Sunday afternoon excursion

Instead of taking my ever-popular Sunday afternoon nap, Ken and I went out exploring with the tour guide Lena whom we had met that morning in church. She is great, a student in her final year at the University of St. Petersburg in the Art History program. She really knows her stuff; she took us first to the Russian museum, which is an old museum dedicated entirely to the works of Russian artists. It was great; she showed us works by such painters as Bryullov, Siemiradzki, and others, and some fine sculptures, especially of Catherine the Great. The museum itself is beautiful, an old palace that has been a working museum since 1898, which in itself is impressive, I think. We then wandered around Nevskiy Prospekt, Russia’s most famous street and the hub of St. Petersburg. We saw the Winter Palace from the outside only, as it was already closed to visitors for the day and went into three different churches for a look at a Russian Orthodox, a Catholic, and an Armenian Orthodox assembly. And that was only the first day! Stay tuned...