It was just 3 PM when we got back to the city -- in the midst of an enormous traffic jam. Katya had the driver leave us off near the Kazan Cathedral, rather than attempt to get any further east to where the HotelMoskva was located. It was a glorious afternoon, so we were glad to take in the many sights and sounds of the famous Nevsky Prospekt. Here are some from the 'New Russia'...
A typical young family in St Petersburg (neatly-dressed parents, and one natty child)
Statue of
Star Wars' Yoda infront of the Gostiny Dvor.
The rest are classic St Petersburg sights. Here is the 5-star Hotel Grand Europe.
And here is the old Singer building, now known as the Dom Knigi ('The House of Books'), the largest and most popular book store in the city. The interior is now being renovated into upper floor condos, and lower floor upscale retail (including books)...
This last one is of a very famous older sight: the Cruiser
Aurora, built in 1905 for the Russo-Japanese War and utilized as a training vessel in WWI. On October 25, 1917, it fired Russia's version of 'The Shot Heard Round The World' (only in this case, it was a blank shot.) Whether that cannon shot was a signal to start the Revolution, or the Revolution was already in progress, and it was meant to intimidate the Provisional Government hiding inside the Winter Palace, well within the range of the
Aurora's guns, is debatable. It is now a floating museum.
During our time in St Petersburg with Katya, we had become familiar with the Metro. It is much newer, much smaller and much less elaborately-decorated the famous one in Moscow. It is as clean as Moscow's. What it doesn't have (at least I did not see any) was the old women begging on the steps; and the 'commuter dogs' who apparently sneak on the trains in the distant suburbs and get-off at the large downtown stations, where there are more scraps, and it is a good place to sleep -- warmer in winter, cooler in summer.
But the St Petersburg Metro does have some interesting stations. The
Mayakovsky with its abstract red-on-red tiles is perfect for that mad poet of Communism who shot himself in the Thirties. The
Dostoevsky with its stone walls and black bars like a prison cell is definitely from the life of the great novelist. And the bas-relief of
Alexander Nevsky mounted on his horse matches the statue out front of our hotel. that was our final station this evening. And a destination well-earned by two tired travelers.
