Belgium / Netherlands Road Trip

Last month I swapped my work schedule around to help a guy out at work, and the result was I had a 5 day stretch of days off without having to take any vacation time.  Shanna & I decided we wouldn't fly anywhere, but would take a road trip through Belgium and the Netherlands.  I've wanted to visit the Westvleteren brewery for some time now, and there is a lady who lives in Belgium who restores antique furniture that Shanna has wanted to visit for awhile.

Saturday morning we hit the road, and spent most of the day driving to Gent, our first stop.  One thing I was curious to see was how the hotel was going to be laid out.  The pictures on the website showed a tiny front of the hotel that looked just like the other historical buildings surrounding it.  But then on the inside, it looked huge...much larger than from the outside.  We eventually found out from a tour guide later on that when the Marriott bought the buildings they used, they were required to keep the external facade, but could do what they wanted behind that.  So they only have their name on one of the buildings, but in fact they own four of them.  And behind the front of the buildings, it gets even larger, but you can't tell from the canal.

One other interesting side note about our hotel is in the pictures you'll notice two gold circles on the building, each with a swan in it.  In medieval times, when most people could not read and write, images were used to tell people what a building's function was.  If there was one swan on it, it was a place to eat.  But if there were two swans...it was a brothel.  So our hotel used to be a medieval brothel.

Once we got checked in, we walked out through the back entrance and were on the canal that runs through the Korenlei section of Gent.  This canal used to be one of the main passage ways for ships going from the English Channel to France, which made Gent an important medieval trading city.  During it's height, it was three times the size of London.  Now this area is popular both with tourists and the thousands of students who live in the city.  On warm days, you'll see people out sipping a beer, reading, or just relaxing.

Today was just a relaxing day, with no plans, so we spent the afternoon wandering around the old town part of the city.  We walked through the various churches there, stopped at cafes along the way, and took in the sights.  When it was time for dinner, we stumbled upon the castle in Gent.  In front of it were several restaurants, including a few selling Moules Frites, a Belgian speciality.  Translated, it's Mussels and Fries.  I got the garlic mussels and I have to say...they were some of the best mussels I've ever had.  I washed them all down with Piraat beer, one I hadn't had since I was last in the US.  Shanna never has to "convince" me to come to Belgium or The Netherlands...it could be for a shopping trip, and I'd jump at the chance for the food & beer alone.

After dinner, the sun was setting and we slowly strolled back to the hotel for the evening.

The next morning we got up and found a great little cafe to eat breakfast at.  The food was good, but what made the meal was the amazing hot chocolate.  Gent is farther north than Stuttgart, so while it wasn't freezing, it was pretty cool.  When the hot chocolate came out, it was steaming milk with a cup full of chocolate chips.  You dumped the chips in the milk, stirred it, and in a few seconds you had delicious hot chocolate.

We had a 2:30pm city tour scheduled, so with several hours to kill, we headed back to the castle, this time to explore it.  There were supposed to be audio guides, but we never found the place to pick them up.  So I don't have my usual historical background to give here, just that it was neat to walk around it.  One thing I noticed that was odd was the castle's location.  Usually castles sit outside of a city, and are used to defend it.  The Gent castle was situated right in the center of town.  Later on another tour we found out the reason...city defense was not it's purpose.  It was built in 1180 by Phillip of Alsace, and modeled after the castles he encountered during the Crusades.  He built the castle as a show of strength to the local residents.  Apparently, the citizens of Gent were prone to riots and rebellions, and he used this castle to squash any resistance.  The castle was built with metal pipes that ran from the torture chamber to the outside of the castle, so that when people were tortured, the whole city could hear it.

One of the biggest draws to the castle, aside from it's history of course, is the beautiful view of Gent from the top.

We had gotten lucky with the weather.  It was supposed to rain all day, but as you can see from the pictures, it was beautiful outside.  It did end up raining, but not until that evening when we were heading back to the hotel.  When we finished walking around the castle, we walked out front and noticed a plaque etched in the ground that we hadn't noticed before.  Apparently all the street lights in this particular square outside the castle were connected to the local hospital.  When a baby is born, the lights in the square flicker to let people know.  I thought that was pretty neat.

From there we walked over to a stand offering boat tours of the canal.  Canal tours are always interesting because it combines the history of the city with a relaxing boat trip through out the various canals.  The tour guide we had knew his stuff, and was a big fan of his city.  He pointed out several things on the tour that he used as examples as to why Gent is better than Brugge or Brussels.  He mentioned the Manneken Pis in Brussels, which is a huge tourist draw because it's a fountain head that is a little boy peeing, with water coming out of his penis to fill the fountain.  He then pointed out the same statue over a building that we passed.  That statue, he said, was built 350 years prior to the Manneken Pis, and unlike the Manneken, actually had a purpose.

Leather makers in medieval times needed to find something to help process cow skin into leather. Somehow it was discovered that urine would do this, but not just any urine.  It had to come from children.  They didn't know why, but it was shown in later years that the human urine eventually breaks down and becomes Ammonia, which is needed to make leather.  The problem is that chemical disappears once a person starts drinking alcohol.  So children, who didn't drink, had high concentrations of this chemical, and their urine was valuable.  So when a child saw this statue above a shop, he/she knew they could make some money by selling their urine to the leather maker.

The rest of the tour was interesting, but I'll admit...I was paying more attention to the beautiful scenery and relaxing on the boat than everything he was saying.  When we got back to our starting point, we had about 2 hours left, so we headed to a local pub to get some lunch.  The pub that caught our eye advertised that they had over 250 different kinds of Belgian beers to try.  They certainly did, including several Noel style beers.  There's just something different and amazing about Belgian Christmas beers.  It may not have been Christmas time, but that wasn't going to stop us from enjoying them!  The pub was situated right on a local square, so we just sat and people watched, waiting for the time to walk over to the city tour start point.  These are some of my favorite parts of our travels.  Seeing all the sights are great, but it's always nice to sit, have a drink, and watch the locals carry on their daily business.

The city tour was OK.  Our guide was nice, but we had a mix of English and French speakers, and she seemed to spend more time talking with the French people.  We did meet a nice couple visiting from Baltimore, though.  The husband sold software to various colleges around the US, so he had racked up a ton of miles and points.  They cashed some of it in, and took a trip to Belgium and The Netherlands.  We enjoyed talking with them through out the tour, and giving them suggestions on things to see in Brussels, where they were heading next.

