Random Russia

[95 Z/28 LT1]

Spent a week in Russia, last time there is was February and -20F. Much nicer visit this time. I'll need to go back every other month or so.

The car culture in St. Petersburg is great. Ferraris parked on the sidewalk, street bikes riding wheelies away from stop lights. More AMGs and BMWs than you can count, and lots of stuff that you will not see as much in other places.





































At dinner, nice view of the Kazan Cathedral's Dome.











E63 AMG. Had the rear seats folded down and a dirty ass push mower stuffed in there




G63 AMG w/Perfromance Package



This is like halfway down the escalator to the metro. It's at least 6 or more normal escalator lengths - maybe 10... I guess people spent a lot of time deep down in the ground during the war.

Stopped in for some quick negotiations.







Statue to honor the shipbuilders.

[95 Z/28 LT1]

A few more.


New Porsche Macan Turbo



A random Lada



I started calling this the love machine. Has Baileys and Amaretto options for the coffee.

[The Man]

My boss just picked up one of those new Porsche SUV's. .nice ride.



Great pics. I'd love to visit Russia, the wife too. Especially Moscow.

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[95 Z/28 LT1]

A random Volga.











RACING






The price of premium gasoline works out to about $4 per gallon. Half as much as most of the rest of Europe. I think it's a big part of what helps the car culture here.

[soap]

St. Pete is a great area, lots of history, wish I was able to spend more than a week there. Volgograd is a cool area too, Moscow was a little to "touristy" for me.

--Joe

[Killjoy]

I spent a few days in St. Petersburg in 2012 as well - was awesome - very European feel (and many hot women all over the place!).

[DRAG-ULA]

Wow cool pics. Thank you for sharing!!

[LTLHOMER]

Sweet pics! We didn't get a chance to hit up St. Petersburg but we spent a few days in Moscow and the rest of our two weeks about 5-6 hours east in a city called Arzamas (and cities around that). Our trip to Volograd (formerly Stalingrad) was nixed when bombs started going off there which literally happened while we were in Moscow (we were there late Dec to mid January).

Big city Russia is VERY different than what I dubbed "real Russia" which I'd describe as how/where the bulk of Russians live. It's definitely cool to see both but the latter will make you feel really lucky to be living in the US.

They all know how to drink though.

[95 Z/28 LT1]

Was back again a while ago and didn't upload, so here goes. Gotta go back next week for a couple days so should be able to grab more photos.


Bunch of concert signs.





St. Petersburg Metro map





The Mercedes G class is hugely popular here. I see more of these when in Russia than all the rest of the places I have been combined.



Same thing for the X6. Many of these around.








A place we ate dinner at - it's supposed to be authentic old school Russian fare in a lodge kind of setting. Not sure on the Russian name for this.








A look at the menu for their traditional vodkas.

























One evening we went on a river cruise up the Neva river and out to the Baltic Sea. I didn't get a shot of the boat we were on but it was pretty big with 3 levels. I'm standing on the back. Really fun time.













The squared off building on the far right with the antenna is the St. Petersburg KGB headquarters.





Close up shot.



A bad photo of The Aurora cruiser. It was built in 1900 and has a lot of history. Highlight is it fired the first shot of the revolution in 1917.

[95 Z/28 LT1]

In the summer in St. Petersburg the sun doesn't really go down for long, they call the peak time White Night. We were out on Friday night after the cruise really late to take it in as there are tons of people out drinking and hanging out. This is about 1:00AM










One of the things people like to do is walk to the Neva and watch the bridge go up and let all the ships through. It's a really big deal there.




















Church of the savior on spilled blood. It's where Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. Really an incredible place as you'll see.










The entire inside of the building is like one giant piece of art. Nearly everything is detailed mosaic.

















Here's a good example. One shot with standing back to get perspective.





And now a close-up of how each picture is constructed. The artists often made their own tiles and pieces. each one is about the size of a fingernail.


















Actual site where Alexander II was mortally wounded before the church was built. The stones are from the old cobblestone street.















St. Isaac's Cathedral. An absolutely incredible piece of architecture. Those are full-size tour busses at the bottom of the picture.





There are detailed sculptures and art like this all over it.





Here's a model they have on display inside that shows how some of the building was constructed. It took 40 years to build (1818-1858) and used a lot of novel methods to build that they had to develop themselves.





The cathedral is over 300 feet high and each portico column weighed 114 tons.



A couple shots from the inside: