A COUPLE OF HOTELS

I remember walking past the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Amsterdam a few times and wanting to take a photo (but I didn't).  The hotel looked like any other building, but there was always a staff member outside all dressed in their best bib and tucker so to speak.  I think one time a fellow had some historical costume on.  Seeing as I wasn't staying there, I was a little reluctant to take photos. 

Internet pic of Waldorf Astoria in Amsterdam

Internet pic of Waldorf Astoria in St Petersburg

I don't see any photos of the Waldorf Astoria in St Petersburg in my files, but I would have been by it a few times.  Again - it kinda looks like any other building (very majestic) but it's in St Isaac's Square, so there as a lot of beautiful things to look at in that area. 

The St Petersburg Waldorf was built in 1910 (although the original building on that site was built in the 1700s).  It was built to host visitors for a huge celebration of the Romanovs - celebrating 300 years of Russian imperial rule.  It was popular with aristocracy.  Apparently Rasputin stayed there with some of his married lovers.  (I wanna stay in that room.)

After the Russian Revolution, it housed members of the Communist Party.  Lenin spoke from its balcony in 1919.  During WWII the hotel served as a field hospital during the Siege of Leningrad.  Adolf Hitler planned a victory banquet in the hotel's Winter Garden - and he was so convinced Leningrad would fall quickly that invitations to the event were printed in advance.

It's across from the former Embassy of Germany, where it was rumored that the Waldorf Astoria and the Embassy were linked via an underground tunnel.  When Germany declared war on Russia crowds stormed the building - causing considerable damage to the throne room, as well as the art and porcelain collections.  The Dioskouroi sculpture on the roof was apparently flung into the river.   

Castor and Pollux, known together as the Dioscuri, were twin brothers in mythology.  Their mother was Leda but they each had a different father.  In Latin the twins are known as the Gemini.  They were patrons of sailors and were associated with horsemanship (because they rode the "white horses" of foam that were formed by curling ocean waves).


Famous guests at the Waldorf in St Petersburg include Prince Charles, Luciano Pavarotti, Madonna, Elton John, Vladimir Putin, and George W. Bush.