Looks like Greece or Rome doesn't it?

White Nights in St Petersburg Part 2

Friday

 

Today begins with a visit to the Kazan Cathedral in the rain!   Built in the early 1800s and named for a revered Russian icon, under the communist regime it was converted to a " museum of atheism.since then it has been reformed to its former glory of Orthodox ambience.  The ornate interior was exquisite and the voices of the choir were enthralling.

By the way did we tell you that there are 5 million people living in St Petersburg?

From here we walked to the Hermitage.  The Winter Palace, (now known as the Hermitage) was built by Peter the Great's daughter, Elizabeth.  Later, her daughter Catherine the Great, filled the palace with famous works of art.  Today it is home to over 3 million pieces of art displayed in opulent rooms.  Neveyana had purchased tickets ahead for us so we were able to bypass the long entrance lineups and enter at our appointed time of 11:00am.  We spent 3 hours in one of the five buildings. The best exhibits that we saw were the Russian cultural ones.....lots of clothing and items from the 1800's and early 1900's before they got rid of the czars.  And they were some of the ones that you couldn't take pictures in.....that was another thing....some rooms you could, some you couldn't, some you could but not with flash!!!! There were a maze of rooms and corridors to navigate and we had several adventures choosing which direction to follow to the next exhibit recommended by the Rick Steve's travel book. And figuring out which cloak room we had checked our bags in was another adventure!.

Bypassing the line...in the rain!

3 hours later...still raining, longer lineups!

Three hours later, we exited then tried to find a nearby cache but didn't. Then we began walking back to our hotel.  After a quick lunch, we shopped our way home for a short rest.(Pam is loosing space in her luggage quickly....good thing the homeward flight on Icelandicair lets us check 2 bags free!!!)  Our final dinner as a group was a 15 minute walk to different area of the city.  The food was very good...the service not quite as good.

Allan and Fairleigh from Kingston

Grant (and Caron, she was ill) from New Zealand and Sherry from Chicago

Rhonda and Jack from  Melbourne, Aust.

Danny and Francine from Coquitlam

Jennifer from Singapore

Nevy our CEO from Bulgaria

Marj and John from Pheonix, Arizona

The last activity together was a midnight canal ride, White Nights to see the lights of the city illuminate and watch the sections of the 3 drawbridges rise at 1:25am, to allow sea vessels up and down the river. They are up for 4 hours each day/night. Within a half hour of them going up we counted 5 freighter that had gone past us and under the bridges. The number of boats on the river was only exceeded by  the number of tourists on shore waiting for the bridges to open, there were thousands! Viewing the many churches and buildings from the water gave another perspective to the city. 

10 to midnight!

Walking back..Church on Spilled Blood 2:50am

Hotel 3:00am

As the boat does not return to the embarkation point, we walked along Nevsky Propekt (the main street) at 2 am along with many others and a series of young people revving engines and driving very fast!"  At 3am bed was calling. But look it's still really light!