Sunday, September 4 ~ Last Day in St. Petersburg

Our city guide was telling us yesterday, that the sunny weather was very unusual for St. Petersburg. Today there were occasional drizzles, so she said it was the usual overcast weather. It was sunny a lot of the day, though.  
She pointed out more of the city sights, and we went inside a couple of churches. One was having a service, so we got to hear the choir sing and see the gold leaf interior. We also visited St. Isaac’s Cathedral, which had been locked up during a war with Germany. The marble had mildewed during the lockup time. When they renovated the building, they had to scrape off a couple of inches of the marble to remove the mildew. There are columns made of lapis and malachite too. Our guide said the process for making the dome in this unique way was copied in other buildings around the world. She went into great detail about his this building was built.

Dome at St. Isaac’s Cathedral

Malachite and Lapis Columns

Marble Columns


We had some free time for a couple of hours, so Linda and I went into a book store. We went to the section that had books in English and found an Agatha Christie book with a title that we had never seen. We talked with a sales clerk about it, and she was very helpful. Both Linda and I bought copies of this book. On the way back to the bus, we stopped at a gift shop, and I ended up buying a red Russian headdress to wear at some Red Hat luncheons.
The bus then drove an hour to Catherine’s Palace. That certainly must have the most gold leaf of any building I have ever seen. There was an amber room that the German’s took apart and it disappeared a few days before the war ended. The Russian government had the room accurately duplicated during the palace renovation since they feel it is very important for the people to know their heritage.

Catherine’s Palace

A Ballroom

The varied wooden floors are works of art

Gold Leaf Domes


On our way back to the city, we were stopped for two hours on the freeway due to a dump truck that had dumped its load of dirt accidentally in the middle of a lane. We were surprised that the police were not directing traffic.

STOP


We finally got back to the hotel, and quickly got ready to go to our farewell dinner. We had a fancy meal which included wine and even vodka if we wanted it. After all, we are in Russia. We were entertained by three gypsies, two female vocalists and a male guitarist. Some of us even were asked to dance with them to the music. What a fun evening! When we got back to the hotel, Miina gave us back our passports that had been held by the hotel. She asked Cha-Cha-Cha to perform. We sang “Love Surrounds Us Everywhere.”


Tomorrow morning we are scheduled to fly to Moscow.

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