Day 24 - 14/8/11 -Sunday

A big hotel breakfast to start the day, including Vegemite toast. We then met our guide for the day, Svetlana. A full tourist day was lined up, so no time to waste, as St. Petersburg has many worthy tourist attractions. In fact, St. Petersburg is a city where even the 'normal' buildings would count as tourist attractions in most cities.

The main square and St. Isaacs Cathedral was first stop. From the main square the Cathedral looked big, however not that big. This false perspective was possibly account us referencing the size to the front columns, and assuming the front columns were relatively normal GregoRoman size. They were not, they were at least 25 metres high, and this was about a third of the building height.

The internal dome itself had about a 30 metre diameter, and had the largest painted copola in the world. The tiny display pigeon at the top centre was not actually that tiny, it was 2.5 metres, however looked about 2.5 centimetres. Svetlana informed us it was the 3rd largest church in the world.

Upon entry into St. Isaacs it was just like stepping into a building design you couldn't possibly dream of in your wildest dreams. Amazing golden coloured decoration in every direction, and every wall area covered with sublime religious depictions.

More amazing features were the huge copper covered wooden doors, with extremely intricate patterns.

Also the usage of various gemstones, including malakite and lapis lazuli to contrast some of the marble and granite columns. The main internal arch ceiling structure is supported by about 96 massive granite columns, which were all single piece blocks. Aside from how they got these columns to St. Petersburg, it took 126 men and a lot of ropes and winches 45 minutes to raise each column to vertical.

After a short drive to the other side of Neva River, we visited the Aurora Battleship. Whilst this battleship was commissioned in 1900 and saw active service in WWI, it is most famous for being the ship that fired the shot that signalled the beginning of the October revolution. The ships' captain did not agree with the revolution, and was therefore executed by his crew.

The Peter and Paul Fortress was the original area of St. Petersburg, and was built to defend russia from the sea. It soon became a busy trading centre, and thus st. Petersburg grew quickly. St. Peter and Paul's Cathedral was mostly famous for its contents, for it houses the tombstones and coffins of the last three tsars of Russia- Nicholas II, Alexander II and Alexander III. It also has the coffin of Peter the Great, the founder of St. Petersburg.

On the way back accross the river we viewed several other churches, includng the Kazansky Cathedral, by which time we were totally confused which church was which.

After the tour we were dropped off at a Vodka museum, where we learnt the history of Vodka, how it is made, and how it is now standardised at 40% alcohol, thanks to Dmitri Mendeleiev (who also designed the Periodic table). We also learnt about Mr Smirnoff, and his defection to the U.S. once prohibition was introduced, in the 1920s. Under Michael Gorbachov, prohibition was reintroduced, however pretty much ignored. Yeltsin quickly repealed this failing law upon election, as Boris liked his Vodka.

Yes, if you are wondering we ended up in the dining room where 3 Vodka shots were lined up for Cinthia and I. Bottoms Up!

Zoom cafe was the last stop of the day for us, and it is fair to say it is a cafe/ restaurant made out for tourists, however it did have a nice vibe, and drawing pencils to draw pictures on your placemat, which I always like. The food was good too, however we were both tired account such a hectic tourist day.
The end of a long Sunday, and one that I had even been to church! Not Cathlic (Cinthia's background) nor Protestant (my upbringing) however Orthodox.