We went to The Hermitage Museum (not a church, but the acclaimed, incomparable art museum) and The Church on the Spilled Blood - both of which were captivating enough to warrant their own separate blog posts. Stay tuned. This was the rest of the day (as if those two weren't enough!)....
The Rostral Columns are located in St. Petersburg on the spit of St. Basil Island. They are ancient "lights" built in 1811 to guide ships. The city has 150 bridges, 9 of them drawbridges, which allow entry of ocean-going ships into the waterways and canals of the city. These bridges are opened at 2am for ship traffic to pass but remain closed (down) during the day so traffic is not impeded.
Our guide, Valya, also took us to the St. Petersburg University where she is a professor. It was one of the few places the Communist Soviet Union CCCP sign remains. This might be a good time to recount our experience with our guide. She was wonderful and quite knowledgeable, but there was an odd distance and curtness; it was almost as if the entire two day tour was scripted. And even our questions had rehearsed answers. She never asked or knew our names - there were only 7 of us in the group; so we spent 2 days with someone who never knew us by name. Odd, don't you think? It was all part of the Russian experience but it was clear that as a tourist there are certain things to see and know and others remain hidden.
Back on Nevsky prospect we passed this wartime sign alerting folks that this side of the street is more likely to be bombed. Oh. Yikes. I think I would STILL walk on the opposite side even today with such a message remaining from days gone by.
We lunched at a local, authentic diner (code for cheap!) It was a pick and point kind of cafeteria line and we did lots of pointing thereby tasting a lot of Russian specialties. Here Brian and Rebecca try the Russian borsch soup. Brian said he was glad he tried it, but I noted he only had a few slurps! But he gets point for trying!!!
We found the Russian Ernst & Young building! Right in the center of it all. And right next to St. Isaac's Cathedral. I loved this church. The religious icons and stories were everywhere and the church was absolutely enormous.
St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg is one of the world's largest domed cathedrals, holding 14,000 people. St. Isaac's was commissioned in 1818 by Tsar Alexander I to celebrate the victory over Napoleon, and the French architect Auguste de Montferrand was the designer. St. Isaac's took 40 years to build, and Montferrand died the year it opened. It sits on a marshy bank of the Neva River, and thousands of huge wooden pilings were sunk into the mud to support the church. The exterior of St. Isaac's is of Renaissance and Baroque design, and the interior is spectacular because of the mosaics and many precious stones and minerals used. The golden dome is covered with 220 pounds of gold. During the Soviet era, the Orthodox Church was closed to worshipers and became a museum of atheism. Fortunately, many of the wonderful 19th century works of art were retained and decorate today's St. Isaac's.
Enjoy our photos from St. Isaac's...
Way at the tippy top of the dome is a dove. If you squint you can see it!
Malachite and Lapis Lazuli Columns in St. Isaac's Cathedral
The sunlight streaming in seemed a fitting "hurrah!" to St. Isaac's Cathedral.
The second church we went to this day was the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The Cathedral is located inside the Peter and Paul fortress, built along the Neva River.
The golden steeple seems to poke out all around the city! Very distinctive and ever present. Inside this church are the tombs of almost all of the Russian Emperors and Empresses from Peter the Great to Nicholas II. Also here lies Catherine the Great, empress of Russia for 34 years. It was kind of eerie seeing the all these graves after our crash course in Russian history.
Matryoshka dolls lined the streets of most of the tourist stops. We bought a Christmas-themed set and will remember our Russian adventure every December this way!
Back on the ship, as we pulled out of the Russian port - exhausted and full of Russian culture and history - we relaxed on the back of the ship to say farewell. We sat first with an older couple from Minnesota, aghast with what we had just done. They recounted how especially for them they couldn't believe there would ever be a day when they would travel to Russia after a childhood of being fearful of Russia's nuclear threats and Communist regime. I was eleven when the Iron Curtain fell in 1989. So my memories of Russia are of a new country rising from a harsh history...rather than theirs of fear and threat. It was an interesting difference.
As we pulled away we saw these men playing on the ship. I am still perplexed by exactly what they were doing?
About an hour outside St. Petersburg we passed through Kronstadt, the main military seaport protecting the city. Supposedly there were people watching us as we came and left on our cruise ship. A little eerie, but we gathered with Brian and Rebecca and toasted Kronstadt and Russia together!
