Program For A Church Banquet

St Petersburg - Peter, Paul and the Romanovs

second day in St Petersburg. The guide is very nice: the evidence, it gives us an appointment at 10am (8am Paris time anyway). After a breakfast enjoyed by Francis, who is able to slip a hard boiled egg in the morning (which is not my case - my stomach waking up even harder than me), we embark on the bus. let's go for a walk in the city.

first stop on the edge of Vasilevsky Island, along the Neva. the place is decorated with two rostral columns.

Will you find the theme of the column?

From this square we can admire the many buildings. The Hermitage, the former Stock Exchange, several churches whose names I forget. what a surprise, it is obviously the size of buildings. everything is great, the river, monuments, and everything is very colorful. ocher, yellow, blue, everything is mixed and it sounds very sympathetic to the city. nothing to do with our big gray stones and our slate roofs. the weather is beautiful, we are already surrounded by sellers of travel guides, hats and more.

Before us stands the Peter and Paul Fortress, with its cathedral. if I remember correctly this is the first building constructed, but I'm too lazy to check: p

top of the spire, an angel. Legend says that it is done in real size.

The cathedral houses the tombs of the Romanovs, Peter the Great to Nicolas II whose remains were recovered and transferred recently.

You also review your Russian and genealogy of the Romanovs

before leaving, guides us into a small room occupied by five Orthodox priests . the doors close behind us, and the conductor tells us they're going to change a traditional Russian Orthodox chant. is probably one of the moments most impressive of the trip: the song is beautiful, and one of the singer with a bass voice really ... serious:)

is then the turn of the fortress. a cannon is fired from there every day at noon, and we are not immune. it wakes everybody up at once. we admire some locals caught sunbathing in bikini while it was 12 degrees. I must say that the sun is rare in the corner, so when there are spaces benefit.

first lunch in a restaurant. there is some vodka "Russian Standard" as an aperitif. she is super good. for Paris, I note that it is sold in stores Russian Motte Picquet and Dupleix. good, prices are not the same but it's worth it.

then we pass the afternoon to walk. we pass the KGB building, the guide tells us what was going on ... I'm not going to rewrite everything, but you just know that 1000 people were executed by night in the worst times of Stalinism. Russians say that the cellars of the building have a beautiful view of Siberia.

its pranks, short stop in a store for tourists.
we finished the day with a performance of traditional Russian song and dance, followed by a tour of StPetersbourg by night.

During the show, Francis had a crush on this bass. wait for the next concert clones!