I first visited Saint Petersburg ( once named Leningrad) , then I visited Moscow.
Due to our contemporary history of the Egyptian revolution, and its close relation with Russia, I must admit that I always imagined Russia to be in black and white, or gray, similar to Egypt during the revolution, Egypt was all gray .
But to my great and pleasant surprise I found Russia to be in Technicolor, and multicolor, I can even say in the true colors of Microsoft .
The two cities I visited, ( St Petersburg and Moscow ) are in all respect equal not to say better than the best Western capitals, Paris, London, and Rome.
First I will start with Saint Petersburg,
I can write a book about it, but as a picture is worth a thousand word , and as I did with my Prague voyage . Go to prague I will present only few of the pictures I have taken during the voyage The pictures will be more effective than words, so please be patient until all the photos download.
St. Petersburg is full of cultural and historical life.
I will start by the Hermitage Museum, I don't need to tell you how Grandiose is this museum it can be easely compared with Le Louvre Museum. the best way to offer you the Hermitage museum is by making you visiting it virtually on the net and admire by yourself the beauty of its contents.Visit The Hermitage
This is the Grand Hotel Europe, also called kempinsky , this is where I lived.
The hotel demonstrates refined taste and an authentically Russian hospitality.
As you see the hotel instead of being a tower as the hotels newly built, it spreads on a big surface of St.Petersburg center.
This
is a castle on the northwest side of St.Petersburg .
The castle called constantine, is used now as a presidential meeting place.
The group I was traveling with is on its way to visit the castle , and our Russian guide ANNA ( The blonde walking with the brown leather jacket ) is catching up with the group
You can see the facade of the castle in the next picture below.
Below is the facade of the castle called Constantine palace, have any one ever seen such a beautiful castle in the United States of America ????
It reminds me of Montaza Castle in Alexandria , only this one is a little bigger .
Do you see the upper Balcony ? the one with the black metal rail ? The next picture right below was taken from that balcony , it is overlooking a small water stream that is flowing to reach the Baltic sea
-----------------------------------------------------
(Right) What a beautiful view , the water flowing , the green grass , the blue sky, then the sea that you see at the end of the landscape this is the golf of Finland which is a part of the Baltic sea.
right across on the other side is Finland ...
---------------------------------------------------------
Below is an enclosure that contains many churches that makes the saint Sergio's Lavra Monastery .
People are heading to the enclosure that contains many Churches .
One of the many churches in the same yard , you can see another one at the far right of the picture.
Many of the churches had an Oriental Architecture as you can notice . The one we know from the thousand and one night stories .
----------------------------------------------
Before I forget I want to tell you about the many dinners we had in so many wonderfully beautiful restaurants .
left and below is one of the many restaurants where we had dinners , this one is in the Hotel (Kempinsky) itself .
The lady Harp player at the left was playing wonderful melodies while we where eating . we were served delicious food and nice drinks Vodka and Champagne .
________________________________________
________________________________________
Now look at that beautiful park at the left, its a part of a beautiful Castle called Peters Hoff
Everything is kept in order and in a perfect shape, the golden statues are all shining and glittering .
WOW Look at that !!!!
So much for St.Petersburg
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now we go to Moscow
You all know the Kremlin and the Red Square ...
So many things happened in that Red Square, the red army parades and the leaders of Russia standing on Lenin burial at the left watching the rockets and the tanks passing the famous square !!
Also one day a private plane landed in the middle of that square , I think it was a foolish German young man .
It was Nine O'clock in the morning , as you can see on the tower of the Kremlin .
We traveled from St. Petersburg to Moscow by train, ..the distance is about 700 KM and it took us all night in the sleeping compartments.
When we arrived to Moscow we went directly to the Red Square and the Kremlin .It was very stimulating to stand there at that place one saw so many times in Photos and on the screen. What a magnificent place it is breathtaking.
(Above) Our group walking near the Kremlin, in the early hours , trying to warm up in that cold morning of a Russian day.
Below This is the church of St.Basile le bien heureux ( Excuse me but I had a French Guide bleu !! ), built on a hill behind the Kremlin tower that you see at the right .
Again with the beautiful Oriental style, I have many other nice pictures of such nice Architecture, I will insert them as thumnails later )
(Right ) A Russian beautiful lady with a charming smile
...I am sure she must have been very beautiful while young.
She is selling very famous Russian dolls ..
I bought one of course , which one you think I took ???
I took the one at the lower left
In this picture at the left you see one of the towers In the heart of Moscow they call it the Stalin towers, Stalin ordered to build 8 Towers for the 800th anniversary of Moscow. Seven were built and the eighth was still under construction when he died. I deliberately shot that picture of one of the towers showing next to it an advertising board, too bad it did not demonstrate the content of the board ....
It is an advertising for BENETTON!!!!!
But before I finish I must talk about the nice group we were with .
We were very lucky to meet a group of South Americans mainly from Columbia . They made our trip very agreeable with their warm and nice genuine attitudes One evening they were invited to dinner by the Columbian Ambassador, at his home in Moscow.
They got the consent of the Columbian Ambassador and asked the Egyptian group to join them at that dinner .
The dinner was fabulous with Vodaka and Champagne, and after dinner we listened to a very famous Russian Opera singer, she sang all the popular classic Russian songs that we enjoyed very much.
In the picture you see the Singer and some of the group, listening with attention and admiration .
The end
I will add later to this page so please visit more regularly .To go to my main page please click on Main