DAY FORTY FIVE - Wednesday May 9

DAY FORTY FIVE - Wednesday May 9

We (Grisha, Pisha, Misha and, now, Disha - Patti's husband, Dave) had a wonderful day toddling around town, celebrating Victory Day (the Russian celebration of the end of World War II) with all the locals. Streets were closed off, bandstands were everywhere, thousands of people out on the streets - celebrating.

Before the parade - tanks lined up

The Opera House

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The Men, starting our excursion.

Misha and Pisha

Misha, Pisha and Disha

Grisha, Pisha and Disha

The front of the mansion - with the park behind.

The rest of the mansion.

The backside of the mansion with the park - in need of repair.

This was in a park behind the old mansion - I suppose the Central Park of Yekaterinburg

The pond in the park.

Feeding pigeons in the park.

 

Grandma and Grandpa take Grandchild to see the pigeons.

Grandma and Grandpa take Grandchild to see the pigeons 2.

 Patti, Dave and Gregg.

Patti choreographing the picture!

Pisha, Grisha and Misha - in front of The Church on the Blood

Patti and Michael in front of Church on the Blood - you can't see but my iPhone has a picture of Patti's water bottle!

Me in front of the Church on the Blood - a church built on the location where Nicholas, Alexandra and their 5 children were killed during the Bolshevik uprising of 1917 - well, they abdicated 1917, and were killed 1918.  Yakov Sverdlov - the man who was (possibly) in charge of their execution - is who this city was named after during the Soviet era - Sverdlosk.  The city is back to it's pre-Soviet era name, Yekaterinburg.  Like Leningrad is back to St. Petersburg.  

 

You can see me better in this picture - but the church is less clear. In front of The Church on the Blood.

Me, with Alexandra, Nicholas and their son, Alexei.

 

Alexei was a hemophiliac and was often invalided - here I am helping to care for him.

 

Patti, felling sorry for the Tsar's heir - although he was never to make it that far

The Church on the Blood.

Another view of The Church on the Blood.

Dave and Gregg ascending the stairs to the church.

View from the Church

 

A picture of Patti taking a picture.

The plaza around the church.

Nicholas and Alexandra and their son.

Alexandra and the Romanov kids.

In the black and white world with the Romanovs. 

In the black and white world with the Romanovs part two.

Romaovs

View of the city from the Church on the Blood

The Theatre for Young Audiences

A beautiful old, wooden building - the Literary Museum

Pisha and Disha

Patti in front of Literary Museum.

Me in front of the Literary Museum.

Me, Evita style, in front of the Literary Museum.  

A cool building - also in need of repair. 

Poster of Stalin (not sure why they're still celebrating him after all the Russians he killed) March 9th - Victory Day

Statue of the inventor of the radio (not sure which aspect of radio telecommunication) with Lenin poster in front.

 

Patti and Dave on the courtyard.

Lenin Street - with thousands of people far down by the main square.

Buildings along Lenin Street

There were many bandstands set up throughout the city.

Again, the northern-most skyscraper in the world.

Not the most in-tune jazz band - New Orleans style - in Russia

 Crowds on Lenin Street.

An absolutely AMAZING chicken dinner - unbelievably was worth the hour and a half wait! 

Here's a video of the day's activities.  The reggae-ish band at about 4 minutes represented the only people (well, person) of color we have seen here thus far!



It was a pretty great day - very relaxing, lots of walking, great weather and lots to see.