| We spent our last day in Russia in its finest art museum,
the Hermitage of St. Petersburg. Russia provides the world's best
setting for a museum - displaying the works of art in the Winter
Palace (the Hermitage is a subsection of the Palace). We found
ourselves admiring the Palace trappings as much as the art of
Picasso, Rembrandt, Monet, Van Gogh, etc. Our favorite item was a
fancy cuckoo clock by James Cox; the clock marked the hour with a
giant metal peacock that fanned its feathers, an owl that clicked its
eyes and rotated its head, and a cock that crowed. The Hermitage
displays too much art to be seen in one day, but at least we had a
dose of high culture. We're sorry to leave Russia so soon. This
country has something to offer everyone - long history, substantive
museums, diverse culture, exciting nightlife, a few vestiges of
Communism still in evidence for the nostalgic, and best of all, it's
affordable once you get past the ridiculous airfare demanded by
imperialistic and decadent Western airlines.
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