When the tour was over, it was about 4pm.  Shanna was getting tired, so we picked up some beer from a local supermarket, and headed back to the hotel.  Shanna took a nap while I watched NFL pre-game shows.  We have the NFL Gamepass, which allows us to watch all the NFL games, but it also gives us access to pre-game shows.  So I streamed it to my iPad and watched while Shanna took a nap.

That evening we headed to a restaurant we'd seen that looked interesting.  It was a ribs place.  We'd seen several restaurants advertising ribs through the city, so we were intrigued.  Shanna ordered the BBQ ribs, and I got the spicy ribs.  This is one case where things were "lost in translation".  Shanna's ribs were GREAT, but mine were just OK.  They weren't spicy...they had spices on them.  Mine weren't bad, but they were dry.

The next morning we got up early because we had a long day.  We checked out of the hotel, and hit the road.  We were going to stop in Vleteren, Belgium, then make our way up to Zaanse Schans, Netherlands.  Ever since I first heard of the Westvleteren brewery, I've wanted to visit it.  They don't distribute their beer, so the only way to get it is from the brewery itself.  You can call and make a reservation for a limited quantity, or you can come to their store and hope they have some in stock.  Since they are extremely popular, and only open their reservation phone for a few hours a week, it was impossible for me to get through to reserve.  So we decided to risk it and hope the shop had some.  Worst case, they wouldn't and we could try the beer at their cafe.

The drive out there was interesting...to say it was in the middle of nowhere would be putting it mildly.  We were on the interstate most of the way, but 20km from our destination, we had to exit.  From there, we went through one tiny farm village after another.  I started to notice signs for various cemeteries, and they all had UK names and the word "farm" in it, like New Irish Farm Cemetery and Essex Farm Cemetery.  While driving through one town, we almost blinked and missed this one cemetery.  We decided to turn around and go look at it.  By turn around, in this small town, I mean put the car in reverse for 30 seconds and back up.

The cemetery turned out to be a British World War I cemetery.  It must have been recently renovated, because it looked brand new.  But when I looked it up on Wikipedia, this cemetery has been here since World War I.  These guys weren't buried here years later...they were buried as they died on the battlefield.  The "middle of nowhere" town we were in was a field hospital for the British.

It was sobering to walk through, and know all of these guys died right where we were driving through. One of the graves caught my eye, though, because there was something stuck in the ground in front of it.  As we approached, we saw it was a picture.  The picture had been laminated to survive the elements, and showed what appeared to be the descendants of the of man who was buried there.  The headstone said he was 19 when he died.  The picture showed what we assume were his kids, grand kids, great grand kids, and possibly great-great grand kids.  We've walked through various World War I, World War II and medieval cemeteries in our time here, and while they are sobering experiences, the fact is they are largely just names on stone.  You think about their family, but you don't know them, nor their family, so you don't make a connection with the headstones you see.  This was different.  Seeing his family, through at least 3 generations, if not 4, was incredible.  It was more than just a name on stone...you saw generations of people affected by his loss.

From there we got back in the car and continued on to Westvleteren.  We eventually found it, but I don't know how we would have without a GPS.  We went down all kinds of unmarked roads, through corn fields, and all kinds of crazy routes before we came to it.  We walked in to the store, but unfortunately, they were sold out of the beer.  So we sat down and had lunch at the cafe.  Shanna was nice enough to play Designated Driver so I could have the beers.  She had a sip to try each one, though!

After lunch, we hit the road.  Well, Shanna hit the road...I took a nice nap for most of the trip to Zaanse Schans that Shanna decided to capture on camera.  I also didn't notice until just now the plethora of crumbs on my shirt.  In my defense, I was eating a snack in the car and didn't want to brush the crumbs off until I got out of the car.

When we got there, the Bed and Breakfast was fantastic.  The house was built almost 100 years before the Declaration of Independence was signed, in 1680, and later became a small hotel.  The lady who runs it was really nice, and showed us around.  I couldn't believe we were sleeping here...walking through, it looked like one of the historic houses we've visited, but weren't allowed to touch anything.

After she showed us around, we walked around.  The area is artificially created, but still neat to see.  As the various windmills in the surrounding area closed down over the past 100 years, they moved them to this inlet.  The result is that all along the river you have Windmills.  I think there is around 10 or so.

Each windmill served a unique purpose, and they have displays in each one showing their original purpose.  Some were used to ground up spices, create paint, build clogs, etc...   Unfortunately most of them were closed on Monday, the day we were there.  That was the only day they closed...go figure.  We did get to go in some of them, though.  The cheese making one was neat, as was the spice grinding one.  You could buy various spices in there, and watch how the turning mill ground the spices down.  In the pictures section, there's a video showing it.   The shop that made the clogs was fascinating.   They had a clog that was used as a reference, and a machine that used the "reference" clog to make another out of a block of wood.  It's hard to describe, but there's a video in the pictures link at the end of this post that will better explain it.

When we were done walking around the Windmills, we headed across the bridge to a restaurant on the other side of the river.  It was AMAZING.  We started off with Potato Leek soup mixed with bacon and their warm baked bread with garlic butter, then we both had a pork filet rolled and stuffed with Brie.  At this point it was pouring down rain outside.  But when we finished dinner and walked back to the hotel, the rain subsided and a beautiful sunset came out of nowhere.

We absolutely loved the B&B.  Our only regret was we only stayed there one night.  We will definitely be back, we absolutely loved it.  The next morning we got up early, packed, and hit the road.  We still had one more stop.

When we first moved here, we visited a bazaar held at one of the local bases and met a lady named Codruta who was a vendor there from Belgium.  She took old antiques, and either refurbished them, or made entirely new things out of them.  They were meant primarily for use in the kitchen or living/dining room.  Shanna fell in love with her stuff, but at the time we couldn't afford what she was selling.  They hit it off, though, and have emailed back and forth occasionally.  We're finally in a position where we can afford her stuff, and Shanna is thinking ahead to our house in Huntsville, where we are moving from here in 2015.  Codruta has mentioned that she sells things she makes at the bazaars, but if you want something made, you don't just "order it".  She meets with you, gets an idea of what you are looking for, and she makes something for you with her touch.  It's not like ordering something out of a catalog.  You give her rough guidelines, but she has the freedom to make what inspires her.  Shanna loves her work enough that she was more than willing to do that.  So we drove to Codruta's house in Belgium and met with her.  Shanna and her talked for two hours.  It was actually really interesting talking with her, and learning about her history.  Her husband used to do antique restoration, and she liked to be artistic and recreate furniture from old pieces.  Together, they made a business out of it and did very well.  7 years ago her husband passed away, and she considered closing up shop.  But she found that being in her workshop, with pictures of her husband around, was a "safe place" of sorts for her, and she didn't want to give that up.  So she kept the business open, and had to learn all the things he usually took care of.  She got her truck drivers license, bought a new truck, learned the right way to load all her heavy furniture in the truck, and now does it all herself.

