Sankt Petersburg

When I was in Lithuania in the summer of 1993, I made a side trip to St. Petersburg.

Well, maybe it is not showing you a lot of St. Petersburg, but I think it is a nice picture if you see the original before it was scanned. It is the statue of Czar Peter the Great on a horse with a beautiful sunset or sunrise. I was there in June, so the sunset and sunrise are very close together then, so close that it doesn't get dark, which they call 'white nights'.

The most famous sight of the city is the Winter palace and Hermitage which nowadays holds one of the largest and most renown museums of the world. The museum as a whole is now called Hermitage as well, but originally that was only a building for exhibiting art to the right of the Winter palace.

The original entry to the Hermitage is decorated by some 'artsy' guys.

Inside the Winter palace, lots of the original decoration has be preserved despite its turning into an arts museum.

After all the talk about a winter palace, you may wonder, is there also a summer palace? Well, yes there is (are?). This summer palace is called 'Peterhof', it is on an island to be reached by jetfoil from the city.

The hill on the island provides wells which are under pressure so that they can be used for fountains without need for motorised pumps, a feature which is being used extensively here.