St. Petersburg, Russia, part 1

Before I even start I can tell that St. Petersburg will take more than one post.  We arrived on Tuesday, July 1st.  The next two days were a whirlwind, running from place to place to see as much as possible.  I loved St. Petersburg, it is at the top of my list of places to go back to from this trip.  

 The ship in St. Petersburg.

 My first view as we approached.

 It took a while to get through customs the first day, no surprise.  I took a photo of my immigration paper because I was pretty sure they would take it back when I left, which they did.

 The State Hermitage, a museum of art and culture.  It was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been open to the public since 1852.  It is a complex of 6 buildings. 

 Here we are, about to go in.  

 Inside, the entrance was kind of a madhouse!

 Things got a little better as we entered the foyer and waited for our whole group to get in. 

 I started taking photos right away in the foyer. 

 Up the stairs we go to start out tour.

 ahhh..over the top from beginning to end

lots and lots of gold!

 There are no plain ceilings.

 tapestries

 neat mosaic floor

 the garden, I took this through a window, we didn't get to go out.

 The Rembrandt Room.  I think there are 27 Rembrandt paintings there.

 fireplace

 There are 2 DaVinci paintings there.  I did not wait in line to take a photo of them.

 I especially loved this spot.

 the ceiling of the previous photo

 The blue in this room was soooo pretty.

 I took a few selfies here and there.

 I loved this museum.  It is definitely near the top of the list of the coolest things I've ever seen!

With such a crowd, of course the guys were outside selling souvenirs.

I'll continue St. Petersburg tomorrow.