When we finally finished, we had one more stop.  On the way into town, we passed a beer store.  When ever we head to The Netherlands or Belgium, we rarely buy beer inside the city.  They are usually WAY over priced, so we look for a supermarket outside of city limits, and go there.  This place was amazing...they had all kinds of beers from all over Belgium, and for a fraction of the price in Gent. I knew I was going to love this place when we parked, and outside were crates of Belgian beer stacked way above my head.

We walked in, and it was like Christmas.  We loaded up the shopping cart with all kinds of beer.  They even had Delirium Noel, a beer I haven't had in years.  We eventually checked out, and walked out of the store.  As soon as we did, the guy running the shop locked the door and closed up.  It was then I noticed they closed from 12pm-1pm, and it was 12:30pm.  They must have stayed open just for us...I felt really bad, I had no idea.  But while we were loading the car up, the store keeper ran out with a box and gave it to us as a gift...it was a set of Delirium beer glasses.  I thought that was so nice of him!

From there we headed home.  This trip was a lot of fun...Belgium and The Netherlands are amazing countries, and we always have so much fun when we visit.  The people are nice, the food/beer is amazing, and the countries are beautiful.  You just can't go wrong.

The next trip planned is in mid-October.  That'll be Shanna & I's four year anniversary, and we found a place in Marrakesh, Morocco, that offers cooking classes.  They take you to the local spice and meat market, where you buy all your supplies, then they take you back to the restaurant where they teach you to cook local cuisine.  So we'll be spending a long weekend there.  Check back after for the post!

To see the pictures, click here or any picture above.

Portugal

Shanna's birthday was a few weeks ago, and she's talked about going on a beach trip all summer.  We had tried to find some low cost options using the "blind booking" option on German Wings, but the week we wanted to go they were all booked up.  I started searching around online, and all the usual places like Greece, Italy and Spain were either too expensive or had crazy flights that would have taken up a large chunk of the time we had.  Eventually I found a write up on a town in Portugal just south of Lisbon called Sesimbra.  It was an old fishing village that was right on the beach, and was supposed to have calm beautiful waters.  It sounded perfect.  German Wings just happened to have some low cost deals to Lisbon, and I found a great hotel right on the beach.

We took off Saturday morning, and had a direct flight to Lisbon.  Since Sesimbra is about a 30-45 minute drive from Lisbon, I'd arranged with the hotel to have a driver meet us at the airport.  He was a little late due to traffic, but eventually we hit the road.  As we were leaving Lisbon, he pointed out a bridge that we were about to drive over, asking if it looked familiar.  I used to live near San Francisco , and sure enough, it looked identical to the Golden Gate Bridge.  Turns out the company that made the Golden Gate Bridge also made this one.

He also pointed out the first Aquaduct built to supply water to Lisbon as we were driving directly under it.  It didn't take long to get there once we left Lisbon, and it was beautiful.  We checked in to our room, and the first thing we saw when we stepped out on to our balcony was the beautiful beach below.

We changed into swimsuits and flip flops, and headed out.  We hadn't had lunch yet, so our first stop was a little cafe on the boardwalk.  We had plates of shrimp and tapas with meats and cheeses.  The food the entire time was amazing.  The only complaint I had about the beach was that the water was cold.  But it didn't take long to get used to.  After we had lunch, we set up a spot on the beach and jumped in.  Well, Shanna jumped in.  I took my time slowly walking in to the water, getting used to it bit by bit.  I kept telling myself it would be better to just submerge myself, but I couldn't do it.

That afternoon was just about relaxing.  We swam in the water, laid out in the sand, and enjoyed having absolutely nothing to do.  When we were done, we walked off the beach and right into our hotel.  We got cleaned up, ordered room service, and sat out on the balcony people watching.  After we finished dinner, we were about to head to bed when we heard loud music outside.  At first I thought it was a car or someone's radio blaring, but it sounded live.  We looked outside, and there was a procession of people playing music and dancing through the streets.  We later found out that a festival was going on nearby.

The next morning, after breakfast, we found a tour we wanted to book that took you along the coastline in a boat, where you could Dolphin watch, and go swimming.  The hotel tried to calling the number on the flyer to book it, though, and no one answered.  The flyer said they weren't far from us, so we went for a walk.  The town itself was beautiful also.  There were countless buildings that had intricately painted tiles.

We made our way along the beach to the marina, but never could find the place to book our tour.  At this point it was about mid-day, so we just decided to hit the beach again.  The rest of the afternoon was sunning out on the beach, and swimming in the water.  One thing you couldn't help but notice was how clear the water was.  We would go out to the point where we had to tread water and we could STILL see the bottom, as well as all the little fishies swimming by.

Later that afternoon we walked back to our hotel, and happened to notice a shop that had been closed before.  It was labeled as a car rental place, but had signs in the window advertising tours they arranged.  We walked in to talk with them, and found out they offered the same type of tour we had been looking at earlier.  We made arrangements to go on the tour the following morning.  Afterwards we found a great seafood place to eat at on the water.  Shanna had grilled fish (I can't remember the exact type) and I had something that resembled seafood gumbo.  It had lobster, shrimp, crab and all kinds of delicious shellfish in it.

The next morning we walked down to the dock to meet the boat.  It was a little pontoon type boat, but the great part was it was only Shanna, myself and one other person, along with the guide.  The other person spoke some English, but preferred Portuguese, so our guide would tell us something in English, then the other person the same thing in Portuguese.

The tour started off in the harbor area where the boats come in after fishing to unload their catch.  It was about 10am, so we got to see the boats unloading directly into big trucks that would then take the fish to the local restaurants there and in Lisbon.  Now it made sense about the chalkboards in front of all the restaurants.  The chalkboards were blank in the morning, but that afternoon, had all the daily catches written on them.  So the seafood you were eating was actually caught that day.

