So, with no worries in our minds, we landed in St. Petersburg. After encountering no problem passing through the passport control and picking up our luggage, we were greeted by a large Russian man holding my name. He flashed us a gentle smile and we immediately drove into the center of St. Petersburg. Later, he said he was puzzled to see a Korean couple when the booking was done from Stockholm.
Many people have commented that they had never been to Russia, and asked us to take a lot of pictures. The following are some of the photos of this trip.
Day 1 – St. Petersburg, half-day tour.
As soon as we checked into our hotel, we were driven around the city for some major landmarks. I braved the falling rain, and took this photo of the back of the famed Hermitage from across the river. Fedor, our guide, told us that many people in Russia are superstitious. When a visitor to Russia is greeted with rain when he arrives, it means good luck in Russia.
St. Petersburg is called the “Venice of the North”. The city is built around 38 islands and has many bridges spanning over the waters. Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg in 1703 on a swamp and moved the capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg. The large golden dome on the right is St. Isaac's Cathedral and the thin golden spire in the middle is the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
This is the historical ship that first signaled the Bolshevik Revolution by firing its guns.
The splendid golden domes on the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood. The church was built (1883 - 1907) on the spot where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881.Day 2 – St. Petersburg (Hermitage, Folklore Dance show, Dinner)
Hermitage is located in the Palace Square (Dvortsovaya Ploshchad). In the middle of the square, the Alexander Column commemorates the 1812 victory over Napoleon. Contrary to the weather forecast, the day was bright and sunny. Maybe, our tour guide was right after all, the rain upon our arrival was lucky for us; the sun came out in St. Petersburg! It’s mostly supposed to be foggy, cloudy, or raining during this time of the year.
This is the grand staircase entrance to the Winter Palace (Zimny Dvorets). Rastrelli was commissioned by Tsarina Elizabeth in 1754 to design the palace. The Hermitage Museum (Gosudarstvenny Ermitazh), which is one of the world’s great art museums, occupies some of its 1057 rooms.
The view from the staircase; there seemed to be endless halls and rooms. 
The royal seat for the Tsar and Tsarina. Behind the seat is the picture of Peter the Great with his guardian angel. Above the throne is the double-headed eagle, a symbol of the royalty in Russia.
A large dance hall.
A reception room.
Inside the display case is a peacock clock that still works to this day. Instead of chiming, the peacock opens up its feathers and moves to indicate the hours.
The intricate mosaic of Greek mystical figures.
The tapestries, the inlaid wooden floors, and all the decors were simply amazing. The chandeliers were originally lit by candles but later turned upside down to accommodate the light bulbs.
One of many magnificently decorated Baroque style rooms.
The collection of arts and sculptures was most extensive at the Hermitage. They even had a large collection of world famous impressionist paintings.
The view from a second floor window in the Hermitage. The General Staff Building is opposite the Hermitage.
This is one of the many canals in the city, which we walked by, on our way to a restaurant for lunch. We had a traditional Russian menu lunch. Being a soup lover, I enjoyed their Borsh (red beet soup).
We went to see a Russian folk show later in the afternoon at Nikolayevsky Palace; what used to be an aristocrat’s mansion.
There was a large group of tourists from South America (Brazil and Argentina), who came to see the show as well. Joanne had no problem conversing with them in Spanish. When we told them of our world tour, they said we must come and visit their countries as well. We said that we would.
The show, of singers and dancers, was very colorful and enjoyable. It was staged in a large room that could hold about 300 people.
After the show, to our surprise, we were led into a private room for dinner. There was a single table right in the middle of the room, set just for the two of us. With bewilderment we looked at each other; later we found out that we were the only people with a booking for dinner.
As we entered the room, the pianist started to play a Viennese waltz on a white grand piano. To the pianist’s delight, we grabbed hold of each other and waltzed around the room for our grand entry. It was the most special dinner that we had during our whole trip, and to think that this happened in St.Petersburg, Russia, was totally unbelievable. It was as perfect and magical a day as we could have ever wished for, anywhere.Day 3 – St. Petersburg (Catherine’s Summer Palace, Swan Lake ballet)
The palace was so large; this is only the right half of the Catherine’s Summer Palace. The main entrance was to the left of the picture.
There were many rooms filled with so much gold everywhere - it was dazzling.
A dining hall in the Summer Palace. This place was totally destroyed to bare walls after the World War II. Many years of careful and painstaking restoration brought the palace to the former glory including its famous “Amber Room”.
In the grand entry hall of the Summer Palace where the “Amber Room” is located - photos inside the Amber Room was forbidden.
In the garden of the Summer Palace. In the background, with its golden dome, is the Turkish bath house.
As we were exiting the Summer Palace, we heard familiar music. Someone was playing “Ave Maria” on the flute. It was the same song that was played at our wedding. With magical moments like this, we felt that a guardian angel of our own was following us on our world trip.
In the evening, we went to the Mariinsky Theatre to see Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake ballet. 
You’d expect to see long legged girls on the stage, but I noticed that in the streets of Russia, there were many tall and beautiful girls. They were wearing the highest stilettos, making them seem even taller.
The performance more than lived up to its reputation; it was beautiful.Day 4 - St. Petersburg (Peterhof Summer Palace, midnight express train to Moscow)
The Tsarina Elizabeth commissioned this building. We were told that when she died, she left 15,000 ball gowns, as well as many other garishly extravagant items.
The palace was located on the Gulf of Finland. Peter the Great was the first Tsar who built a very small, summer palace here. We were told that he enjoyed seeing the ships come in thru the harbor.
