A bridge on the Neva (Troitskiy Bridge?):-

Sampsoniyevskiy Bridge on Bolshaya Nevka, St Petersburg:-

Building and Sampsoniyevskiy Bridge on Bolshaya Nevka:

Weaponry and, below, military vehicles, outside a military museum (of artillery.) Seen through rainy bus windows.

An old sailing ship alongside the Petrovskaya Embankment:-

The same ship from the Kutuzov Embankment across the River Neva. There is what looks to be a mosque in the background here:-

The Cruiser Aurora is now the Russian Navy’s Ship No 1. It’s anchored by the Petrogradskaya Naberezhnaya (Petrograd Embankment) on the Bolshaya Nevka River, an offshoot of the River Neva, in St Petersburg. (The embankment link has a cracking aerial photo.)

The cruiser fired the blank shot which signalled the start of the October Revolution in 1917. It was also one of only three Russian ships to survive the Battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese War.

I was really looking forward to seeing it again. I don’t remember the green paint at the waterline from when I visited in the 1960s, but we did hear someone say it had recently been repainted. It’s looking in very good nick.

Stern of Aurora:-

Saltire:-

Gangplank and public access. There was a big queue at the ticket gate but we had only a short time at the quay anyway before we had to reboard the coach:-

Looking towards bow:-

View showing bow:-

Flag at prow. It looks like a bit like a reconfigured Union Jack. It’s the Jack and fortress flag of the Russian Navy:-

Aurora memorial stone on the quayside:-

The St Petersburg Naval Academy is also on the embankment opposite the Aurora. This statue outside the St Petersburg Naval Academy is of the famous (in Russia) Admiral Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov, for a further picture on the net see here:-

Just round the corner on the the Petrovskaya Embankment was this monument to the three-hundredth Anniversary of the Russian Navy. Cruiser Aurora to right and Naval Academy in background in first picture:-

THe plaza between it and the Naval Academy had a nice fountain. The lamp standards are a good design too:-

I was glad to have gone to St Petersburg in early May. This is the time of year when Russia remembers the great sacrifices it – and the Soviet Union of which it was a part – made during World War 2 (which in Russia is known as the Great Patriotic War.) It is salutary to think that without that sacrifice the war against Germany would have been a much greater struggle for the Western Powers than it was. It is not too great a statement to make that the war in Europe was in fact won by the Soviet Union.

Britain’s contribution to overcoming Nazi Germany is much over-estimated by many in these islands. It really amounted to not losing – or at least not admitting to, and therefore not giving up. From the Normandy landings onwards it was even overshadowed by the US (which of course – British victories at Kohima, Imphal and Burma notwithstanding – won the Pacific War more or less by itself.)

St Petersburg in early May 2019 was covered in banners commemorating the Victory Day in 1945.

1945-2019 Remembrance. (Unfortunately seen through rainy coach windows):-

Corner of Palace Square:-

There are 1941-1945 banners in front of this building in Palace Square:-

Close-up view of banner:-

More banners in Palace Square. (St Isaac’s Cathedral in distance):-

1941-1945 Remembrance Banner, Nevsky Prospekt, St Petersburg:-

There are two Egyptian sphinxes by the banks of the River Neva in St Petersburg. Our tour guide was quite proud of these. They stand on what is known as the Quay of the Sphinxes. It wa sthe first stop on our first tour.

Sphinx Ornamentation:-

The sphinxes are close to the Blagoveshchensky Bridge Over The River Neva:-

Next we stopped to see the Rostral Towers (or Columns) once beacons for St Petersburg’s original port and another symbol of the city:-

This was the big one. I had been to St Petersburg before – when it was Leningrad, on a school cruise back in the heyday of the Soviet Union when we were shown the bullet holes on buildings’ walls still left over from the siege of the city during the Great Patriotic War (as World War 2 is called in those parts) – but my wife hadn’t, and with her interest in Russian history it was a place she had always wanted to see and was the reason we chose to go on this cruise at all.

The city straddles the River Neva (and a bit beyond) which therefore appears in many of our photographs. It is also home to some magnificent architecture, beautiful palaces from the time of the Tsars (in stark contrast to the conditions in which ordinary folk lived, sometimes ten or more to a room in pre-revolutionary days.)

The Winter Palace, St Petersburg, from across River Neva:-

The Winter Palace is part of the famous Hermitage Museum another part of which – along with a couple of ferries – is seen below:-

Other buildings on River Neva frontage-

I got a closer view of the Naval Academy:-

The Peter and Paul Fortress, lies on an island:-

Closer view seen through rainy coach windows:-

I couldn’t get far enough back to get all of this building in. In St Petersburg terms it’s fairly unremarkable:-

A gilded tower in the city centre. (Note saltire flag in blue on white – St Andrew is Russia’s patron saint as well as Scotland’s, besides other countries.)

Riverfront builidings and St Isaac’s Cathedral beyond:-

This building in Tallinn looked impressive from this angle:-

These columns even more so:-

On rounding the corner to the entrance I discovered it’s a cinema, Soprus. Pity about the van in front. Nice wee fountain though:-

We came upon Tallin’s Town Hall circuitously.

First the spire:-

Then from the square:-

The spire on this church was in a similar style to the Town Hall but its crow-stepped gables look very Scottish:-

Spire of Church of St Nicholas:-

The church:-

The onion domes of another church (to right of Church of St Nicholas in the above picture):-

Church of St Nicholas (reverse angle):-

Contrast that with more modern life. Naval ships in Tallin harbour. (MS Magellan to left.):-

A beautifully ornamented building in Tallin, Estonia:-

Another:-

Kulturministerium (Culture Ministry building):-

A set of ornate doors:-

Opera and drama building:-

On his (or her) perch in Tallinn. Street furniture (litter bins anyway) seems to be the same everywhere:-

Fourth stop on the Baltic cruise was Tallinn, the capital of Estonia one of the so-called Baltic States. In modern times it has only been an independent country between the two World Wars and since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The city centre (well, the old town) was a reasonably short walk from the port past an old bastion:-

The streets in the old town retain a traditional feel:-

(Church of St Nicholas to rear here.)

Thee are views of old city walls:-

But beyond this gate a more modern city is evident:-

View through that same gate from the other side:-

And from further away:-

Green-roofed building to the right above:-

And its weather vane:-

Not the Kurhaus just off the beach but one more in the town.

(According to Warnemünde‘s Wiki page on which there is a cracking photograph of the building, Kurhaus = Spa House.)

Everything about this building is stunning and screams Deco. Streamlining, rule of three in columns by the door and lower windows, triangular glazed projection, brickwork, canopies, rounded corner.

The entrance looks like it could be an Art Deco cinema. Streamlining, rule of three in columns by the door and lower windows, triangular glazed projection, brickwork, canopies, rounded corners:-

Opposite Corner View, Kurhaus, Warnemünde. Again, as on the beach, Wellenrausch Restaurant and Cafe. Kurhaus. Paulo Scutaro Ristorante. Hellas Greichische Gastlichnet:-

Side of Kurhaus. Note lamp standards:-

Lamp standard and bandstand to rear of Kurhaus. Also scuplture of female in background:-

Kurhaus from rear:-