FROM ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

St. Petersburg - Day 3

Tanja & Nikolai

SAINT PETERSBURG, May 26, 2006 - This morning, Tanja and Nikolai arrived on an overnight train from Moscow.  Here she is, on the balcony of my hotel room...

...with the rooftops of St. Petersburg as a backdrop...

...and holding Nikolai in her hotel room.

School's Out... Yeah!

As Tanja then took off to attend some business meetings, I went to a travel agency to try to change the time of my return flight.  As I was walking across the big square in front of the Winter Palace, I first heard music, military band style, and then saw what all the commotion was about.  

This is the last day of school, and thousands of young cadets were lined up... 

...and marching during a graduation ceremony.

Afterwards, I caught some of them in various casual poses...

Whoever says that there are no women in the Russian military?

Right next door to my hotel, this military band gave a concert this afternoon.  They were playing Johann Strauss when I took this shot.

But the crowning moment of the day came at 11PM - the sunset around here, as you can see...

As Tanja, Nikolai and I were finishing our dinner at a rooftop restaurant in our hotel, fireworks erupted all over the city, celebrating the end of the school year.  It was quite a show, except that we have never seen before daylight fireworks.  

Outlined against the western sky and the sunset above is the St. Petersburg skyline that includes the Winter Palace (lower right corner), the victory of the Napoleon monument (between the two fireballs); the spire of the Admiralty (to the left of it), and Isaacs Cathedral (left lower corner).

Aerial Views

After I was finished with my business at the travel agency, I climbed the thousand steps (it seemed that many) to the level of the Isaacs Cathedral just under its golden dome (below).

From there, the survivors of the grueling climb one can enjoy 360 views of the city...

Toward the south...

Toward the north... including the Admiralty buildings also shown from the ground level in my yesterday's photo essay (Peter the Great horse statue is just behind those trees).  Not far from there behind the northerly horizon lies Finland.

Toward the northeast... the view includes the golden spire of the Admiralty Building, and the green rooftops of the Winter Palace, and way in the distance the golden spire of the Peter and Paul Fortress, depicted in my first photo essay from St. Pete.

Toward the east... the most prominent fixture in this view is the Church of the Spilled Blood that rises above the horizon in the center of the picture.

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