Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood.

It is called this because it sits on the spot where Tsar Alexander II was killed in 1881 by a suicide bomber.

The church was begun just after Alexander's assassination but was not actually completed until 1907.

It features nine onion-dome cupolas covered in gold, enamel and mosaics.

 

It was damaged in WWII. Restored in the 1990's, today it serves mostly as a museum.

The walls are covered with 308 exquisite mosaics (nothing is painted).

The Russian language uses the Cyrillic alphabet

Kunstkammer

Russia's first museum. Originally housed Peter the Greats collection of "curiosities". Now Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography

St. Isaac's Cathedral

It was built between 1818 and 1858

The granite steps and one-piece granite columns were shipped from a Finnish quarry.

The vast, opulent interior covers 43,000 square feet, making it one of the world's largest cathedrals and the fourth largest domed cathedral of its type.

Boat tour along the Neva River and Canals

Colleen and Mark

Even though it was a cold ride, we decided to sit outside to enjoy the views.

The bridges over the canals were very low.

View of Faberge Museum we visited on Day 1.

View of domes of Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood.

View of Vasilevskiy Island

Sobornaya Mosque

Peterhof Palace

Built by Peter the Great in the 18th century

The palace is set amongst beautiful fountains and parklands. There are 150 fountains with gilded statues of mythological characters.

Barb and Colleen enjoy the palace grounds

The palace sits along the Gulf of Finland about 25 miles west of the city.

We took a hydrofoil from the palace back to the city.

The golden dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral

The Admiralty

Academy of Arts

Statue of Tsar Nicholas I

The Bronze Horseman

Statue of Peter the Great trampling the serpent of treason.

St. Petersburg Subway System

We rode the very steep and long (410 ft.) escalators down to the tracks (but didn't actually ride the subway).

Each station has beautiful mosaic paintings on the walls. We entered at the admiralty station so the mosaics depicted marine subjects.

We were impressed with how clean the subway station was.