Day 7

Greeting from day 1 in St. Petersburg, Russia........
Today we had a later excursion that started around 1 so we got up early and went to breakfast. We then came back to the room and read our books for awhile until our tours left. We started by driving through the town to meet our ferry to travel down the Neva river we went by a few of Peter the great's mansions, and by Mr. strogenouf's house the creator of Beef Strogenouf. He used to make it every night for anyone to come and join him for dinner. We also went by the Hermitage one of the biggest art museums in Europe. While we were on our little cruise this little boy ran from bridge to bridge the whole time. It was an hour boat ride, they said "that boy must be training for the olympics!!" He would wave at us and blow us kisses at every bridge. All I have to say is "you go boy!!" hahaha All the buildings down the river where bright colors like yellows and oranges, I guess the reason for it was that because they have dark and long winters. So Peter the great told everyone that they had to paint there houses with bright colors so it wasn't so depressing. Out in the main river we saw two masted ships. We also passed a mansion owned by a Czar named Micheal that got shot by his own security guard. It was a bright orange mansion! After the river we got back on the bus and headed to the cathedral on spilled blood. It was a very colorful church, (it looked like something that would have been in charlie and the chocolate factory!) we went in and it was surrounded by mosiac tiles (made of semi precious stones) that created many pictures all over the wall. The walls are completely covered so the devil had no place to hide. We weren't able to take pictures inside without paying so we bought a DVD to show you. Also the other cool thing about this church is it was built on the exact spot were Peter II had been killed by bleeding to death from grenade blast. Someone through a grenade at his couch, which killed horses and guards but not the Czar Peter II. The czar stepped out to see what was going on, the assasin came up dropped another grenade and killed both of them. And thats why his son the next Czar built the church there. There is so many interesting stories sometimes it's hard to remember them all, most of the time Jer has to remind me of things we learned about. After seeing the church we headed to the market to do some shopping we got another nesting doll with main places in Russia on it. We then headed back to the ship. Now we are going to go try some chinese food. Man all we do is eat!!! hahaha We love you all and will let you know about day 2 in Russia tomorrow. P.S. Keesha hows the wedding plans coming? Hopefully well, sorry I can't be there to help you more!