St. Petersburg -- Scenes from the City

The Russian Flag!  If you look at the Dutch flag, it has the same colored stripes but in a different order.  This is the RUSSIAN flag, not the red flag of the former Soviet Union.  The flag has these colors because Peter the Great (PTG) was a Dutchophile, having lived in Holland to learn how to build boats.  He adopted the Dutch flag colors and then reordered them for the flag of Russia.

St. Petersburg (actually not named for PTG, will be discussed in a future post) is built along many canals, thereby earning the moniker, "Venice of the North"

PTG started building the city in 1703 as his "window onto Europe."  PTG also turned St. Petersburg into the city that was the only city to have a naval bent.

And yes, that's a bear

Add to the PTG awesomeness category.  He was a humble and simple person.  This is the house that is built AROUND his log cabin.  It is now the museum that houses PTG's original St. Petersburg home.

The famed Winter Palace, which now houses the Hermitage, was built by his daughter, Elizabeth I.

"Nevsky Prospekt" is the avenue that is the heart of St. Petersburg.

DD and I are working on mastering our reading of Cyrillic.  Every time we can figure out a word (and it is a word that has direct English pronunciation, we celebrate).  Here's a simple one..."STOP"

Due to law, St. Petersburg can never change it's look.  It survived the World Wars and Revolution.  Thereby, it truly looks like a European city.

Nevsky Prospekt crosses many canals.  On one canal, there are four statues that show the stages of taming a horse.

I have only two of them here, the other two, I was simply to lazy to cross the street to get better pictures of those statues.

Kazansky Cathedral is modeled after St. Peter's in Rome.

Grocery shopping is always a fun way to learn about a country.  I had to buy these, which appear to be "kebab flavored sticks."  They were just...MEH

Why did we go to this railway station?

To see one of the few remaining statues of Lenin in the former Leningrad.

The Finlandsky Station also houses the train on which Lenin snuck back into Russia before the 1917 revolution.

Interesting reuse......"TOILET"

Piroskys (excuse the possible spelling mistake)

Our last day in St. Petersburg.....was a perfect Russian summer day.  No humidity, about 24 degrees Celsius (you Americans figure out the conversion yourselves!) and not a cloud in the sky.

I have to pay homage to DD's iPHONE.  First, she easily obtained a Russian SIM card, has a Russian Telephone Number and for a month has unlimited WIFI access.  With it she was able to find the Field of Mars and use the internet to determine that this Eternal Flame was lit in 1957 and is dedicated to all the unknown soldiers who have died for Russia in war.  I appreciate her iPHONE.

930PM in St. Petersburg in early August.  The sun is still high in the sky!

August 2nd is the day the "Green Berets" or in this case "Blue Striped Shirts" of the Russian military celebrate.  These guys/men were all over St. Petersburg, carousing and drinking.  One word....YUMMY.