Peterhof, the Summer Palace of Peter the Great!

Dayna is instructing Ray on how to use his cell phone more efficiently! I also had a few lessons.

At one time this was the largest McDonald's in the world. I don't know if that is true any longer. It is big and has 24 registers to place your order and there is usually a line at each of them. We only ate here once!

We walked by this very curious cat near Catherine's Palace!

More of Catherine's Palace

Catherine's Palace in Pushkin (near St. Petersburg)

It is common for girls to hold hands in Russia and it doesn't have anything to do about being a lesbian. We saw it all the time. I tried to catch these two chicks holding hands while we were walking along.

We visited the Russian Museum which had wonderful Russian art. Here is Ray catching a catnap from the couch.

Picasso, The Absinth Drinker.

Matisse, The Red Room - Now I've seen better art at the elementary school.

van Gogh - Cottages

Renoir or Monet?

Another one that is a little easier to see.

Inside the Cathedral of the Resurrection the pictures are made up entirely of mosaics. Most of them depict miracles and just have to be seen to be believed how beautiful they are.

Hermitage Museum and Winter Palace

"Our Savior-on-the-Spilt-Blood" church. We went on a boat tour and here is a perspective from the canal. St. Petersburg has a lot of canals and is on a bay. It is a very beautiful city.

We think this is some kind of exercise apparatus, but we are still wondering! It is still light at midnight in St. Petersburg. We do think at some point it got dark, but we never did see it. We just had cotton curtains that were tied in a knot to the street and we had to keep the windows open. Tylenol pm was definitely a must!

We didn't know when we planned the trip that we were going to St. Petersburg on the same weekend as a huge economic conference that Putin was attending. Our taxi dropped us off at this address. We were a little nervous as this is what we saw but it does say Pio Bed and Breakfast and that was what we were looking for. Beyond those doors are 51 steps up to our B&B. The room was very Russian. We were expected to wear little slippers when we were inside. I only wore mine when I went up to breakfast.

I believe this is just a clinic, but how would you like to depend on these medical services?

This is the scarf I bought from someone on the street. Women are expected to cover their heads when they go into churches. I know I look like a babe!

Novodevichiy Convent 1524.

One of the places in the city that serves "Business Lunch", which is salad, soup and an entree; you get to pick the kind of soup and meat for entree. It wasn't bad and the price was right. If you can get business lunch from reading the sign, you are definitely doing better than I was.

This is in the metro where we are buying pirated DVDs. There was a big sign that said English so we are giving it a try. Ray has satellite at his apartment but it only works half the time.

This is the Russian chicken chain that has been bought out by KFC. The first time Dayna and I went out to eat alone we basically pointed to which chicken sandwich we wanted. There isn't much English in Russia. A few places have English menus but you have to point to the dish you want because the person taking your order doesn't speak it.

If you can read this, you are doing better than me.