Our morning was a bit hectic with packing up on the ferry, going through customs, and finding our hotel in St. Petersburg. Once we found our hotel, we headed out looking to get cash and a bite to eat while waiting for our room to be cleaned. This task was easier said than done, but at least we got to see some of the sights in the surrounding area along the way.
With a meal on board and our bags safely stowed in the hotel, we headed to our first St. Petersburg attraction, "Church on Spilled Blood." Wow, this was quite a site from inside and out. As you can see, the church has a very distinctive architectural style and color scheme.
The two of us were most impressed with the countless number of mosaics that adorn the church from floor to ceiling. The colors are impressive and the artestry is of the highest caliber. The church was built upon the site of the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, and hence the structure was given it's unique name. The faclity was reopened in 1998, after an extensive 27 year restoration (3 years longer than it took to build the church 1883-1907).
After a period of sensory overload from the sights at "Spilled Blood," we went on a walking tour of the city taking us through an open market, along multiple canals, across beautiful bridges, all while taking in the beautiful old buildings that adorn the streets.
We found out today that St. Petersburg is a huge city and it requires a great deal of walking. There is public transportation but it isn't as convenient as most other European cities and the streets are bustling with massive amounts of traffic making it faster and more convenient to walk. To put it in perspective, we did a quick rough tally on the computer today and estimate that we walked well over 8 miles just getting to our hotel and visiting a couple of the sites.
Our tour of town today ended at a restaurant called Zoom that was highly recommended from some fellow travelers we ran into while taking a bus from the port in Copenhagen. We are grateful for their recommendation as both of our meals were uniquely Russian, yet westernized enough for our liking. Both of us agreed that we would further recommend the the restaurant to others visiting St. Petersburg.
Well, despite the long day we ended up posting another blog today (even though we hadn't planned on it) as we were able to fit so much more in than anticipated and figured it best not too wait. With the sun never fully setting here at this time of year, it feels like it is four in the afternoon when it is actually 11 pm (the time when we ended up getting back to our room tonight). So with it still light out and knowing how Grandma gets when she doesn't get her daily dose of Henry pictures, we thougth it was best to add another blog. Tomorrow we plan on visiting a museum, going to an island with a massive garden, and doing some more walking the streets of St. Petersburg.
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