Copyright Jim Bellomo • 2013
Jim & Kathleen go to Europe-2013
299 - 299
We woke up in St. Petersburg to a 5:00 am sunrise. The day looked to be a scorcher.
Chernobyl? No, just a St. Petersburg power plant.
The first of a bunch of cruise ships just pulled in.
A hot one coming.
And then there were four. Good thing it's a big city.
Angie, our incredible Alla guide.
Took us to see Egyptian art to start.
Looking towards downtown St. Petersburg.
Looking out at the Neva river.
Early but already warm.
Kathleen likes that kitty.
Ever seen a Sphinx' butt?
Big historical buildings everywhere.
So many big, historical buildings.
And a really big book!
The red column is an antiquated lighthouse.
This cracks me up. This ship houses a restaurant and a GYM? Really.
Kathleen shields her eyes from the brilliant sunshine.
Time to do a canal boat ride.
Renda, Jennifer and Ken are coming our way.
On the canal boat tour.
Love the uniform. Especially the hat.
Low bridges.
Every city we have been in has had a bunch of art, St. Petersburg beat them all.
The Hermitage.
The two columns are antique lighthouses.
The front of the Hermitage.
St. Peter and Paul Fortress. We would tour inside the next day.
Sites on the river.
The Hermitage.
Catherine the Great's palace turned into an amazing art museum.
These type of ships are everywhere on the river.
The traitor's gate on the fortress of St. Peter and Paul.
Cool bridge.
More sailing ships that are restaurants.
Russia's flag flies high.
An even bigger boat.
Even the newest buildings have statues.
We rode on one of these later. A huge hydrofoil.
And a battleship memorial.
The building with the antennas is the former HQ of the KGB in St. Petersburg.
Now off the river and back into the canals.
St. Petersburg's smallest monument.
Church of the Spilled Blood. Probably St. Petersburg's most recognized monument.
We would tour inside on day 2.
Low bridge.
Russian kids texting on the bridge.
Long and low bridge.
Capitalism comes to Russia.
See what I mean.
The Red Bridge. That's it's name.
The Blue Bridge.
Guess what the name of this bridge is?
A boat hand as we got off the boat.
Time to visit the Yusupov Palace.
This is where Rasputin was killed.
Cool ceilings.
The men who killed Rasputin.
In wax!
The plot thickens.
Rasputin eats the poison.
And then he was dead after they poisoned, shot and drowned him.
Giant Russian condom machine in the museum.
Upstairs in the palace.
On the staircase.
Nice entry hall.
Nice ceiling in the entry hall.
A little panorama of the same.
In the Yusupov Palace.
Nice floor.
We thought this was pretty decadent but as they say, "You ain't seen nothing yet."
Did you see the secret door?
The princess had quite a ceiling.
See the secret door?
Nice ceiling.
And fireplace.
What a table.
Angie explains what we are seeing asking if any of us are Russian.
An amazing ceiling. You would think it was three dimensional but it is just painted.
To hear the amazing acoustics in the ballroom we were entertained by this operatic quartet.
Nice chandelier.
Now that's a green room.
Nice door.
One panel up close.
Let's follow Mike!
In panorama.
Every room got greener...not really but it seemed like it.
Now a red room.
In the private theater of the palace.
The ceiling in the palace.
Still in the theater.
The orchestra pit. Must have been a small orchestra.
What a hallway.
Dining room table, Venice inspired.
Check out the table leg. Now that's ornate.
Fabric wall linings.
Time for a box lunch on the hydrofoil. Apple juice box...warm.
Went by this dome on our hydrofoil ride.
To get to Peterhof, the summer palace of Peter the Great.
Lots of Russians at the beach on a hot day.
The epitome of decadence--Peterhof.
Kathleen can't believe it.
Looking back to the hydrofoil dock.
Watch out for pickpockets.
Even the downspouts are golden.
There were beautiful grounds.
This swan boat (coated in gold) took people from the sea to the palace.
All fountains you will see are totally gravity fed. All of them.
At many places we went in Russia there were people in costume you could pay to take your picture with.
Both men and women.
All gravity fed. All gold.
Too much.
A panorama to show you the whole thing.
An outbuilding.
The guest house.
A very hot cat.
Can you imagine how hot that costume is? It was about 90 in the sun.
Another gravity fed fountain.
Angie demonstrates a prank fountain that shoots off at odd times when people walk across it.
The kids are hoping it goes off. Angie walked across with no problem.
Because the guy in the blue shirt controls it.
More costumed people wilting in the sun.
Another special fountain.
Another prank fountain that goes off every day at specific times.
And drenches everyone walking there.
Today it was a welcome cool down.
Dragons!
The gardens.
An outbuilding that is now a restaurant.
They had a golden fountain here too.
Even golden turtles.
The guest house from the other side.
On our way out, the guest house on the right and the palace on the left.
Off to Catherine the Great's Palace.
It was about an hour away from Peterhof by van.
The gate that visitors used.
The courtyard.
Part of the facade.
Truly an amazing building. All rebuilt to exact specs since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Over a door.
Inside this palace was better than outside Peterhof.
All you can say is HOLY _______!!!!
Gold plated everything.
Incredible inlayed floors.
Ceilings.
Detail.
The dining room all set up.
Check out the delft porcelain fireplaces.
That's a fireplace. All hand-painted porcelain.
The ballroom.
A ballroom panorama.
The piano was being tuned. They rent the place out for events.
Can imagine getting married here?
Under this ceiling?
Coming in this door.
There we are in one of the many mirrors.
See us?
Right there.
What the place looked like.
In the staircase.
His Highness and the Queen
Not amber but near the Amber room where we could not take pictures.
Uniform time.
The painting room. Paintings as wallpaper.
The Queen's desk.
Funny that this authentic color is really in right now.
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