a veg life

28 December 2015 St. Petersburg (Pushkin), Russia On Monday, we took a tour to Catherine Palace , about 25 km south of St. Petersburg. The palace is home to the infamous Amber Room , another one of Dad's bucket list items. By his own admission, Dad often says this is one of the subjects he is most well-read about, so we had to see it! Rick had done some research about how to best get to the palace and see it, and booked us a private guide and transport ahead of time. The van picked us up at 9am, and drove us to Pushkin. Our tour guide narrated along the way, pointing out landmarks within the city, Soviet architecture, and other points of interest.  Our first stop in Pushkin was a small Orthodox church, where a service was taking place.  The palace was within walking distance, so we snapped a few photos of the exterior before heading inside. the palace's chapel, still not open to the public the golden gates the palace square morning sun ...

27 December 2015 St. Petersburg, Russia Step Count: 29,701 (12.66 miles) Sunday was Hermitage day--the museum is one of the oldest in the world , opened to the public in 1852. We explored so many different sections of the museum and I took a ton of pictures. I'll let the images do most of the talking in this post!  We stopped for coffee en route to the museum in the morning I wonder how many countries will have a sign with a sentiment like this or similar :)   Rick and I loved the thoughtfulness of the displays, even the design of the items of the street. Very fun.   In front of the Winter Palace, home to the museum  Dad taking photos of the exterior of the building Bucket list item--check!  Rick in the square in front of the museum  Inside the ancient artifacts section The oldest pile carpet in the world. From the 3rd or 4th century BC mosaic tiles from Turkey  I spy an ikat flag in the ...