Baltic Cruise 2002:
Day 5 - St. Petersburg, Russia

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Baltic Cruise: [Day 1 - Copenhagen] [Day 2 - At Sea] [Day 3 - Tallinn] [Day 4 - Moscow] [Day 5 - St. Petersburg] [Day 6 - Helsinki] [Day 7 - Stockholm] [Day 8 - Kalmar] [Day 9 - Berlin] [Day 10 - Århus]

	Wednesday, July 3, 2002: Sunrise was at 4:47 AM, but we slept in and missed it. We spent our second day in Russia touring St. Petersburg. Here's a square and statue that Tom swears he saw Pierce Brosnan destroy in "Goldeneye."
	Here is Tom posing in front of the Neva River with a view in the distance of the Winter Palace, which houses the Hermitage Museum.
	We toured the Church of the Spilt Blood. It is just as beautiful as St. Basil's Cathedral on the outside ...
	... and absolutely unbelievable on the inside. Do yourself a favor and look at the larger views of these photographs.
	The church walls are covered with hundreds of tile mosaics.
	Even the ceilings have been painstakingly tiled into intricate designs.
	Every place you look in the church is breathtaking.
	There are several ornate altars, including this one under a domed ceiling covered in mosaics.
	The church was built over the cobblestones where Czar Alexander II was assassinated. Just past the golden gates are the actual cobblestones of the original site.
	Outside the church, we finally get a shot of the Schilling tour bus we've been seeing all day. Schilling! In Russia! Debbie was thrilled.
	Another day in Russia, another five-star hotel. At this one, the Grand Hotel, we were treated to a very amusing folkloric show. When the men came out to join the women on a rousing rendition of "Back in the USSR," we laughed and laughed.
	After lunch, we traveled by hydrofoil to Peterhof. The park-like grounds are covered with dozens of fountains fed by a natural spring and powered only by gravity.
	The Grand Cascade of fountains is only one of several fountain displays on the grounds.
	Every room was ornate and beautiful, including the staircases to the second floor.
	Here's a picture of my living room. No, wait, this is the ballroom at Peterhof.
	This entire room was covered with these portraits. Now, here's the bizarre part -- these hundreds of portraits featured only a handful of different women. We could have taken dozens of other photos, but we decided to buy a souvenir book instead. Stop by and have a look at it sometime!
	After our wonderful day in St. Petersburg, sunset was at 11:25 PM. We gathered on deck with many of our shipmates as we sailed for Finland with a spectacular sunset ahead of us.
	After midnight, the sky was still stunning. Day 6 >