Just kidding...I will not be displaying all of the thousands of pictures we took. The week previous to our epic Russia trip I had to go to Florida for work. I flew back from FL on Oct 22 and early the next morning we were on our way to St. Petersburg. It is a very long flight and somewhere between Ft. Myers, Florida and Zurich Switzerland I caught some nasty germs, making me a little under the weather.
We stayed with our friends Mandy and Dwight. He is working at the US Consulate in St. Pete. I was so excited to see Mandy, I could hardly contain myself. We were roomies in college and it's sad to say, but I haven't seen her in 8 years or more. However, we picked up right where we left off. Only now she has three adorable kids!
Mandy and Dwight were so good to us. Dwight picked us up from the airport. We had thought about renting a car. I'm so glad we didn't. Those Russians drivers are crazy and Dwight can keep up with them! They fed us, and toted us around, and interpreted for us. If we could write a review for them on Yelp we'd give them like 10 million stars!
The first day in St. Petersburg we went to the Peter and Paul Fortress. In the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul is the burial of Peter the Great and the Romanov Tsars.
The above picture is the burial room for the Romanov's (Nicholas, Alexandra, Tatiana, Anastasia, and Alexei). Wes and I both have read a great book on the Romanov's by Robert Massie. It is Nicholas and Alexandra. It's an excellent book as well as Robert Massie's Peter the Great.
This is Wes and me by Peter the Great's tomb.
This cathedral is very different than most of the other cathedrals we toured in Russia. This has very soft colors and seems more open even though there are so many tombs on the floor. Maybe it seemed that way because there weren't many crowds (I'll tell you about the Russian crowds in a later post)
This is kind of a weird statue of Peter the Great. A little controversial too. I'm not exactly sure what the controversy is...maybe it's because he has such a small head? Also, I don't know why I look a little trepid. Maybe the small head frightened me a little.
After a bite of lunch (delicious Bellini at a cute little restaurant), Mandy and Dwight dropped us off to wander to the Church of the Spilled Blood.
This is a beautiful and colorful building. The fall leaves in St. Petersburg all seem to be the rich gold color. I loved being there at this time of the year.
I'm a sucker for the onion domed buildings.
Inside The Church of the Spilled Blood. This church was built to commemorate the assassination of Tsar Alexander II
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