St Petersburg is a Russian port on the
Baltic Sea and Russia's second largest city after Moscow It was founded by
Peter the Great in 1703 and was the imperial capital until 1918, a period of
over two centuries. 
It is the westernmost city of Russia and it has an undeniably
eventful history, having witnessed the February and October Revolutions of 1917
and its defence and siege during World War II have been well documented.
Today, St. Petersberg is recognised as Russia's intellectual and
cultural hub and though we had just two days to explore St Petersburg we had an
amazing whirlwind around this city. We managed to click over 800 photos
throughout those two days and whittling them down to a manageable number
has been difficult.
We are still amazed at how much we saw and learnt about
Russia's history over those two days.
The main river of St. Petersburg is the Neva River which flows
from Lake Ladoga, through the city and empties into the the Baltic Sea through
the Gulf of Finland is a major shipping route.
Some people refer to the city as the "Venice of the North
" for the city is built on the Neva delta marshlands where many
tributaries and canals which form a network of lace-like waterways. More than
340 bridges, of various style and sizes span the canal and river systems making
St. Petersburg a navigable city like Venice.
Day one, 2nd July began with a coach tour around the city streets
and across several bridges. We saw many apartment buildings, the spires of
churches and row upon row of historic buildings. From the windows our
coach we gained gained a broad overview of how large the large city is.
As we passed many major landmarks, our guide pointed them out and named some of
these buildings which included several churches, museums and palaces. Many of
these we were to visit later on in the day.
Like any big metropolis, St. Petersburg has excellent transportation system for commuters. These include buses, coaches, motor bikes, trams, taxis, modern cars, a huge metro system and canal traffic for ferrying goods around the city and carrying tourists and leisure craft.
Most city dwellers live in large multi-storey government
apartments which dot the skyline throughout the city. Public transport is
convenient and relatively inexpensive but only the wealthy can afford private
cars. 
Many of the beautiful buildings are beautiful and impressive
and give evidence of the wealth of the aristrocracy of past regimes during the
times when tsars ruled their empires. We were amazed at the variety of colours
and varying sizes of the iconic onion shaped domes with pure gold gilding that
we saw throughout the tour.
St Petersburg is a large city and its waterways give it a graceful setting. Though there are many apartment towers we also passed areas of parkland and gardens where families gathered to enjoy the sunshine or to engage in recreational activities. Some parks had water fountains and statues honouring past leaders.
Our coach also took us past outdoor market areas and at one stop we were amused at the Russian dolls with painted images of Putin, Stalin, Rasputin, Kruchev, Gorbachev and other Soviet leaders. We saw many intricate, beautifully coloured and delicately designed Russian egg ornaments in many of the shop windows but we jusy looked, admired and resisted adding more trinkets to our cluttered lives.
An interesting senario we watched being played out was Russian police carrying out a car search and booking the occupants, not an unusual scene in any city today. In the police scene photo you can see a Coca Cola sign in the background. During the Soviet Union times this would not have existed but today Russia trades with other western countries and international relations are much more open.
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