From there we went down the beach, and continued along the coast line.  Once we left the beach area, the coastline became giant cliffs.  It was like that the majority of the way until we got to the next town.  It was absolutely breath taking.

As we started the boat trip along the coast, the guide pointed out a giant rock out cropping she called "The Lion".  Hundreds of years ago, sailors would give various unique rocks names to help identify where they'd been.  This particular one looked a lot like a lion perched in the water.

Next we came up on an old building that was in ruins.  That's where the fisherman used to live back when the town was only a fishing village, and not a tourist spot.  60 years ago there was a fire, though, and it was never rebuilt.  We also passed by a small village, and up in the hills we could see a convent.  Next to it were little buildings that were used by the nuns to give them a private quiet place to pray.

We finally reached Setubal.  We weren't stopping in the town, but the harbor area outside the town was where we were heading to watch the dolphins.  Our guide told us that it was hit or miss in seeing them, but they also kept their eyes out for a certain company's boats.  They have contacts with the various fishermen in the area, who call them when they spot dolphins.  So when the smaller companies see their boats, it means dolphins are in the area, and they follow them.  Sure enough, we saw one of their boats and followed them.  While we were behind them, I started to notice jellyfish in the water.  They were, by far, the biggest ones I'd ever seen.  Some were small, and could have fit in my hand.  Others looked large enough to cover my entire head and upper body.

We eventually came to an area where the boat ahead of us stopped.  It didn't take long for us to see the dolphins.  Our guide told us these dolphins are different then the typical grey dolphins people think of.  They are black, and the type of dolphin they are is not migratory.  They live in that area, and while they will sometimes disappear for a few days while they go out hunting for food, they always come back.  We saw a group of 4 or 5 dolphins swimming around.  We followed them from a distance, and spent the next hour.  In total, we probably saw about 20 dolphins, all in small groups swimming around.  I hadn't really cared about seeing them when we saw the brochure, but now that we were out there, it was really neat seeing them swimming in their natural habitat.  It was also tough to get a picture of them.  They didn't exactly stop to pose, and you never knew where they were going to pop up.  I was able to get a few good pictures, though.

When we finished there, we headed back to the coastline.  Along the way we past by an old fortress that had been converted into a hospital.  It had a small private beach in front of it that only patients and their families were allowed to use.

Eventually we made it to a small cove where we could swim.  The lady in the boat with us didn't want to, but Shanna and I did.  They didn't dock the boat, they just anchored down to a buoy floating by.  S Shanna and I dove in the water.  Like near our hotel, the water was cold, but it wasn't too bad and we adjusted quickly.  The guide tossed us snorkels, and we got to see all the huge fish swimming in the water around us.

After we climbed back into the boat and they brought out lunch.  They had made sandwiches, but the guide had also made a popular dessert called Farinha Torrada.  It was popular with the local fisherman because it would last for a long time, and they could take it out on the sea with them.  When lunch was done, they broke out a bottle of Moscatel, a popular liquor made from grapes grown in that area.  

Finally we made our way back to the dock.  When we got out, we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around town.  We stopped in various shops, including one that was selling old Port wine.  I bought a bottle from 1981 (the year Shanna & I were born), but they had bottles from the 1940's, 1950's...they even had a bottle from 1847!  If only I had 900 Euro to spend on it.  We also stopped in a local market where they had fresh meats, cheeses, and...snails.  That's right, live snails you could buy to cook.  You just picked them right off the piece of rock they were crawling on.

We came back to the hotel, and decided to check out the roof top pool.  It had a beautiful view, and even better, the water was nice and warm.

The rest of the afternoon was a mix of the pool and us spending the last part of the day swimming in the ocean again.  The next morning we checked out, and the same driver took us back to the airport.  
This is a small blog post, because there wasn't a lot of sightseeing, it was mostly just a relaxing get away.  The weather could not have been more perfect.  From the moment we stepped off the plane to the moment we got back on, we never saw a single cloud.  The temperature was hot, but not unbearable.  The sun was definitely intense, though.  Even with constant sun screen application, we still got a little burned.  It's no wonder the local people have such dark tans.  But Shanna loved it, and we came back feeling much more relaxed than when we left.
If you ever find yourself in Portugal, try and stop by Sesimbra.  For the people reading who live in Europe, and want to stay in the town, the SANA Sesimbra hotel is great.  

The next post will come in a few weeks.  We have 6 days off, so we're going on a road trip, driving through Belgium and The Netherlands.

To see pictures, click here or on any picture above.

St. Petersburg

After we pulled up to the train station in St. Petersburg, our guide met us on the platform.  Edward had only been for Moscow.  In St. Petersburg, we had Elena.  For those that know me well, you know I have to have a shower every morning.  I can't fully function through out the day without one.  To the point that I was dreading day one in St. Petersburg because the plan was to pick us up at the train station, take us to breakfast, then start the day.  We wouldn't be able to check in and shower until late that afternoon.  I sucked it up though...one day wouldn't kill me.  Our first stop was at a restaurant along one of the canals that had breakfast waiting for us.  The place didn't know we were Americans, only that we were coming from Germany.  So on each table, they had little German flags set out.

Breakfast was pretty good, standard European fare with meats, cheeses, bread and yogurt.  From there we stopped at a church to take pictures, as well as a few canals and bridges.

One neat place we stopped at was steps that lead down into the Neva River that flows through St. Petersburg.  On either side of the step were mini-sphynxes "guarding" the entrance to the river that were originally guarding a Pharaoh's tomb in Egypt.  From there we headed to Peter and Paul Fortress. It sits on an island in the Neva River, and contains a giant church inside.  It was originally built as a prison, and remained that way for over 200 years until shortly after the Revolution, when it was converted into a museum.  The church that stands inside it today contains the bodies of all the Russian Emperors and Czars, including Czar Nicholas II and his entire family, who were killed in 1917 when the Bolsheviks overthrew the monarchy.  Even the fabled Anastasia is buried there.

One neat thing about our visit there was while the guide was talking, we suddenly heard a loud roar over head as several fighter jets in formation flew by.  That weekend there was an air show, so they were practicing.  The really neat part was they were all painted in the colors of Russia's flag...Red, White and Blue.  And the day we were there happened to be July 4th.  Never in all my life did I think I'd be watching fighter jets painted Red, White & Blue performing stunts and flying over head on July 4th in Russia.

