Monday, July 18, 2016

St. Petersburg--seeing the sites

I had a lot of trouble sleeping last night--probably only got about 45 minutes.  Anders was able to get a solid 6 hours.  I hope to catch up tonight.  anyways, we rolled out of bed at 5:45 or so and went for a 5+ mile run around the Winter Palace (of Catherine the Great), Hermitage, the Fortress and a bunch of bridges.  We finished it off doing sprints in front of the Winter Palace in the big square there (sprints being a loosely applied term in my case).  Great, super-fun run--I felt pretty darn good...especially with no sleep!

After  breakfast we went for a very long sightseeing session--lots of walking for tired feet.  Anders and I skipped the group lunch and opted for some stir-fry as opposed to some dismal looking hotel food.  We then headed out for 4 more hours of sight-seeing including a cruise on the canals in St. Pete.  A long day, but a lot of cool sights.  My Garmin tells me I've walked 12.2 miles already today so probably some good exercise pre-climb.  Hopefully it will lead to a good sleep tonight.

We are about to head out for a team dinner and then will spend the early day in St. P tomorrow before heading down to Elbrus land tomorrow evening....

Here are some pics from this morning and afternoon...

Anders, wishing I'd leave him be....




On the metro:



At a local market inspecting the goods:



Anders admiring local Russian Orthodox art work:



Down by the water....


Me, hanging with St P's famous good luck Griffins...I think we might be related:


St P looking fine despite the gloom of the day:


Together again on another adventure--couldn't be more happy!


Classic Russian Onion Towers:



Mike and Anders yucking it up on the boat:



Lots of ducking on this cruise!


No comments: