Bus Tour: 10 June 2008

After classes today we went on an “excursion” through the city. The bus tour lasted about four hours, which according to the tour guide was a very short time in which to see the city. I suppose that’s accurate, but I was so exhausted by the end of it that I went to bed without eating dinner (much to Irina’s dismay) and without even changing clothes.

The excursion took us through the better part of the old city and highlighted many of the more important historical points of interest. I’ll put some of the better pictures here, and I’ll dump the rest in some bucket or other as soon as I can figure out how to do that.

The tour guide was really quite humorous. My favorite of her quips concerned the Russian weather calendar: “Nine months of anticipation and three months of disillusionment.” She said that there are over two hundred days in the year that see rain or snow, and only about twenty-some that are cloud-free. This is certainly no exaggeration. I think meteorologists here must have a very hard time, since the weather is completely unpredictable . . . and I mean completely. It’s best to carry an umbrella and sunglasses together.

Along the way, we stopped at a snazzy gift shop where the clerks offer you coffee, tea, or vodka while you shop. Nothing like some vodka for shopping, I guess. The shop was filled with beautiful матрëшка dolls, chess sets, and all sorts of other souvenirs. I was delighted to find everything was incredibly cheap . . . only to find out that the prices were listed in dollars; in other words, twenty-five times more expensive than I thought.

Like I said, I’ll put some of the better pictures here. It was difficult, since we were in a bus most of the time. As per normal, it was raining, so the raindrops were persistent in getting in on the fun. I had a chance to go back to many of these places to take better pictures, so do not distress if you do not find many here. Oh, and yes, the unevenness does bug me, but formatting on this site is more trouble than it’s worth.





Raindrops on the window, since they were so persistent on getting into the pictures (and my camera . . .)










Chapel within the Peter and Paul Cathedral, dedicated to last Romanov family. Anastasia is on the right.












The Smolny Cathedral, with adjacent monestary. More of Catherine's extravagances, but oh so pretty.







Detail of the wall guarding the sanctuary in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.










HQ of the KGB, Putin's old stomping grounds.







St. Isaac's Cathedral, fourth largest in the world, after St. Peter's in Rome, St. Paul's in London, and Saint Maria del Fiore in Florence.





Church of the Resurrection, a.k.a. Church of the Spilled Blood. Alexander III was fatally wounded by a bomb blast on the square just outside.

Inside the Peter and Paul Cathedral, final resting place of the Romanovs, from Peter the Great, to Nicholas II and his family.

Detail of a dome on the Church of the Spilled Blood.









Peter the Great's first house in his new city. See how modest he was!











One of the many military police wandering around. Makes for a very safe neighborhood.

Detail on the Church of the Spilled Blood.

Our friend Pushkin! Or his bust at any rate . . .

Vladimir Churc, one of few churches left after ol' Stalin destroyed them. What a nice little alter boy he was.

St. Isaac's, towering over the Neva embankment.







A sphinx outside a museum. At some 3,500 years old, it is older than the river itself.