Neva River Cruise, St. Petersburg
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Our river cruise started from a canal near the Church on Spilled Blood. | |
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Larissa, our local tour guide, pointed out these buildings on the right as luxurious apartments for the new rich folks.
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Our boat wound along the canal, and was about to pass under the bridge to enter the Neva river. | |
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On the Neva river.
Although the reflection of the sun light was blinding, it was quite cold that morning. |
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Our boat turned into Fontanka river, passed this Bankovsky bridge, perhaps the most photographed bridge in St. Petersburg.
This 25.2m-long wooden bridge is suspended by cables emerging from the mouths of four golden-winged cast-iron griffins. (griffins, part eagle and part lion: a mythical monster with the head and wings of an eagle and the body and tail of a lion.) |
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The Kazan Cathedral on Nevsky Prospekt which is the busiest shopping street in
St. Petersburg
After touring Yusupove Palace, we had lunch at a restaurant across the street from the Kazan Cathedral.
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The former Singer Building was a few doors down from
where we had lunch. Today, the Singer Building houses the largest bookstore in the city. |
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That evening we went to Mussorgsky Theater (the yellow building)
to see Bizet's opera Carmen.
Four of us hired a private sedan via hotel concierge to take us to the theater and back for USD$40 total. As foreign visitors, we paid USD$60 for each ticket. The same ticket costs less than $10 for Russian citizens.
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Inside Mussorgsky Theater.
The theater was relatively small. Our seats were in row 10, and there were only six more rows behind us.
Helene from Florida was sitting next to Mei-Ching. This picture was taken long before curtain time. That's why there are so many empty seats.
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click here for a MPEG movie (1Mb) during the curtain call at the end of the play. |
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