Peter de Grote and the Hermitage

Another day of work done!! And only one more day to work this week before the 4-day long weekend for Easter! Nice life in Europe eh?

Here's another gem from the weekend (Daddy this one is for you!):

"Peter the Great - an inspired Tsar" was one of the two exhibits at the Hermitage when I visited last Saturday. It was an exhibit of his life - his history, how he lived, and the art and antiques he collected. I found the things in the exhibit a tad boring, but found his life to be quite interesting and inspiring. For more details click here.

Facts about Peter the Great that I appreciated:
Peter the Great:

• Ascended to the throne at aged 17 and was determined to lift his country out of the Middle Ages (this was the 17th century)
• Travelled to western Europe to learn how to do this. He learnt 17 different trades (including blacksmithing, ship-building, anatomy - so he could teach his army medicine, printing, and how to extract teeth)
• Decided that women should be able to ascend to the throne (and after his death his wife was the first Tsaritsa
• Started the first museum in Russia to encourage everyone to learn, established the first Russian newspaper, and secularized schools
• Loved Amsterdam and wanted to build a new Russian capital based on it (St. Petersburg). However after his death it developed more in the style of Paris

Of course he also had a lot of success in wars, etc, but they didn't seem as interesting to me. Amongst his collections were preserved body parts that were totally fascinating - a child's head and arm amongst them!

This is a picture of the Hermitage from the outside (no photos allowed inside). The other exhibit was "Vincent" (van Gogh) but I didn't find it overly interesting unfortunately. The Hermitage is located right on the Amstel river and has two exhibits each year. While the Van Gogh museum is under construction the second exhibit is Vincent.