Elena then took us to a church nicknamed Spilled Blood Cathedral.  Along the way, we stopped for pictures at the Aurora, a battleship made famous because in 1917 the crew mutinied and fired off a single blank shot from the guns.  That shot signaled to the rebels that it was time to attack the Winter Palace and begin the Bolshevik Revolution.

Spilled Blood Cathedral is called that because Alexander II was assassinated there.  We didn't have time to go in, but we stopped along the way and took pictures from a distance, then went the actual church to take pictures up close.  After taking some pictures, we strolled around a small market that was there.  One funny thing we saw was a vendor selling Matryoshka Dolls that were painted like US Sports players.  They had Football, Basketball, Baseball, etc...  What made us laugh was when we were looking over them, we saw one for the San Diego Chargers and the Arkansas Razorbacks sitting right next to each other.  For those that don't know, I'm a big Chargers fan and Shanna's a big Razorbacks fan.

When we finished up there, it was finally time to head to the hotel and check in.  Like earlier in the week, everyone took a shower, had dinner, and went straight to bed.

The next day Elena and the bus picked us up, and we headed to Peterhof.  It was the Summer Palace of the Czars.  It was built by Peter the Great, and given a German sounding name because Peter spoke many languages, and liked to give things foreign sounding names.  Along the way, we passed several apartment buildings that had a cardboard lining around them to make it look like it was made of wood.  I think the main reason was for some privacy.  But one balcony had a giant hole cut out so their dog could sit there and watch traffic and people passing by.  Unfortunately the only good shot I got was from the bus with a tree in the way, but if you look close, you can see the hole and the dog.

When we finally arrived, it didn't seem like much.  But after we walked through yet another flea market, we finally got to the palace and it was breath taking.  The palace itself looked a lot like other palaces we've seen.  What really set it apart, though, were the amazing display of fountains.

We started with a tour of the palace itself.  It was interesting, but like with most palaces in Europe, no pictures were allowed.  When the tour ended, Elena showed us some of the fountains, including "trick" fountains.  One of the most amazing things about the fountains were they were built before pump technology had been invented.  It was built downhill from a water supply, so every fountain functions based on gravity.  It was incredible to think of that as you watched the high speeds that water flew out.

One trick fountain looked like a giant mushroom.  The "trick" was a person would step underneath to escape the sun, and the ground was one giant pressure plate.  Once you stepped on it, the water would flow all around the mushroom's edge, essentially trapping you inside.  The only way out was to step through the water.  They had modified it so that the water was constantly flowing and visitors could see it.  It was a hot day out, so I took advantage and dipped my head in the cold water.

Another trick fountain was one you didn't see.  There was a long path through the trees, and the fountain was on a timer.  Once an hour, it would go off and completely soak anyone walking down the path.  Times were clearly posted, as well as an alternate path to follow if you didn't want to get wet, so the only people getting soaked were the ones that wanted to.  I thought it was just a little sprinkle until I saw people leaving that area.  They were completely drenched...there wasn't a dry spot on their body.

Another trick fountain again centered around a bench.  There were stones placed in front of the bench, and it was originally set up with some of the stones being pressure sensitive.  You step on it, and jets of water flew out of the bench at you.  Now, though, the stones don't cause the water to shoot out, it's controlled by a guy sitting near the bench.  It was popular with little kids who would take turns trying to figure out which "stone" caused the water to spray, then laughing when they got squirted.

Eventually we made our way to the end of the path where we ended up at an overlook with a view of the Gulf of Finland.  It eventually dumps into the Baltic Sea, but we couldn't see the Sea from there.

After that we had some free time to walk around.  We passed one area where you could rent costumes and dress up for pictures.  They even had costumes for kids to wear.

Finally we headed to the bus, and drove back to the hotel.  After having beautiful 75 degree sunny weather the entire week, we finally got a little rain on the drive back.  But it lasted about 20 minutes, then was gone, and was beautiful the entire rest of the week.

That evening we decided to check out the outdoor terrace bar on the third floor of the hotel.  It didn't have much of a view, but it was still nice to sit outside with a breeze blowing, relaxing after a day of running around.   Shanna, myself, and two friends from the tour group we'd made that week decided that we'd all try some of the local caviar.  I didn't know this prior to our visit, but apparently Russia is famous for it's caviar.  I'd never tried it before because eating fish eggs doesn't sound appealing, but when in Russia...

I went down to the store at the bottom of the hotel and bought a little can of it.  It was NOT cheap, so I was glad we were splitting it with other people.  When our waiter came around, we asked him for crackers to eat with it, and if I didn't know better, I'd think that request personally offended him.  Apparently it's their custom to eat it with pancakes.  Not the fluffy pancakes we eat in the US, but the thin kind more commonly known as Crepes.  So we ordered some Crepes, a round of Russian Vodka, and tried it.  I have to admit...I really liked the Caviar.  I didn't think I would, but it was good, and went well with the Crepes.

After that we called it a night.  The next day was our last full day in Russia, and we were on our way to visit the Hermitage Museum.  It's one of the oldest and largest museums in the world, founded by Catherine the Great.  It contains 3 million pieces in it's collection.  There were some really neat things in there, including paintings from Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Rafael.  The only person missing was Donatello!  It also had the only Michelangelo statue in Russia called The Crouching Boy.  I had posted on Facebook that we were in St. Petersburg, and Esra, our guide from when we visited Istanbul, told us we had to visit the oldest carpet in the world that the museum has...because it's Turkish.  So when we arrived at the museum we made sure to grab a map, and found it.  They had closed off the most direct route to the carpet, so we had to climb up the stairs to the second level, walk from one end to the other (the place is huge) and find another stair case to take us back down to the first floor.  When we found the stair case, it too was closed.  We finally found another stair case, and made our way down.  As we navigated through the rooms to the carpet, we finally got within one room of it...and the way was closed off.  Apparently for that day only they were holding a concert, and the room that contained the carpet was closed to the public.  Go figure.

One neat thing Elena told us as we walked through the rooms was that during World War II, most of the art was evacuated by train to other places to keep them safe when the Germans invaded.  The museum itself, though, was not maintained.  With the harsh winters and humid conditions, there was extensive damage to the wood flooring and walls.  They have since restored it, but left one panel unrestored so you could see the difference.

