Balzac

Fab dinner at local restaurant Бальзак - borsch and shashlik, complete with mound of embers at the table.  Lovely evening here in St. Petersburg.  The crosses on the domes of the Smolny Cathedral, which we can see from the balcony, are glittering in the late sun.

Peter & Paul

Today to the Peter & Paul Fortress and Cathedral.  We went first to the Museum of the Defence of Leningrad, where the tug on my arm of the babushka-guide, her intense desire that I should know the story, was as strong as anything on display.  Then we walked over the breezy Trinity Bridge; people were sunbathing standing up on the 'beach' and swimming in the Neva.  P&P is stunning.  The Romanovs (Nicholas & Alexandra, Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia) are buried in the cathedral, as are Peter the Great and Catherine the Great.  We took a boat trip across the Neva and up and down the canals.  St. P. is Venice on a large scale - less maculate and more 18th-century.

Loving St. Pete

Happy transfer to Vosstaniya Ulitsa.  Yesterday afternoon we strolled through Liteyniy, visiting the Cathedral of the Transfiguration and the Church of St. Panteleymon, then though gardens (Marsovo Pole), along canals and past palaces to the dazzling extravaganza of the Cathedral of the Saviour on the Spilt Blood.  Fab moment cooling our feet in the Griboedov Canal.  Then on to Nevsky Prospect and a happy hour spent browsing in Dom Knigi, with coffee in the cafe overlooking the Kazan Cathedral.  Some grocery shopping and dinner in a nice wine-bar, Probka, by the Church of SS. Simeon and Anna.