St. Peterburg, Russia

Wow! We took so many pictures we had trouble deciding what to post. The weather forecast called 80% chance of rain and the 20% won out! Great day.

A trip to Peterhoff. The palace of Peter the Great. The gardens are more fabulous than Versailles, France. It was an amazing site. The palace itself is enormous, the grounds breath taking and the thought of all those years ago with people walking around in those long dresses...amazing! The chandeliers, the throne, the "throne" in his bedroom is obviously where the nickname for a toilet came from, as Peter had a chair that was throne-like in his bedroom with a chamberpot under it. He used it at night, as to not have to walk out of his bedroom to go to the bathroom! Look closely at the photograph of his mostly red bedroom and you will see the chair very near the bed.
We were not supposed to touch the handrails and Nicky got a mean look by a Russian lady when he did and she said "NO" in Russian, "neit"! He moved his hand quickly. Peter the Great loved herringbone patterns in the wooden floors. Therefore the floors were so fabulous, we had to wear booties on our feet as not to damage them. There is one picture of Nicky standing in front of a large painting of what look to be a man on a horse. It is not a man, it is Catherine the Great, dressed as a man.
The fountains outside the palace were more beautiful than anything in Rome even.

We saw a rat fall into the canal and wondered if he would make it, had to take that photo as he was the only thing we saw there that was not impeccably beautiful...he was cute though, as far as rats go!
Saw a rack of Russian hats.
The trip to The Church of Spilled Blood...what a magnificent church. It is Russian Orthodox and was built for only the Romanov family's use! It is AMAZING. The name of the church is The Church of Spilled Blood because inside this church is where Alexander II was murdered. There is a wooden structure in the back of the church, preserving the area where he was murdered.