When we entered the Rembrandt section, we got to see the famous Prodigal Son painting, but the more interesting one to me was the painting called Danaë.  In 1985 a man visited the museum and asked to see the most valuable piece they had.  He was taken to this painting, where he proceeded to toss acid on it and slice it with a knife.  A security guard was able to stop him, but the acid that spilled on him cost the guard his hands.  After 12 years, they were able to fully restore the painting.  You can still see some streaks where the acid ran down it, but for the most part, you'd never know anything happened.

When we finished at the museum, we visited St. Isaacs Cathedral, the largest one in the city.  It was huge, and like most European cathedrals, ornately decorated.  The architect whose design was chosen for the church first broke ground when he was 30 years old.  He said at the time that this would be his life's work, and he was right.  It was finally finished when he was 70 years old, and he died shortly after it's completion.  One of the interesting things about the church was the giant dome in the center of it.  When the church was first built, the center of the dome had a large dove in the middle.  When you walked to the center of the church and looked up, you could see it.  During the Soviet Era, when religion was frowned upon, they removed the dove and replaced it with a giant pendulum.  After the Soviet Union collapsed, the pendulum was removed and the dove was put back.

When we left the Cathedral, the touring was done for the day.  The group mentioned to Elena that we were interested in a boat tour, so she said she would arrange it for the next day.

It was finally Sunday, our last day in Russia.  Elena wasn't picking us up until 1pm, so we had the whole morning to ourselves.  We slept in, got some breakfast, and met Penny and Adam in the lobby.  There was a metro stop next to the hotel, and we wanted to find this grocery store Elena had told us about.  It was built in 1902, but over the years, fell into disrepair.  It was recently renovated, and now looks great...and exactly like it did when it was built in 1902.  Thanks to Edward showing us around in Moscow, it was easy to figure out the metro.  And just like in Moscow, the metro lines are located FAR under ground.  It was a good 3-4 minute escalator ride down and back up.

We got off at the right stop, and after figuring out the map, we were able to find the place.  It was called  Kupetz Eliseevs, and it did not disappoint.  When you walked in the doors, it was like stepping back 100 years.  There was a self playing piano playing "old time" music, everything was beautifully decorated, and the food they offered looked amazing.  Fresh meats, cheeses, macaroons, live oysters, and of course, caviar.  The caviar was insanely expensive.  A 500G (17 oz) container cost almost $1,500.  They had a cafe inside too, so we sat down and ordered coffee (juice for me) and some sweets.  When they brought me my apple juice, it was unlike any apple juice I'd ever seen.  Instead of a clear amber color like I was expecting, it was green and cloudy.  I took a sip, and it tasted like an actual apple.  It was delicious!  They must have taken an apple and juiced it.  It was so good.  When we were done, and ready to pay our bill, they brought the check out in an engraved box.  We put our money in, closed the box up, and gave it back to the waitress...it was kind of neat.

I also finally found a souvenir I wanted here.  I didn't want to buy something just to buy something, so I was waiting until something caught my eye.  If nothing did, that was fine.  But they had a neat decanter with their logo engraved on it, and some martini glasses to go with it, so I picked that up.  It was either that, or the bottle of Cognac they had that came out to approximately $14,000.

When we left, it was about time to start heading back to the hotel.  We got there, checked out, and when Elena came, we loaded our luggage into the bus.  From there we went to one of the canals to begin our boat tour.  The bus couldn't pull right up to the canal, so we had to walk a bit.  On the way, we passed a huge event where people were racing on what looked like snow skis with wheels.  They were FLYING by us!  Eventually we made it to the canal.  As the boat got under way, Elena told us about some of the buildings we were looking at.  To be honest, though, everyone was just enjoying sitting back in the sun while cruising the Neva River.

When the boat ride wrapped up, we hopped on the bus and headed to the airport.  While it wasn't anywhere near as bad as our ordeal in Moscow, St. Petersburg airport has to be the worst airport I've ever been in.  And I didn't think anything could compare to the chaos in the Cairo airport.  There weren't any good signs telling you where to go, and it was a free for all.  On top of it all, the airport had no air conditioning.  With that many people packed into a small area, it was HOT.  We eventually found the right counter, but we had gotten there too early...we had to stand in the heat, waiting in line for the counter to open, for an hour and a half.  When it finally did, things went smoothly.  We checked our luggage, went through the passport control, and made our way to our gate.  Remember how I said there are a lot of American fast food chains in Russia?  Right next to our gate was a TGI Fridays.  We were all hungry, and chowed down on burgers and wings...a little taste of America before flying back to Germany.  The flight home was much smoother than the flight there, and before we knew it, we were in Frankfurt.  I've never appreciated being in a German airport like I did that day.  We hopped the train back to Stuttgart, and thankfully met up with Katia's husband, Scott, who was nice enough to give us a ride home.

Overall, this trip was incredible.  It had it's problems, but what trip doesn't?  We saw things that I never thought I'd ever see, and it's definitely a trip we'll never forget.  The visa process is a hassle, and it's not cheap, but if you ever have a chance to visit Russia, do it.  You won't regret it.

I'm not sure when the next blog post will be.  We both have 5 days off in September, so we're going somewhere, I'm just not sure where yet.  Stay tuned!

To see the pictures, click here or any picture above.

Moscow

Shanna & I have wanted to go to Russia for awhile now.  2 years ago we looked into it, but the cost was going to be more than we could afford, and the process of getting a Russian visa was daunting, to say the least.  Then a year ago we went on a tour with a company that took us all over Normandy and we loved it.  We found out they not only offered a Russian tour, but had a third party company that would take care of the visa for us.  It could not have been easier, and before we knew it, the day of the trip had arrived!

The flight was out of Frankfurt, so Shanna, myself and our friend Katia caught the train from Stuttgart up there, got checked in, and met up with our friends Penny and Adam, and Penny's friend Tara.  You might remember Penny & Adam from previous trips they've done with us to Croatia and London.  Before we knew it, we were Moscow bound!  Or so we thought.  As we approached Moscow, the pilot came on the over head and said that the weather wasn't great in Moscow, so they were going to circle around for a bit so it could clear.  15 minutes later he comes back on and says that they need to refuel, then they'll fly back to the main Moscow airport.  There are 3 airports in Moscow, so I just figured we'd land at one of the other ones.  But instead, they fly us 400km outside Moscow.  We land, and begin refueling at a remote airport.  Shanna was right, it looked a lot like the airport we use when we fly back to in her home town.

