Saint Petersburg

They call this sity the Venice of the North, and even though I only spent but a few hours there, I can see why. The Neva river snakes its way through the city and creates a series of bridges and waterways that would be delightful in the summer.

Of course, we were there in the winter.

History

St. Petersburg was called Leningrad under the soviet regieme, and was the scene of one of the most epic sieges in history. Several movies have been made about the topic.

However, though it was once the capital of Russia, when the Soviets moved the capital back to Moscow, it had one unexpected beneficial side effect for the city of St. Petersburg. As it became a bit of a political backwater, it was not affected as much by the change wrought by the communist regieme and hence a lot more of the original architecture stayed and less of the heavy and imposing Soviet era style was built here, thus preserving the more European feel of the city.

The photos

Because nearly all of our time in St. Petersburg was consumed by the Hermitage, there are only a limited number of photos. And inspite of the snow, it was fairly warm in St. Petersburg all things considered. It was warmer there that say, standing just under the edge of the artic circle, than it was back home in Toronto... a full 15 degrees lattitude further south!

After an exhausting day, we found a fun little cafe to have dinner... the Lenin Cafe. Naturally, it's decor was suitably red, with pictures of Lenin all over, and even a communist handbook in the washroom.

Hope you enjoy the photos!