August 20-23, 2012 St. Petersburg

We had permission to visit St. Petersburg for preparation days as it is in our area of Europe East and we have a multi-entry visa.  We were teaching in Ukraine on the weekends and St. Petersburg was as close as Armenia.  You can see the McDonald's followed the theme of the city.  There are no McDonad's in Armenia.  It is a 300 hundred year old city built on a swamp so it has many rivers and canals and bridges.  The rivers reminded us of Stockholm and the canals reminded us of Venice.  Some of the highlights were the Kazan Cathedral with the columns and the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood which is similar to St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.  You can see the canals which run throughout the city.  The green onion domed church was just along our walking path to the subway.  The chariot statutes were across the square from The Hermitage.  St. Petersburg is well know for The Hermiate which is a mssive art museum in an old palace.  There was a section about the history of Egypt.  There were numerous paintings from Van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet, Rubens, Rembrandt, de Vince and others.  Very amazing!