After 30 minutes, the pilot comes back on and says that the weather has gotten so bad in Moscow that the airport was shut down for the day, and that the air traffic controllers in Frankfurt had told them to come back to Frankfurt.  Since that required more fuel, they kept refueling.  About 45 minutes later, the pilot came on again and said they'd found buses to take us to Moscow.  We were relieved, because at least we'd make it to Moscow.  Had we flown back to Frankfurt, Shanna & I had no intention of staying with the tour.  We were already talking about finding a last minute vacation deal at the Frankfurt airport.

After taking forever to get through Russian customs, we finally made it outside the airport, only to find the "busses" were actually little 15 seater vans.  They had no room for luggage, so we had to stack everything in front of the seats.

Google Maps said it was 400km.  In Germany, assuming most of that was interstate kilometers, it would take about 4 1/2 hours.  But Google Maps factored in traffic, and that we'd be driving through some remote small towns...and calculated 8.5 hours.  I was hoping it was wrong, but sadly...it was dead on.  We left the airport at 10pm, and didn't pull into Moscow's airport until 6:30am the next morning.  We then met our local tour guide with a bus who took us all to the hotel.  In Moscow traffic, what should have taken 20 minutes, took an hour and a half.  So we finally pulled into the hotel around 8am...a full 14 hours after we landed at the airport in the middle of nowhere.

Thankfully we got in early enough to still get breakfast at the hotel, as well as take a much needed shower.  At 11am we all met in the lobby, got in our tour bus, and took off.

We started off driving around downtown Moscow. We got to see all kinds of neat buildings, including the former headquarters of the KGB.  We eventually arrived at the point I was most looking forward to, Red Square.  We've seen a lot of neat things since we've been here, and as a history buff, I've loved it.  But with the exception of the Berlin Wall, all the things we've seen have just been history I've read about.  Red Square is something I remember from when I was a kid.  I'll never forget Peter Jennings reporting from The Kremlin, or videos of the Soviets having various military parades on Red Square.  And whenever a reporter was in Moscow reporting, they were most likely standing in front of St. Basil's Cathedral, which is on Red Square.  When the bus parked, that was the first thing you saw.

St. Basil's Cathedral was built in the mid 1500's by Ivan The Terrible.  Legend has it that after the building was complete, Ivan had the architect blinded so that he could never create another cathedral like this one again.  While it's called a single cathedral, it's really seven different churches in one building...each spire is a single church.

After we walked past the cathedral, we were on Red Square.  The Kremlin was to our left, as was Lenin's tomb.  Our tour guide then gave us time to walk around and see the sites by ourselves.  We were to meet back up in an hour so that we could enter the Kremlin.  I hadn't realized until we arrived that The Kremlin is not a single building, but in fact is a giant walled off area...practically a fortress.  Inside the Kremlin grounds are buildings and churches.  All the Soviet leaders had their main office there, as well as the presidents of Russia who presided after the Soviet Union's collapse, right up to President Putin today.  We weren't allowed to take pictures in some of the churches there we went into, but they were beautiful.   One area we walked by was blocked off by the police.  Our guide said that usually happens when Putin is about to arrive in his Helicopter.  Sure enough, about 10 minutes later, we heard a helicopter approaching.  We never saw him, but based on all the cars that came flying up with lights flashing, and the TV crew waiting outside the Kremlin, we're pretty sure it was him.

After that tour, we got on the bus and the rest of the afternoon was a tour of the city by bus.  After the long night we'd had, that was fine with us.  We drove by a giant statue dedicated to Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space.  It was neat, but to me looked like a statue of Buzz Lightyear.

We stopped along the river that runs by the Kremlin, and got some neat shots of it across the water.  We stopped at a few more places for pictures along the way, including a bridge that has a great distant view of Moscow and the Olympic Stadium.  We also drove by (but didn't stop at) a giant park that is also a World War 2 memorial.  They had a neat statue that showed Russian warriors through out the ages.  One was a soldier from Medieval Times, a soldier from the war with Napoleon, and a WWII soldier.  The park, memorial and museum there are dedicated to the 27 million Russians who were killed in WWII.  That number is no exaggeration and shocked me.  I knew they had suffered heavy losses, but I had no idea it was anywhere near that much.  For comparison purposes, US losses were approximately 416,000.

Finally we arrived back at the hotel.  At this point, everyone was beyond exhausted.  We hadn't stopped moving since arriving that morning from the overnight bus ride, so everyone called it an early night.

The next morning we all met in the lobby, loaded on to the bus, and headed to Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius in a town called Sergiev Posad.  Along the way we passed several missile defense bases.  During the Cold War, had the US launched a strike on Moscow, these are the bases that would have had the job of trying to shoot the missiles down.  It's a huge monastery, and I had looked up pictures of it before we left.  It looked beautiful...of course, with how our luck had been so far on this trip, it should have come as no surprise that some of the prettiest buildings would be completely covered in scaffolding for renovation.  Next year is it's 650th anniversary, so they are getting everything all cleaned up for the celebrations.

The scaffolding aside, it was a beautiful monastery.  The entrance alone was breathtaking as you walked through.

Our guide from the previous day, Edward, gave us the history the place as we entered, then stopped for a brief bathroom break.  While I was snapping pictures, I noticed several Orthodox Priests walking around, including one guy that really stood out.  He was a mix of priest and someone off Sons of Anarchy with his leather motorcycle jacket on.  The long beard added to the biker look too.

We walked through the various buildings, which were impressive, but was really neat was the actual Church where they held services.  I've attended church services for various religions, but Russian Orthodox was not like any other that I'd seen.  When we walked in, there was a giant room where women were standing around singing while a priest did...something.  I'm not sure how to describe it.  He just seemed to be walking around a statue of Jesus on the cross, and chanting.  One thing we learned was that the altar is in a separate room from the worshipers.  In all of the Christian churches I've been in, the altar has been at the front of the church, and the people sit or stand facing it while the priest is up there giving the service.  For Russian Orthodox, everything done at the altar is in a separate room that the worshipers can not see.  The priest walks in to the room, performs the rituals, then comes back out.

One reason we always like personal guides instead of audio guides is you get stories that bring the history to life that you don't get otherwise.  This was a perfect example.  Our guide told his his father was an adjunct professor Moscow's main university.  In order to reach a level that high, he had to join the Soviet Communist Party.  That also meant renouncing all religion.  So when Edward was born, they snuck away to his grandmother's village, and had him baptized in secret there.  That way he could be part of the church without his work colleagues knowing.  He also mentioned that during Soviet times, it was primarily only the elderly who went to church.  Young people, and those of working age couldn't afford to attend publicly because it would hurt them socially, professionally and ultimately, financially.  When people retired, they started openly attending church because they no longer had to worry about work or school colleagues.

