St. Petersburg - Day Two

Wednesday, May 21, 2014
St. Petersburg, North-West Russia, Russian Federation
Our second 10-hour tour in St. Petersburg included Peterhof and The Hermitage Museum. 

Peterhof is the lavish summer home of the Tsars.










 The Hermitage is home to one of the world's greatest art collections, the building itself is a masterpiece. The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture. One of the largest and oldest museums in the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been open to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display, comprise over three million items, including the largest collection of paintings in the world. The collections occupy a large complex of six historic buildings along Palace Embankment, including the Winter Palace, a former residence of Russian emperors.

We visited four of the buildings and saw only a small percentage of the three million items.

With its maze of canals, elaborate cathedrals and opulent residences, St. Petersburg is seemingly architecturally flawless.  St. Isaac’s is the largest domed cathedral on the planet, and as far as Russian Orthodox churches go, The Church of our Savior of the Spilled Blood is extraordinary.

Shopping for Matryoshka dolls, Faberge eggs and lacquer box mementos is fun... Vanessa and Sue never missed a shopping opportunity!
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