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More delights in St Petersburg

I have problems with my camera.  I can't get it to switch off the flash.  In some buildings you are not allowed to use flash. Fortunately my travelling companion is a keen photographer so when we went to The Hermitage in the Winter Palace I could safely leave the photography to her.  This meant that I could soak up the atmosphere and impress upon myself that many Tsar's had actually stood and walked in these highly splendid rooms. I also thought of the four daughter's of the final ill-fated Tsar.  Were they allowed to play and run about amongst all this opulence? It is questions like that they make one appreciate the experience of sharing the same space but not the same time as these figures of history. St Petersburg is not ancient ( settled in the  early eighteenth century),but it was the main residence of the Tsars from Peter I onward. He chose it for his base because it is strategically placed with an exit to the Baltic Sea.  Once he had established the city he built up a navy of many ships which he had not been able to do before this.

Above a view from a canal in St Petersburg

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