Hermitage

I suppose I knew that the Hermitage was huge - and might be a bit overwhelming - but knowing and seeing are two different things.  The queue for the internet ticket people (thanks for the tip, advance guard) was shorter than the general ticket queue by several hundred people.  In fact there were only a dozen or so people in front of us, but it was still a very slow line.  Tickets in hand, we ventured back out for a breakfast snack, courtesy of the French food truck.  So tasty, so cheap.

Fortified, we headed inside.  After some initial confusion as to direction we got stuck into the Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities rooms.  Weirdly, even though there were thousands of people traipsing through the museum, some of the rooms we found were empty.  It was just us and the amazing architecture and the jaw-dropping exhibits.  G got a wee bit sick of all my ooh-ing and ah-ing, so after a while I just did it quietly, internalising my awe and wonder, if you will.

In this shot (below) you see Geoff and Heracles and, of course, the lion.  All in all, G had an easier day of it than either Heracles or the lion, although there was the usual gallery foot and museum leg to contend with...

Something that I certainly wasn't expecting was how many of everything they had... hundreds of greek amphora, tens of Egyptian coffins, hundreds of marble sculptures (including a Michaelangelo), dozens of Matisses, Chagalls, Gaugins, Picassos...

Apart from the antiquities, which I very much enjoyed, our favourite collections were over in the General Staff building where, it seemed, most of the tourists didn't want to go.  Many empty and virtually empty rooms full of glorious paintings awaited.  The emptiness did get a little bit in they way of my photo project, though (there's irony for you).

I did take lots of photos, of many things, in part due to the awe and wonder, and also, hopelessly, trying to hang onto it all for later.  In the end I realised my quest was impossible and couldn't do justice to the work.  Later, I changed tack and decided to capture the viewers with the work - so here's my Hermitage (General Staff Building) stalker series: