20180724 St. P. Tour 3 (7 photos)

20180724 St. P. Bus Tour 2 (7 photos)

Next is the Palace turned into Hermitage Museum and the Palace Square. Other buildings follow, all enormous, all before the revolution, all beautiful and expensive for any era. We also stop at the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood, a wonder of mosaic artistry. Buses and tourists crowd this area, construction and maintenance block parts of the church, and good photos are challenges.

20180724 St. Petersburg Bus Tour (7 photos)

The bus made several photo stops, just as our cruise book described, first one St. Isaac's Cathedral and Square.

20180724 Entering Russia (6 photos)

Leaving the ship, we walk to the immigration center to present our passports, ship cards, and tour tickets for inspection by Russian officials in multiple booths. Without smiles or greetings, they inspect our documents, enter them in computers, and put paper passes in our passports to give back to them when we return to our ship.

We get on the bus and drive through relatively modern but basic apartment buildings 15-25 stories high, sad and unkempt, no photos now, overwhelmed and coming to grips about situations for people living there. Closer to the river we see a couple of landmarks, and then crossing the bridge the opulence of history's aristocrats overtakes both sides of the view.