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Late Summer Tour 2004 - St.Petersburg August 19 - 28
That day we had a magnificent boat trip along the canals of St. Petersburg. This city is fairly called "North Venice". The walking along its rivers and canal is a beautiful and interesting trip. Wonderful, often unexpected sights of the famous architectural ensembles are open to you. Frankly speaking, Petersburg should be seen from water - it's difficult to find something more beautiful somewhere.
Straight away after the Saturday social 12 couples and Anastasia staff lead by our guide Natasha took metro to get to Nevsky Prospect where the trip started. The canals are very narrow so that buildings on both sides are well seen. You feel like in museum where bridges and houses are the exhibits. Numerous bridges as we passed under them impressed everybody by their beauty and were masterpieces of architecture. The canals flow into the Neva river and the view here is breathtaking. All the guys took pictures of their ladies and themselves with the Hermitage and Peter and Paul fortress on the background. Tender live music and champagnes added up to the romantic atmosphere.
We were so excited that did not notice two hours pass. Nobody wanted to get back to the hotel and we decided to go and see the Palace Bridge opening. As it was to take place at 1 am we had time for a coffee at the local McDonald’s. We expected the place to be empty except for a few tourist but we were surprised as the place was filled with Russians. Then we headed out to the bridge. We were told there would be hundreds of people. The event took place at 1:35 and there were thousands of people. We staked out our spot and watched the crowd. There were tour busses packed with groups, taxis lined up, families with small children, teenagers, hundreds of boats on the water, there was even a jet ski pulling a tuber. The bridge opened and everyone clapped and whistled. It was real fun!
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