Our first stop was the monument to the 1941-1944 Siege of Leningrad. It's a moving tribute to the many who fought and died here. It's barely outside the city center, but is at the point where the front line of the war came. The Nazis almost took St. Petersburg.
Second stop was Peterhof. This is the Tsars' summer palace out on the Gulf of Finland. In the time of Peter the Great, people would come by boat to enjoy the amazing gardens and fountains. Boris explained how the fountains are all gravity fed. They control the height of the water streams by using different sizes of pipes. It was outstanding engineering for the early 1700's. |
| Ken's favorite photo of the week -- fountains and contrails |
One of the fountains that was easy to miss is also the most fun: Dogs chasing ducks around a little pond, just beyond the large fountain.
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| Sue Allen, Janet Campbell, Sue Gong, Ken |
After Peterhof, Boris drove us around the city. This is his favorite spot -- Palace Bridge across the river from the Hermitage. It's a beautiful view of the city across the river and Peter & Paul Cathedral on this side.
We also drove past the house where the main character lived in "Crime and Punishment" by F. Dostoevsky. It's a favorite book of Sue Gong's, so on Tuesday Janet and the Sue's went to visit the Dostoevsky Museum. It's in the house where he died. But since Ken didn't come along we don't have photos. Sue always forgets to take pictures.
Also on the wall of that house is a marker showing the depth of flooding in St. Petersburg on 7 November 1824. The city had floods regularly, but now there is a dam on the road to Kronstadt out in the Gulf, so the water can be better controlled. [Why is this sign in German???]
Boris next took us to the Savior on Spilled Blood Church. This is a memorial built by Tsar Alexander III on the spot where his father, Alexander II, was assassinated by terrorists. Alexander II was the 'good Tsar.' He freed the serfs and was trying to implement democratic reforms in the country. That gave him enemies. If he'd lived longer and accomplished his goals, maybe there wouldn't have been a Communist revolution. Who knows?
The Church is modeled after St. Basil's at the Kremlin in Moscow.It's hard to tell from photographs, but nearly every square inch of the interior is done in mosaic. There are no paintings at all. It's magnificent!
Here is a photo of Ken "working," taken by Janet of our tour of the Russian Museum.
This week we finally wore ourselves out, doing in seven days what took us a year to discover. Ken got a really bad blister on the bottom of his foot, so now he is hobbling.
And Sue got sunburned running around Peterhof.
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| Elder Jensen, Sisters Monson & Karlsson, Elders Allen, Franckowiak, Herrod & Houston |
Sue went to the train station early on Wednesday morning to see Sue G and Janet off to Moscow. She said they had done almost as much sight-seeing in five days as we've done in a whole year!
Then we thought we'd have a quiet day in the office to recover from all the walking/touring. But it wasn't to be. President and Sister Rawson, the two Assistants and the two Center Elders were planning a trip out to the FIFA World Cup soccer stadium, and they invited us along.
The games don't start for two weeks, but the trophy is here and set up for photographs! We took the Metro out to the new station at the stadium and then walked back to where the tents were set up for the photo-op.
Then we got to go inside and see the real trophy!
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| Elder Franckowiak, Pres. Rawson, Elder Scott Jensen Elder Houston, friend, Sister Rawson, THE World Cup, Sister & Elder Allen, Elder Herrod |
A Coca-Cola trademark that literally reads:
"Tour of the Cup of the Championship
of the World
in Football FIFA"
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| Stephen & Patricia Beus of Portland |
On Thursday evening we went back into the city center to meet our friends, Steve and Patricia Beus who are on a four-week tour through Europe, just for fun. We got to know them well when we served our mission 12 years ago in Hamburg, Germany. They also were serving and living in Hamburg. They were in charge of all the Young Single Adult Outreach Centers in Germany, Austria & Scandinavia, so they did a lot of traveling. We all went to dinner at the Literary Cafe, where Pushkin spent his last meal before going off to his fatal duel.
Then we walked a bit down Nevsky Prospekt. It was a beautiful evening!  |
| Dusk at the Savior on Spilled Blood Church. (at about 10 pm) |
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| Allens, Elders Houston & Franckowiak with Vlad, a professional pop musician who loves the Beatles |
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| Sisters Gregson, Pettit, Baker & Yegorova attend Sventlana's baptism in Petrozavodsk via Skype from St. Petersburg |
Saturday there was a baptism up in Petrozavodsk--about a six-hour drive northeast of St. Petersburg. Svetlana had been investigating the church for a long time, in fact years, and had been taught by several of the Sisters. Those who were too far away to go in person went via Skype. And even two Sisters who have already gone home to the USA got up at 3 a.m. to watch, too. It was a great day!
Finally on Saturday night we went with the Beuses to the Mikhailovsky Theater to see the ballet of Cinderella. The dancing and staging were magnificent. The leaps from the Prince and the Jester were incredible. The music was by Prokofiev, written during WWII. It was a bit modern for our tastes. We prefer Tchaikovsky for ballets. But we were really glad we went!
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