Our group of 13 have a delicious seafood lunch at Bangpra. I enjoy eating 2 steamed crabs. We stop at "Krue Or" to buy some Thai desserts.

Some of the foods that the inland tour operator provided for our group during May 5 - 13, 2006.

Russian girls in Indian outfit???

Decoration on the street.

Arbat street

The Arbatskaya Metro Station
The last place that we visit for this trip before heading to the airport is the famous shopping street of Moscow, Arbat.

The Log cottage of Peter the Great
The cottage was built in 1702 in the St. Mark Island in the mouth of the northern Dvina River near Archangelsk. Peter the Great lived there for 2.5 month while supervising the construction of the Novodvinsk fortress located on the riverbank opposite the island. The cottage was delivered to Kolomenskoye in 1934.

Inside the Kolomenskoye territory.

Around the Kolomenskoye Park.
We arrive to Moscow in the morning and go to Kolomenskoye Park, waiting to visit the Kolomenskoye museum.

Inside the train station for train from St. Petersburg to Moscow, 8-hours journey.

The SS Peter and Paul Cathedral
Inside the Peter and Paul Fortress is the cathedral where the Russian Emperors and members of the royal family are buried.

The Samson Fountain – Samson tearing the mouth of a lion
It is an allegory of the crucial victory won by the Russian troops over the Swedish army at Poltava in 1709.

The idea is to lay a formal park on the shore of the Gulf of Finland as a memorial to Russia’s triumph on the sea belonged to Peter the Great himself.

Peterhof
Peterhof is a summer residence of the Russian Emperors. The palace and park ensemble was planned by Peter the Great as the official sea coast residence of the Russia Tsars.

View of the Aurora Cruiser from the hotel

The Pavlovsk Palace
The royal hunting estate on the banks of the Slavianka River was given by Catherine the Great to her son, Paul, the would-be Emperor.

The Grotto Pavilion

Some parts of the palace was redecorated in Catherine the Great period, reflecting her style.

These porcelain furnances throughout Catherine Palace were so necessary, probably even in summer. Boiling water circulated through the pipes inside them and somehow effectively heated the rooms.

The State (Throne) Room in Catherine Palace

The most famouse room in the palace is Amber Chamber. Walls are covered with pure amber plates of more than 500 colours. During WWII it was unmounted by Nazy and dissapeared. However, it is not allowed to take pictures in this room.

Tsarskoye Selo, lying some 16 miles south of St Petersburg in the small town of Pushkin. The great blue, white and gold palace stands in parkland of some 1400 acres, which is divided into the Catherine Park and the Alexander Park. The palace itself was built on the site of a Finnish manor Saari-mois which Peter the Great had presented to his wife, Catherine, in 1710. On their deaths the entire property was left to their daughter, Tsarina Elizabeth Petrovna, who had spent a good deal of her childhood here.

The Catherine Park is a wonderful work of the Russian art of gardening from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Mi, Pe Pibul and Khun Pom at Nevsky Prospekt

Public toilet along the sidewalk as well.

Café on the side walk

The Cathedral of the Resurrection with the central tent-shaped tower; domes and the cupola of the bell-tower.

The cathedral was put up on the site where the 63-year-old Emperor Alexander II was mortally wounded by the terrorist who exploded a hand-made bomb. The emperor died ont the same day in the Winter Palace. To commemorate the 26-year reign of the Tsar, who entered the history of Russia as the "Liberator" of peasants from serfdom, and to redeem the sin of regicide, this nine-domed cathedral commonly known as "Our Saviour-on-the Spilt-Blood" was built for funds raised by people's donations.

The Rostral Column

The State Hermitage

It is one of the oldest and the largest museums of the world, founded in 1764. The museum is situated in 5 historic buildings including the Winter Palace - the residence of the Russian Tsars.

The Admiralty

The Admiralty glorify the heroism of Russian sailors and of Peter the Great as the creator of St. Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Navy and the trade fleet.

An Equestrian Monument to Emperor Nicholas I

St. Isaac's Cathedral

The cathedral and square are named in honour of St. Isaac of Dalmatia whose feast day is on 30 May, the date when the birthday of Peter the Great is celebrated.

Monument to the poet Alexander Pushkin infront of the Russian Museum

The Smolny Cathedral

Our first stop of St. Petersburg city tour is at the Cathedral.

In a 2nd class sleeping train from Moscow to St. Petersburg. 4 beds per room.

Old traditional dress of royalty??

Kremlin at Rostov

The Kremlin involves ancient buildings: the Prince's Chambers, the Metropolitan's House, Cathedral of the Assumption with the five churches built in the XVII century, eleven towers and other buildings. All these buildings are surrounded by massive walls with crossings about one km. long. The Kremlin was never supposed to protect the town; its main function was to be the residence of the local head of church. So it was skillfully decorated, rather than fortified.

We come back to stay another night in Suzdal.

View of the Monastery of Our Savior and St. Euthimius from the hotel in Suzdal. We don't have a chance to see inside the fortress.

It was founded in the XIV century at the northern edge of Suzdal as a fortress to defend the town from the external and internal enemies. The Monastery's mighty walls with twelve watchtowers stretch for almost 1,5 kilometers.

Monument to Ilya Muromets.

Murom is a historic city in Vladimir Oblast which sprawls majestically along the left bank of Oka River, about 300 km east of Moscow. Its history goes back over almost 1100 years. It was a home town of the most celebrated East Slavic epic hero, Ilya Muromets, who is worshiped by the Russian Orthodoxy and who personifies the strong spirit of a Russian man.

The Monastery of the Annunciation was founded in 1553 by the tsar Ivan IV the Terrible. By the legend it is located on the site wooden palace church of the Prince Konstantin who baptized Murom.

Inside the Convent of the Trinity

Today we visit the Monastery of Our Savior in Murom.

The monastery of Our Savior is the most ancient in the North-Eastern Russia. According to a legend it is situated on the site of the first wooden church of Our Savior built in Murom by the St Prince Gleb in the beginning of the XI century.

Wooden church at the museum of Russian wooden architecture and the peasant's mode of life.

The museum recreates a Russian village with a long street, wooden houses, a church, which was the center of public life of the village and auxiliary structures built rather far from the living houses.

Suzdal View

The town is called a "pearl" of the Golden Ring of Russia with well-preserved architectural ensemble of the town, its old planning, abundance of monuments and museums, absence of industry and virgin nature.