Amazing was all we could say most of the time as we spent 3 days touring St. Petersburg. The City is absolutely beautiful! We had a great tour guide, who was fun to be with and extremely informative. Since it was just 6 of us she could share all the details of what we were seeing plus tell us a lot about life in Russia. So we learned a lot, and really got an appreciation of everything they have been through as a country, and the their perceptions of the changes since the end of the Soviet regime.

Most of the sites we saw, including this one, Catherine's Palace, have not been completely restored since WWII, but the parts they have restored are absolutely beautiful--and our overall impressions of St. Petersburg were its amazing beauty and the incredible wealth of the royal families and other nobility. It was verrrry good to be a rich person here.

Today we are in Helsinki--a little 'toured out', so we just made a quick trip into the city to look around. Tonight we start out for Germany.

Having a wonderful time!!

Susan