June 3
St. Petersburg, continued . . .
[After our morning adventure, we’re now heading back into the city . . . ]
[Leningrad Hero City Obelisk, May 1, 1945, in Vosstaniya Square. . . ]
[The artsy shot . . . ]
[I have reason to believe this is the Anichkov Bridge. Why? (Next slide please . . . )]
[The Anichkov Bridge is the oldest and most famous bridge across the Fotanka River. The current bridge, built in 1841-42 and reconstructed in 1906-08, combines a simple form with some spectacular decorations. As well as its four famous horse sculptures (1849–50), the bridge has some of the most celebrated ornate iron railings in Saint Petersburg (Wikipedia). Note the horse sculptures at the beginning (or end) of the bridge.]
[The City Duma is located at the corner of the avenue and Dumskaya Street, opposite the Merchant Court and Grand Hotel Europe. Its distinctive tower, formerly used for fire observation, can still be seen the whole length of Nevsky Prospekt after the crossing with Fontanka River (Wikipedia).]
[Great Gostiny Dvor (left and center), vast department store on Nevsky Avenue across from the Duma (right), is the city’s oldest shopping centre and also one of the first shopping arcades in the world . . . ]
[Pushkin statue in Arts Square . . . ]
[Gathered outside the State Russian Museum. We did not partake, likely due to time constraints . . . ]
[And now, from inside the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood (did I mention previously no inside photography?) . . . ]
[Built between 1883 and 1907, it contains over 7,500 square meters of mosaics, possibly more than any other church in the world . . . ]
[Let’s browse (which is what you say when you are at a loss for describing the things you are looking at) . . . ]
[Though the church is not overly large, it overwhelms . . . ]
[I believe the Super’s feet . . . ]
[Mosaics from floor to ceiling . . . ]
[One from the Super . . . ]
[This could be a notice to pickpocketers that the blue plate special crowd is here?]
[A well-educated guess would be that this has something to do with ballet . . . ]
[OMG, there’s Freddie again!]
[He appears to be advertising for Rock Pub . . . ]
[The Grand Palace . . . I seem to be catching on to Cyrillic?]
[The Senate and Synod Building, by appearance . . . but it didn’t recall it being in this neighborhood?]
[Now the group is on the move in search of . . . a boat!]
[And there they are!]
[We had a bit of a wait – so we just worked on our tans . . . ]
[Finally, away we go. This had to be a blind overhead shot because I see my Antioch cap in the left foreground . . . ]
[St. Pete, here we come!]
[The Super gives the are you taking my picture(?) look . . . ]
[Our fans wait on the bridge above for our arrival. I searched the internet (“bridges in St. Petersburg”) for identification. The railing design is an identifying design feature. But, I couldn’t find it . . . ]
[No Russian city should be without one . . . ]
[The letters “h-o-t-e-l” are on the building, so my guess is that it’s a hotel . . . ]
[No Russian city should be without one . . . ]
[A yellow building of some import or I wouldn’t have taken the photo?]
[Or maybe a place I’d recognize from the other side?]
[Appear to making a right turn here into another canal . . . ]
[We’re on the Kryukov Canal; the other boat is from the Griboyedov Canal . . . ]
[St. Nicholas Naval Academy . . . ]
[And its bell tower . . . ]
[Vege Apartment Building . . . ]
[Built for the owner of a chocolate factory (hence, the color?) . . . ]
[A skywalk?]
[“Spirit of the White Nights” music . . . ]
[Mariinsky Theatre (opera) . . . ]
[A $700 million project opened in 2013 . . . ]
[Self identified . . . ]
[Local fans? Favorite photos I posted on FB . . . ]
[Mom and daughter?]
[Yusupov’s Palace . . . ]
[Neat looking building – government, embassy, hotel? Dunno . . . ]
[St. Isaac’s Cathedral, for old time’s sake . . . ]
[Blue Bridge (surprise!) . . . ]
[The Pochtamtsky Bridge . . . ]
[The golden dome . . . ]
[Nicholas I in St. Isaac’s Square . . . ]
[Au Pont Rouge department store . . . ]
[It’s taking too long to find all these buildings . . . ]
[Let’s just browse . . . ]
[BCeM npnbet! (“Hi all!”, in Russian)]
[And now into “big water” . . . ]
[We’ve left the canals and ventured out onto the rougher waters of the Neva across from Peter and Paul Fortress . . . ]
[Peter and Paul, close up . . . ]
[Marble Palace . . . ]
[Palace Bridge . . . ]
[And surroundings . . . ]
[And its ornateness . . . ]
[STS Mir is a three-masted training ship . . . ]
[Wedged a bit around the left corner, the Cruiser Aurora, a famous Russian warship now a museum on the Neva . . . ]
[Peter and Paul . . . ]
[Peter I’s Summer Palace escape, the Letniy Palace, where the Fontanka meets the Neva . . . ]
[Well, I’m just shocked . . . ]
[I could find nothing on this uniquely stlyed bridge (among dozens of photos of St. Petersburg bridges) . . . ]
[Or of this building of obvious import near that bridge?]
[We may have stumbled into an old KGB area?]
[And this church, in the same area, also chose to remain anonymous? Spooky!]
[Thank goodness the Faberge Museum chose to identify itself . . .
[Heading into the final turns of our waterways tour . . . ]
[I believe this may be the area where Russian oligarchs are snapping up waterfront properties . . . ]
[Well, isn’t this a nice view?]
[Russian commerce . . . ]
[And of course these photos tell you that . . . ]
[We’re heading back to the boat.]
Back on the boat, we’re about to finally begin our cruise part of the trip . . .
[Sing along with me. For some undecypherable reason (OK, probably early to bed), we never spent an evening with the lounge duo?]
[Why, thank you, I will have a champagne!]
[Dr. Kiehne up close and personal with a weight-bearing pole . . . ]
[Or maybe he was just waiting for the drink tray to come by . . . ]
[We appear to be moving?]
[We are, as our singer snaps some departure photos . . . ]
[Dosvedanya to”our” bridge . . . ]
[And now it’s a bon voyage PAR-TAY!]
[Pam works the starboard side . . . ]
[Our sail away dinner . . . ]
[I have no idea, or remembrance of, what it was . . . ]
[OK, this is fish . . . ]
[And this must be dessert. And dessert comes at the end. And this is the end of our visit to St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg is a very cosmopolitan city which likely explains why it is the epicenter of Russian trolling and hacking of our political system. Absent any immediate remedy for that, we now head off into the Russian countryside . . . ]
It is impossible to travel faster than the speed of light, and certainly not desirable, as one’s hat keeps blowing off. ~ Woody Allen
Up Next: Russia, Russia, Russia
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Beautiful photos of what looks like a wonderful trip. Good for you two!!!
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