St Petersburg Food --Part I

We ate, the first night, at a little restaurant right next to our hotel. It was quite good, but service was s-l-o-w. Sue and Peg said it was a "one wok restaurant," a saying of their after being at a Chinese restauarant where each dish came out one at at time. Pretty much like ours did here. This was borscht (beet soup). Very good! It can be hot or cold, apparently. Mine was hot.

Fred got a pork cutlet. His was very good.

I got a potato, mushroom and "meat," local style. It was good, but the meat was a little chewy. Horse?

Here's the window for the restaurant.

The Hermitage, Part II (St Petersburg)

One of the miles of halls we walked at the Hermitage. Fred and our guide Inna have their backs to us.

One of the beautiful rooms. I believe this was a ballroom.

Richly decorated hall.

And an even more richly decorated hall.

The Hermitage, Part I (St Petersburg)

The Hermitage is one of the world's great art museums! Here is a bit of what we saw...

One of the great staircases...

One of the many beautiful parquet floors.

One of the rooms, now a display hall. The glass display contains a clock. That's our guide with her back to us.

Detail from the peacock clock. On the hour, the wings would move, the rooster at right would crow and an owl not seen would blink its eyes.

St Petersburg, Part II

This was one of the few reminders of the Soviet period, other than blocks of apartment buildings in the modern part of St. Petersburg. Our guide said that there were still a number of statues to Soviet leaders in the city.

As I said earlier, my favorite thing to photograph, the Church of the Spilled Blood...

The Summer Palace and some of its famous fountains. No pictures were allowed inside.

Another view of the gardens and the fountains of the Summer Palace of Catherine the Great, among others...

St Petersburg, Russia

I have tons of pics from St Petersburg, just a few for the blog right now...

Without a doubt my favorite thing to photograph in St Petersburg, the Church of the Spilled Blood, here shown with the Canal going by. I didn't realize there are canals all over St Petersburg, and 412 bridges.

One of the many typical Russian restaurants. Our guide's favorite was McDonalds...

The Hermitage, after possibly the Vatican, the world's greatest art museum.

Oh, and Palace. The Hermitage was also a palace. I've been through many glorious mansions in the US, but none of them had throne rooms.

Estonia, Tallinn

A view of the "old" city.

The gang, except Sue who is taking the picture.

An Eastern Orthodox church in Talinn, Estonia.

The ferries that go to Finland...we were on the green one!

An old tower. The whole town had been rebuilt after bombing by the Russians.

There are some people dressed in traditional garb. Note the shoes!

Then, there are more modern devices.

The Talinn opera house, also showing the film "Milk."

Finland Day 5--Estonia

We took a 2 hour ferry ride over to Tallinn, Estonia. Here we are going through the city gate towards a fine Estonian restaurant.

The old wall has a ton of artisans with hand made crafts. We looked but didn't buy!

Some churches in Estonia

Lake House & Sauna, Heinola, Finland

Fred enjoying his sauna

Fred cooling off after his sauna

The wonderful lunch Kaisu and Oula fixed for us.

The view of the lake from the cabin. This is where Fred is swimming in the earlier picture.

Saturday in Heinola, Finland

Outi's friend Kaisu invited us to spend the day at her summer home. It was quite lovely.

In the afternoon, having coffee in the sun. Outi, Peg, Kaisu, another friend Oula, and Fred.

Some of the beautiful flowers and the lake behind.

Another shot of the flowers.

Lahti, Finland

Another view of the ski jumps in Lahti, we were at the top of the tallest one.

Peg, Outi's friend who took us around Lahti, Outi and Fred in front of the Sibellius Concert Hall in Lahti.