We toured the house and had to pay to take photos. Sooooo...if anyone wants any photos of the interior (including close up shots of the wallpapers), just let me know.
A Few Final Shots
not far from our hotel
Late September Update - Trip to
Russia
St. Petersburg was great. I hadn't realised what a young city it was (barely over 300 years). Evidently after a wedding, the wedding party goes (in full dress) around to various sites in the city for photos. By one of the ceremonial lighthouses on Sunday there was practically a queue of brides lining up to do photos at key sites (the statue, having the fountains in the background)...plus lots of (empty) bottles of cheap sparkling wine everywhere. We spent a lovely day at Peterhof - founded by Peter the Great as his Summer residence. Now, I can forgive them charging 100 roubles to take photos in the place...but charging to use the toilets on top of the admission to the gardens and house was a bit cheeky. I took a ton of photos, including what looked like a Starbucks (by a different name - very similar logo), and I even got a photo of the car that took us to the airport (there were no seatbelts in the back...and it wasn't exactly pristine).
Ailsa stayed in Kew with Paul's parents. I guess she is such a well adjusted kid that she didn't seem to miss us. On the day we came back she had been pointing to my picture that morning. We arrived back just before her bedtime. She had been playing with a balloon (rolling around / draping herself on it and rolling off), and when we came in she squealed...and then had us follow her back to the room with the baloon.
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A sunset boat ride. |
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Some of the art work at The Hermitage....and I always thought some of these were in Paris.... |
| The March of the Brides - Having the fountains in the background (a recent addition to the city to celebrate its 300th anniversary - I think Putin gave the city a lot of money) must now be a preferred location for newlyweds to have their photo taken. | |
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| Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood | |
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| Wandering around | |
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I thought Jeff would get a kick out of this advertisement |
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| The Gardens at Peterhof (below).
We toured the house and had to pay to take photos. Sooooo...if anyone wants any photos of the interior (including close up shots of the wallpapers), just let me know. |
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| A Few Final Shots
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We went up to the top of St. Isaac's
Cathedral not far from our hotel |
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Looks a lot like a Starbucks to me |
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Our Taxi to the airport |