St. Petersburg Addendum

We forgot to mention a few things…

St. Petersburg addendum:

Here are a couple of items that we forgot to mention.

 

Several guides mentioned that St. Petersburg has about 60 sunny days a year.    We were fortunate to have clear weather in Moscow, but it poured on the rest of the ship that stayed back in St. Petersburg.   We brought sunny weather back with us from Moscow, and had a clear day the last day in St. Petersburg.  It is beautiful here in Helsinki, breezy, like an early fall day.

When we have been doing tours we have been given little radio receivers with headphones.  The guides have a transmitter so they can speak softly in all kinds of settings and crowds, and we can hear them when we are up to 50 feet away, so we don’t have to huddle around trying to hear what they are saying, brilliant.

We also forgot to mention the weddings in St. Petersburg, and a couple we saw in Moscow.    Most weddings take place during the three months of relatively warmish weather.  After the ceremony/registration the wedding party heads out to have pictures taken at various sites, all dressed up in their lovely dresses and suits.  Many pop the cork on bottles of champagne as well.  We saw probably a dozen brides and grooms in St. Petersburg at parks, on bridges and at palaces. We overheard someone say that one couple had their photo taken on the white line down the middle of a busy street.  They were at all the great sites, frequently via a stretch limo that costs $150 hour, with one or more photographers.  It was fun seeing them everywhere.