Arrival into St. Petersburg - July 20

Just landed in St. Petersburg. It’s a beautiful day here – its about 7:00 o’clock at night. Everything went off without a hitch – except for a slight delay in New York. Got the bags and we’re on our way to the hotel. The airport was very small surprisingly – I would say that it was no bigger than San Diego airport, maybe even smaller. There are only 4 baggage claim carousels. It’s very nice to see they have alternate signs both in English and in Russian.

We’re on our way downtown to the hotel and we’re passing by lots of buildings and statues. We just passed by a statue of Vladimir Lenin, and the buildings look to be from about 40-60 years old. The city was completely destroyed in World War II. There is still much restoration that is ongoing from the destruction of World War II and the neglect of the Soviet regime. Under the Soviet regime there was of course no recognition of religion, so all the beautiful churches and places of worship were shuttered or neglected, or turned into a museum. Basically the Soviet regime extended between 1917 and 1991. Some of the larger structures were virtually destroyed since World War II.


After we go to the hotel and get cleaned up, we’re going to hit the town because it’s light until very late here. In June, it stays light until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning… and now in July, it will stay light until about 10:30 or 11:30 at night. So we have plenty of light to run around and see things. As we’re driving along, I can see a lot of what look like government buildings. My Russian is very rusty, although I can read it okay.

That’s it for now, will report in later.