Gruenhundstrasse

большой (Say it "bol'shoy") means "Great" in Russian!

No, this is not a mistake. This is not Egypt. This is actually in Russia. This sphynx once stood on the Alley of Sphinxes in front of the tomb of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, but after its discovery was brought to St. Petersburg, Russia, in the 1830s.

Just below it is a gryphon that you are supposed to rub for good luck. We got so much good luck. This is going to be a great blog post.

For starters, this is the St. Isaacs Cathedral.

In places you can still see where chunks on the columns were blown away during World War II.

It is the largest Orthodox basilica in the world.

Of all the statues of men on horses (and you know we've seen a lot), this one is my favorite.

The statue is of Peter the Great, founder of St. Petersburg. It was erected by his granddaughter, Catherine II (the Great) of Russia. I hear they were both pretty great.

Here are a bunch of boats stuck through the middle of a pole. This is actually a lighthouse.

On the citadel island where Peter the Great first founded the city, inside the Fortress of Peter and Paul is the Peter and Paul Cathedral, built by.......Peter the Great!

This place is great!

Even though this looks like the interior of a Roman Catholic Cathedral, it is actually Eastern Orthodox. Peter the Great was always building things in the Western styles, and hired architects from Europe.

Here is a bust of Peter....the Great. And his sarcophagus.

All the Romanovs from Peter the Great to Alexander III are buried here (minus 2).

Even Tsar Nicholas II and his family who were executed in the Russian Revolution were re-buried here after they found their remains.

So here's a funky-looking church. When we got there Kieran said, "This isn't a church! It's a fun house!"

It is called the Church on the Spilled Blood, since it was built by Alexander III, as a memorial to his father, Alexander II, who was assassinated on the spot where the church was built.

Overall, I think it's a pretty great church.

Great enough that Kieran wanted to take a jumping picture in front of it.

So great, even my Mom wanted to take a picture in front of it.

But if you want something REALLY great, let me tell you about Pirogi.

This is pirogi. They are a Russian food thing that is basically like a pastry pie filled with whatever the heck you want.

We tried ground beef, blueberry, apple, egg & onion, sweet cheese, and plum. Clearly, they were all great. We finished them off and then got seconds.

After lunch we went to this really great museum, called the Hermitage. It is inside of what used to be a Romanov Palace, the Winter Palace.

It has the largest collection of paintings in the world, collected by Catherine (the Great.)

We did not get to see all of them. But we did see the palace, itself.

It's pretty great! Check out these wood floors!

This is a throne room dedicated to ~~Kieran King Otter~~ Peter the Great.

Look at these ceilings! Aren't they great?

They had some pretty great sculptures.

This is Palace Square.

It is a historically important place, since it is where the imperial guards of Nicholas II fired upon a crowd of peaceful demonstrators who were delivering a petition to the Tsar on what is known as Bloody Sunday. (No, that's not a Vampire dessert...)

It was later the site of the start of the Russian Revolution of 1917, when the Bolshevics captured the Winter Palace.

Here are our tour guides. They were pretty great!

They taught us some Russian.

спасибо (say it "Spacibo") means "Thank you" in Russian! So, спасибо for reading my blog!

It's been........GREAT!

"Tere" is how you say "Hello" in Estonian!

From Copenhagen we hopped on a cruise ship, the Costa Luminosa, for two weeks of non-stop fun. The first week we spent visiting the Baltic Capitols, and the second week was the Norwegian Fjords.

We docked one day in Tallin, Estonia. Tallin has a cute little old town with old city walls and fortifications, churches, cobblestone roads, and embassies!

The first thing we did was climb the tallest building in the WORLD. (Well, from 1549 - 1625, that is...) It is a whopping 159 meters tall! (522 feet.) It is called St. Olaf's church. Here is the view of Tallin from the top.

This is the Parliament of Estonia. It used to be the Toompea Castle.

Here is the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. It is an Eastern Orthodox Cathedral, and built during the time when Estonia was part of the Soviet Union.

You can tell because of the traditional Russian domes on the top.

Fancy Mosaic on the front...

Another dome...

And look what we found! The German Embassy!

Here is some of the wall of the old city.

We walked down the cute little streets and enjoyed the shops and flowers.

We even bought some ice cream .

If you know what flag this is, it's going to be the next place on this blog post!

That is right! (or wrong, depending on what you answered...)- That was the Finnish Embassy in Tallin.

And so here we are in Finland! We went to the central market, called the "Kauppatori." There was a ton of stuff for sale - including freshly-caught fish, flowers, baked goods, fruits, vegetables, and berries!