On the Water and Below the Ground

Overcast and cool again today (9c), but at least it is not raining.  Today our tour guide, Sasha took us on a boat ride along the Neva River and into several St. Petersburg canals, gave us a ride on the St. Petersburg underground and visited the Peter and Paul Fortress, birthplace of St. Petersburg.  It was another full day but we have thoroughly enjoyed our time here, even though we did not experience one of the 30 annual days of sunshine.  I was very impressed and I must admit, surprised with St. Petersburg.  It is a very large city of over 5 million people who keep the city very clean, dress very well look and drive new and very clean cars.  It is Justas cosmopolitan  as any other major city Rita and I have visited in North America or Europe.   It was a long time in getting here but we are very happy we finally had the opportunity to experience the glories of historic St. Petersburg.

 

Even though it is only 9c we are thoroughly enjoying the sights of St. Petersburg by boat.  The Hermitage Museum is grandly sitting on the banks of the Neva River behind us

 

The Kunstkamera built in 1714 was the first state public museum in Russia.  It was filled with Peter the Great’s personal scientific collections including scientific instruments, books from his library, fish, reptiles, insects and deformed fetuses pickled in formaldehyde-both animal and human

Peter and Paul Fortress which is on an Island in the Neva River was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great and is the birthplace of St. Petersburg

 

  Our canal boat slowly moving Into one of the many canals intertwining St. Petersburg.  Originally, people of St. Petersburg accessed buildings from the waterfront

St. Petersburg underground was started in the 1940’s and many of its stations are works of art.  Because bedrock is far beneath St. Petersburg’s surface, the underground is very deep (350ft).  In fact it takes a good three minutes to ride the escalators down to the trains.  This station is celebrating St. Petersburg being the birthplace of Russia’s navy in a glorious ceramic tile mural

 

St. Peter and Paul Cathedral is the centerpiece of the fortress and with its gold leaf covered tower its still the tallest building in the city 

 

 

 

 The Cathedral is the final resting place of all the Romanov Czars who ruled Russia from 1613 to 1917

   

  The ornate Church of the Resurrection or more commonly known as the Church of the Savior of Spilt Blood was built on the site where Czar Alexander 11 was assassinated in 1881 and hence the strange name  

The interior walls are covered with exquisite mosaics (nothing is painted) that were painstakingly restored following the fall of Communism in 1991

 A ceramic tiled Christ gazing down on the masses as He is bathed in light from the windows and ringed by the gold balcony railing.