow tomorrow, a prospect which fills us both with some dread.