July 15, 2018 - St Petersburg, Russia - River and Canal Cruise

Our second day in Russia started with a late breakfast and a relaxing morning on the ship. We the had a quick light lunch before joining our group on a coach. We had a city tour before joining our River cruise boat.

This was a good opportunity to see the city from the river and many canals. Very much the ‘Venice of the North’, St Petersburg is amazing. 400 palaces, beautiful monuments and buildings to see. Interesting to learn about how Russian people live today compared to the Soviet Union times. St Petersburg is the cultural capital of Russia. Most people live in apartments, now families can own their own apartment but in the Soviet Union days they had ‘communal apartments’ Thad saw multiple families living together. Interesting......divorce is up now in Russia, now at 70%, previously very low during Soviet Union days, the reason being regardless of your divorce you had to keep living with your ex so not many took up divorce as an option, instead they learned patience and how to compromise.....  

All the buildings with the gold fines or gold on them are real gold . 

















Above is the Winter Palace seen from the river, we visited this yesterday.

Here it s again above.

And again...you can’t tell I’m obsessed with palaces.

A good outing.