Enjoy our photos from St. Isaac's...Way at the tippy top of the dome is a dove. If you squint you can see it!Malachite and Lapis Lazuli Columns in St. Isaac's CathedralThe sunlight streaming in seemed a fitting "hurrah!" to St. Isaac's Cathedral.The second church we went to this day was the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The Cathedral is located inside the Peter and Paul fortress, built along the Neva River.The golden steeple seems to poke out all around the city! Very distinctive and ever present. Inside this church are the tombs of almost all of the Russian Emperors and Empresses from Peter the Great to Nicholas II. Also here lies Catherine the Great, empress of Russia for 34 years. It was kind of eerie seeing the all these graves after our crash course in Russian history. Matryoshka dolls lined the streets of most of the tourist stops. We bought a Christmas-themed set and will remember our Russian adventure every December this way!Back on the ship, as we pulled out of the Russian port - exhausted and full of Russian culture and history - we relaxed on the back of the ship to say farewell. We sat first with an older couple from Minnesota, aghast with what we had just done. They recounted how especially for them they couldn't believe there would ever be a day when they would travel to Russia after a childhood of being fearful of Russia's nuclear threats and Communist regime. I was eleven when the Iron Curtain fell in 1989. So my memories of Russia are of a new country rising from a harsh history...rather than theirs of fear and threat. It was an interesting difference.As we pulled away we saw these men playing on the ship. I am still perplexed by exactly what they were doing?About an hour outside St. Petersburg we passed through Kronstadt, the main military seaport protecting the city. Supposedly there were people watching us as we came and left on our cruise ship. A little eerie, but we gathered with Brian and Rebecca and toasted Kronstadt and Russia together!
When we docked our group banded together, determined to be one of the first off the ship. We heard nightmares of folks being stuck for hours in lines and immigration and we had too much to see and do for that to happen. We were ready to pull out our elbows if needed to make a clean exit. Thankfully though the worry was all for naught. It was smooth sailing and we were out and into Russia in a total of 5 minutes. Our group just stood there and looked around. "We are in RUSSIA," we whispered. RUSSIA! It was like we all needed to pinch each other to prove it was so! 
...the gorgeous sky, bridges, and river were not how I pictured Russia. Our morning welcome was fantastic. I had no idea how European-feeling the city would be. While still retaining that uniquely Russian attitude.
Connor was happy to be in St. 
We drove the length of 
After this outing we pledged to always bring the stroller with us - no matter how short the stop!
The 
Here are our photos:
Driving out to 
Splendid, surprising fountains are everywhere in 
On the van ride to Catherine's Palace our little peanut 
Next stop was The Catherine Palace. Of all the Imperial palaces, none is more evocative of both the heyday and twilight years of the 
The palace was named for Catherine the Great - a leader we came to know in depth. Catherine's legacy as an empress and 
At all major spots there were brides everywhere! It is a Russian wedding tradition to visit three to five places around the city that hold special meaning for citizens. There they have post-wedding photos snapped. Here is one of the many brides outside Catherine Palace. I can't think of anything more awkward than sweating with and among tourists and 
Catherine Palace was a "no strollers allowed" palace but luckily our little 
Catherine Palace was pretty badly destroyed by Nazis during the War. Photos attested to the extensive and painstaking restoration. The famed "Amber Room" is one such room that was ransacked. Russia has invested significantly to recreate the Amber Room and it is stunning. Golden amber covers everything in sight. 
Catherine Palace was a great stop. I loved the repetition of that Tiffany blue-turquoise on the palace - the same hue as the convent from the morning. There is still much to do to bring Catherine Palace back up to snuff from the effects of Nazis and Communism. But they are well on their way. I would like to come back when the Atlas statues that line the exterior are 
On our journey back into the city we rode the Russian subway. An unusual window into the grandeur and monotony of life, we took in the most beautiful metro stations and saw folks performing the most meaningless of jobs (i.e. a woman looking maybe 1/4 awake in a booth at the bottom of the escalator with a phone beside her - guess she is supposed call if something happened?) No photos allowed in the subway, so I pulled these from the 
We rode past the hallowed 
Finally we ended the day at the 
Again, 'no strollers allowed' and by this time we were ALL beat. Connor must have felt Rasputin's ghost because she fell apart at the 
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