Comrades, Family & Loved Ones,
Gorgeous weather today for our tour of St Petersburg. We kept things moving and managed to see quite a lot of central St Pete.
Peter the Great, founder of this city, was a sailor and admired Amsterdam— hence the many canals, bridges and embankments that wind through town. Here we are with the Church of Saint Nicholas in the background. We stopped to check out the Rostrum Columns— lighthouses decorated with sculptures representing Russia’s great rivers- and we swung by the Church of Spilled Blood, built in traditional Russian style. We visited the Peter & Paul Fortress, where the city was founded in 1703. Here, we heard the Noon Cannon Shot, which people used to determine the official time of day, aiding in navigation.
The afternoon was spent touring the highlights of the massive Hermitage art museum, once the Winter Palace of generations of Russian Tsars.
For our last dinner as a team, we sampled the cuisine of Georgia, the former Soviet Republic. It was very tasty and a perfect way to conclude our time here in Russia.
Tomorrow, we’ll start to make our way home to you. Thanks so much for following our trip!
Carole & Vern Tejas
