Touring St. Petersburg, Russia

After our visit with Veronika {aka: Addison Veronika ... the name we will give her} this morning, our driver/translator, Andrei, took us sight seeing. Andrei, by the way, is an awesome tour guide! He speaks perfect English and is so knowledgeable! On to the sights ... I will try my best to identify them correctly! LOL.

First stop ... The Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood ... this church was built on the spot where Alexander II was assassinated ... it is absolutely gorgeous. The church was closed today, but we will return to see the inside at some point.
This picture is of the one section of the outside of the church that was not restored after WWII. See the marks all over from the bullets? Isn't that amazing?

Mikhailovsky Palace {translates to Michael's Palace}

There are canals all over St. Petersburg ... they are so cool! Here is one ...
Part of the Hermitage ... on display here is one of the oldest art galleries in the world ...

Winter Palace, which is also part of the Hermitage ... this palace was first occupied by Catherine the Great ...

This statue {name, anyone?} is in the common area in front of Winter Palace ... Andrei told us that it is free standing and it not attached to its base ... gravity apparently does the trick ... scary, eh? He said the locals joke not to walk too close to it on windy days ... ummm, I agree!
This is the Second Hermitage {err ... something like that} ... a building that Catherine the Great ordered be built because she couldn't fit all her art in the Winter Palace ...
Another canal ... with a bride and a groom ... we saw people all over the city being married today and taking pictures at all the historic places ... that was so amazing! Andrei said people get married all days of the week here, not just on Saturday like most Americans do ...

And yet another canal ... the apartment buildings on the left are among the most expensive in the city ... each probably runs about 1.5 million, according to Andrei ...

St. Patrick's Cathedral ... we got to go inside and it was amazing! No photos allowed, though ...
The bell tower ...