St Petersberg

Today we arrived in this amazing city at the edge of the Baltic , formerly known as Leningrad. It was a very structured visit ...2 days , no going ashore unless on an organised excursion , immigration officials etc but what an amazing place. The outskirts are all high rise flats and very much what you'd expect but the city centre is SO opulent! All coloured buildings, gold paintwork and statues , interspersed with shops ( everything from Gucci to BurgerKing) and canals. This was the Church of the Spilled Blood ....Russian Orthodox and incredibly coloured inside with tiled mosaics. We also got completely drenched in the heaviest thunderstorm I've seen in years :) all in all a memorable day.
I have uploaded some other photos here to Flickr ..https://www.flickr.com/photos/131188519@N05/19943047672/in/dateposted-public/