As you've no doubt guessed by now, I am a terrible procrastinator, or should I say terrific one as I am quite successful at it. First it took me two weeks to even get my pictures on my computer. I had been in Russia about three days when I noticed a black speck through my viewfinder and panicked. What to do! I have a really nice camera (God knows why as I certainly am not smart enough to know how to use it) but was clueless about what could be done about this speck. I eneded up taking the lens off and finding a white piece of something on the mirror thingy inside. Took a Q-tip and got rid of that. Anyway, I was intimidated by the whole idea that all 1050 pictures I took were going to have a black speck. Turned out offending speck did not show up in the pictures.
We flew to Charlotte, then arrived Munich about 8 a.m., and a few hours later to St. Petersburg, Russia. This is our ship as we cruised down the Svir River to the Volga River onto Moscow.
We spent about five days in St. Petersburg. This is the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood.
This man had a bear cub on a leash and was inviting people to take pictures.
Street scene surrounding the church.
St. Petersburg was built on marshy land and has many canals. It's known as "the Venice of the north". The sun doesn't set until very late in the summer due to the geography of the city. It was very odd coming out of the ballet at 10:30 and being just as bright as 3:00 in the afternoon!
These are the massive columns supporting St. Issac's Cathedral made of a single piece of red granite.
I was just blown away by the beauty in these cathedrals. This is looking up at the interior of the dome.
A closeup of a mosaic. Such workmanship. We saw so many cathedrals most so old and beautifully ornate but rarely used by parishioners as church attendance is very low, around five per cent, a holdover from Soviet times.
Lastly, apartments with a man who looked to be nude while he was cleaning his windows! Maybe a bit too much of vodka or vivid imaginations on our part! He's in the center of the picture.