This huge palace was built separately by the Tsarina Elizabeth; in a much grander scale than the very small building built by Peter the Great nearby.
We wanted to fly from St. Petersburg to Moscow but our travel agent recommended for us to take the midnight train. I don’t think we’ve ever been on a train that was longer than this. The train seemed to stretch on for a mile. In front of each car’s door was a freshly uniformed attendant standing still. Only when we presented our tickets did the attendant move and point us towards our cabin.
We had a private cabin where the seats pulled down to a clean bed. The train took 8 hours to get to Moscow and even breakfast was served.Day 5 – Moscow (War Museum, Kremlin)
We arrived in Moscow at 8AM in the morning, and were greeted by our guide, Tatiana. She told us that our first scheduled stop that morning was the Red Square, but we pointed to the pouring rain and asked her to switch the itinerary to a museum instead. This is the War Museum where the sacrifices of the Russian people during the World War II and victory over Nazis is commemorated. For Russians, the Victory Day is May 9th when the Nazis surrendered in 1945.
Whether it was because it was too early in the morning, or it was during a weekday, we were about the only ones in this large museum.
By the time we were finished with this museum, the rain had stopped and we headed to the center of Moscow, to visit the Kremlin.
Kremlin, in Russian, means ‘fortress’. Inside the fortress, the yellow building is where the president of Russia works; the Tsars used to live here.
Also inside the Kremlin are cathedrals and museums (Armory and Diamond Fund, where they exhibit incredible collections of arts, icons, and crown jewels). This bell is the largest in the world ever built, but unfortunately, it cracked even before it was ever rung.
This is the cathedral where the coronations of Russian Tsars took place. There were three cathedrals, all with historical significances. Inside the cathedral was as impressive as the outside (again, no photos were allowed inside).
We walked around with the Muscovites and asked our guide to take us to our hotel by subway. We were able to mingle and experience the deep and extensive maze-like Moscow subway system (no English signs). We got to see the very fancy granites, marbles, and other semi precious stones that were used for its construction long ago in 1930’s.Day 6 – Moscow (the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Red Square)
This is the entrance to the State Tretyakov Gallery. The gallery houses the world’s best collections of Russian arts; all donated by one person, Tretyakov, an industrialist who owned the Siberian Railways and had a passion for arts and literature. On the building, there is a fresco of St. George slaying a dragon, which is the symbol for Moscow as well as for the city of London.
After lunch, we told the guide that we wanted to visit Armory and Diamond Fund (which to our surprise was not included on our tour). The Armory and Diamond Fund are located inside the Kremlin. We stood on a long line to purchase the tickets and entered the Kremlin thru the gate. Soon after we entered the gate, to my surprise, a burly police came and dragged me back to the gate. With no understanding of why I was being escorted, I thought I was in big trouble. Joanne had followed us anxiously, but we soon found out that I just needed to check in my backpack into the luggage room, before entering the gate. I thought I was going to be helplessly locked up in the Kremlin. This photo is of the St. Basil Cathedral right outside of the Kremlin after we had calmed ourselves down.
This is the frontal view of the iconic St. Basil Cathedral across the Red Square. The cathedral, with nine onion domes, was built in 1561 by Ivan the Terrible in commemoration of the victory over the Tatars, Mongols. 
My guess is that this is a rare photo of the Red Square, without a single person in the square. There was supposed to be a demonstration that never took place, thanks to the massive police presence and roping off of the square, to all people. Unlike what most people may think, the name red square was given because the ‘red’ means ‘beautiful’ or ‘magnificent’.Day 7 – Moscow (Sheremetjev’s Summer Palace), our last day before returning to Los Angeles, early the next morning
Having seen the Red Square on our own, we asked Tatiana to take us to a different place. She took us to Sheremetjev’s Summer Palace, where the original wooden building, with the original decors, were all preserved. This palace was one of the few that was not destroyed or damaged during the past wars.
The view from the garden. To think that this one person had 300,000 serfs working for him, probably without pay. The revolution was highly likely when one person had so much wealth. The idea of communism, with equality of wealth for all people, must have been a utopian idea for the majority of Russian people. When I asked Tatiana about her feelings and recollections of the changeover from the old communist state to the capitalistic society, she still remembered the past fondly. She said she was happier and that life was simpler, with less emphasis on material things. She sadly said that nowadays, most young people just seemed to think about money.
In front of the Grotto where the interior is totally covered with all shapes and sizes of seashells. 
There is a funny story to this statue of Peter the Great in Moscow. It originally was built as a gift to America; in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America, by Columbus. We were told that when America declined the gift, the head of Columbus was taken off the statue and replaced with the head of Peter the Great. However, since Peter the Great is not too popular in Moscow for moving the capital to St. Petersburg, our guide said that this statue may not have found a permanent home. With the end of our tour in Moscow, we’ve come to a full circle. This was our last day in Moscow, and tomorrow, we will be heading back to America, our homeland. Looking back, it definitely has been a long journey, but we still can not believe how fast the time has gone. It has truly been a dream trip for us and we could not have scripted it any better. We are sad that the journey has come to an end, but we are happy at the thought of returning to see our families and friends. Although this trip may have ended, we are excited to know that we have also gained many wonderful friends around the world. On this trip, more than anything, through the blessing of our new found friends and by the touch of angels everywhere, we also came full circle in finding ourselves and realized how precious our relationship is to each other.
Thanks for following our blog and our journey. I am sure that we will be looking back at our own blog, from time to time, to remind ourselves of how blessed we were to have gone through this life changing experience.
