Once the Peter and Paul Fortress was capable of defending the delta of the Neva River, Peter the Great began his grand project of the westernization of Russia by creating a European city on the banks of the Neva. It is said that over 200,000 Russian serfs – effectively, slaves – died while dredging, channelizing … Continue reading →

St. Petersburg was founded in 1703 in a swampy area on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Finland by Peter Alexeyevich of the house of Romanov, Tsar of Russia, known to history as Peter the Great (1672-1725). To defend his new city from the Swedes, with whom he was at war from 1700 to … Continue reading →

We spent our first day in St. Petersburg resting and relaxing in and around the hotel. After all, there was a Nespresso machine in our room and we could have stayed at the breakfast buffet in the hotel until time for a midnight snack. Breakfast was included with the room and was incredible (who ever … Continue reading →

Our taxi ride from Pulkovo Airport to our hotel in the city center of old St. Petersburg took about 1/2 hour. On the way, we passed the Grand Hotel Europe where we stayed for a few days in 2002 when we visited this city with Dale’s mom. The final several blocks of the ride down … Continue reading →

I always knew that the Kremlin was a place and I assumed it was a particular building in Moscow, perhaps the residence of the Russian (or Soviet) Head of State, like our White House is the residence of our President. I was wrong; it is much more than that. According to Encyclopedia Brittanica, a “kremlin” … Continue reading →

On our second full day in Moscow, I went on the Soviet Moscow walking tour with my guide, Joel, who I suspect is one of the few Mexican-Russians in Moscow. Our destination was outside of the city center about 6 miles to the north. Our first stop was the Cosmosnauts Alley, Monument to the Conquerors … Continue reading →

Not wasting any time in Moscow, we went on our first tour after dinner: 3 hours in the Moscow Metro (Моско́вский метрополите́н). Dale arranged all our tours through Happy Moscow Tours and we were lucky enough to have Ludmila as our tour guide on two occasions: the Moscow Metro; and, the Kremlin (in her other … Continue reading →

We had a noon flight to Moscow, Russia, so we only had time in the morning for breakfast and packing – not going to be needing those biking shorts anymore on this trip. We were flying on the Russian government-owned airline, Aeroflot (Аэрофлот in Cyrillic), one of the oldest airlines in the world, having been … Continue reading →