After walking through the large room, we got to the altar room.   To call it stunning would be an understatement.  The gold and art were amazing.

That was it for the tour of the monastery, so we headed over to the gift shop area and bought a few things.  We then walked outside where there was a huge market set up.  Vendors were there selling all kinds of souvenirs.  Some of it was junk, but some of it was pretty neat.  We walked across the street and found a hole in the wall restaurant selling food called "Pattys".  It was potato bread with all kinds of stuffings.  You could get it with a hot dog, meat pudding, cheese, apples, sugar, and more.  We bought several different kinds and loved it.

We had been there most of the day, and it was now time to head back to the hotel.  We got to enjoy some more of Moscow's finest traffic jams, and it took awhile to get back.  On the way back, Edward offered to arrange an outing if people were interested to take us to see a Russian Folk Dance.  Shanna & I weren't interested, so we passed.  Adam, Penny, Katia and Tara were, but when we got back to the hotel, we had 3 hours or so to kill.  Initially Shanna & I were just going to stroll around the part of town we were in.  While out, we ran in to Penny & Adam, and decided to head to find a pub nearby.  We ended up finding this cozy little pub up the block and ordered a few drinks.  The one thing about Moscow...stuff isn't cheap.  The average cost of a beer was $9.  I've paid that much (and more) for a beer before, but it was usually specialty beer, like an American Microbrew.  This was standard fare Russian Pilsner.  It was still nice to sit and chat around a cold beer, though.  One thing a lot of restaurants had in Russia were giant picture menus.  Shanna noticed a tray of six watermelon shots, so she ordered that for the table.  They were actually fairly refreshing on a warm day.  They had a watermelon flavor, plus an actual wedge of watermelon in each glass.

Here comes the funny part...our waitress didn't speak much English.  So after finished these, she came over and said something that none of us understood.  We assumed she had asked us if we liked it, so we said something like "Yes, it was good, thanks"!  Five minutes later, we see her walking around with another tray of the shots and we laughed, thinking someone else had ordered them...until she came right to our table and dropped them off.  So lesson learned...make sure you know what the waiter/waitress is saying before agreeing.   We stayed there for a bit longer, then headed back.  Penny & Adam went to the show, and Shanna & I called it a night.

The next day was our last day in Moscow, but it was going to be a LONG day.  The plan was check out of the hotel, load our luggage into a bus (this time a bus with a luggage area), and sight see all day.  At 11pm we would be dropped off at the train station, where we would take an overnighter to St. Petersburg.

Our first stop of the day was at one of the famous flea markets in Moscow.  This place was HUGE.  Shanna ended up getting some neat souveniers, including a few Santas.  In Russia, they have a custom of taking a block of wood and carving it into a Santa, then painting it.  Some are hand made, others are cheaper and only have stickers on them.  We first discovered these at some of the bazaars and Christmas Markets they have around Stuttgart, but they were always way to expensive.  Some of the really nice ones ran almost $1,000.  Here, though, we were able to find ones of the same quality, but for a fraction of that cost.  Shanna is good haggling...I hate it.  I'd prefer they just give me a fair price and I'll pay it.  I eventually had to walk away and let her haggle, because I didn't know if she really didn't want it, or was just using it as a tactic.  She'd say things like "I don't know...I'm not sure if I really want it".  I'd think she was worried about the price, so I'd tell her to just get it...which the vendor would leap at.  She was much more successful at bringing the price down when I wasn't standing there.

After we finished walking around, we headed across the street to what appeared to be a giant castle area.  I'm not exactly sure what the point of the place was...they had stores, but most people were closed.  They had some really neat buildings inside the courtyard area, but there was almost no one there.  No employees, no visitors, nothing.  We took some pictures and headed back to the bus at the meeting time.  From there we headed to metro entrance.  I didn't realize this before our trip, but Moscow is famous for it's intricate Metros.  They have beautiful mosaics, sculptures, stained glass and so on.  The really fascinating part was most of the decorations were put in during the Soviet Era, and the artwork reflects that.  There were Hammer & Sickles everywhere, as well as pictures of Lenin, the common peasant, the field worker, and all the other Soviet symbols of "the people".

We visited four or five stations, taking pictures at each one.  We finally ended in one of the shopping districts in Moscow.  It was a pedestrian street that had shops, cafes, and stores lined all the way up and down it.  They also had an amazing amount of American chains.  Adam was excited about his cup of Dunkin' Donuts Iced Coffee, and I was excited about our Wendy's for lunch.

After we finished up there, we headed to the Tretyakov Gallery, which contains a large collection of Russian art.  At this point, I was beat and my feet were hurting, so I wasn't really interested in an art museum.  Shanna walked through, though, and took pictures that are in the pictures link at the bottom of the page.

Our last stop in Moscow was back at Red Square.  We got some great pictures of Lenin's tomb, St. Basil's Cathedral, and the Kremlin walls with the sun setting.  We then found a great beer bar right near our bus and just relaxed for a few hours.  This bar had a GREAT selection of Belgian and Dutch beers.  They weren't cheap, but were so worth it.  Shanna & I each got a 1 Liter (33 oz) glass of Belgian beer that cost $20 each...but was worth every penny.

From there we took the bus to the train station, and got on to our train.  The standard cabin had 4 bunks in it, but we had paid to upgrade to a room with two beds.  I'm glad we did, because apparently the size of the room we wasn't any bigger, it just had 2 beds instead of 4.  As you can see from the picture below, there wasn't a lot of space.  It would have been miserable with 2 other people.

They hadn't turned the A/C on yet, so we were miserable in our cabin.  Then someone walked by and said the diner cabin had A/C going, so we all headed down there.  Turns out we weren't the only ones who found out...about half our tour group got word, so we were all in there.  It ended up being a lot of fun.  We ordered beer, and because it was Russia, we ordered some Vodka.  What started off as an attempt to cool down ended up lasting a few hours.  We eventually made our way back to our cabin, went to sleep, and woke up shortly before pulling into St. Petersburg.

I split the post up into two, but the pictures are all on the same page.  I'll link to it here, as well as at the end of the St. Petersburg post.

To continue reading about St. Petersburg, click here.

To see the pictures from the trip, click here or any picture above.