After almost missing everything on Wednesday morning we scrambled to get going. We had enough time to run to get some pastries and coffee for Matt. Our checkout was seamless at customs and immigration this time and met Elena and Vladimir at our 8:00 AM departure time.

Day two didnâ€™t have as much planned. I had predicted that we might have lost a couple of our new Tennessee friends but they were all there, bright eyed and bushy tailed. We found out it was Bill Moserâ€™s, our professor from MIT, birthday. He got a really funny version of Happy Birthday sung to a Russian tune that was familiar but Iâ€™d never know its name.

Our first stop was Catherineâ€™s Palace in Pushkin about 15 miles south of St. Petersburg. We hit a bit of a traffic jam on the way out because of a truck that had basically just snapped in half at the backside of the cab. Another funny thing pointed out by Elena was the new giant St. Petersburg sign that apparently had been built in two days. When they decide to get something done they didnâ€™t mess around.

One monument we passed on the way was the Moscow Triumphant Gate. It was iron and had been painted green. It had been disassembled at least once because Stalin thought it resembled Brandenburger Gate in Berlin too much. We also passed another monument to the victory of the allies in WWII.

On the way to Pushkin we passed a bunch of statues on the side of the road. I told Matt it reminded me a little of driving around Gettysburg. There was one monument of a couple of cannons that were a final point of defense of the Soviet Army.

We arrived at Catherineâ€™s Palace and again itâ€™s just a massive structure. This one had been painted blue with the golden onion domes atop. Matt finally asked how they keep them so shiny. The city has gone enormous renovations over the past years that led up to the cities 300th anniversary in 2003. We were still impressed that the shine still lasted two years later.

We were given a new toy that we also were given at the Spilled Blood Cathedral and later at the Peter and Paul Cathedral. We were given little blue cloth booties to put over our shoes. They werenâ€™t as fancy as the ones in Potsdam but they did the job. These are a real good idea as they save the floors and since the weather is so bad keeps mud out of the churches and palaces.

Catherineâ€™s palace had some huge football sized rooms that were all decorated in gold all over the walls and paintings on the ceiling. This was in the main building in about 90% of the rooms. The throne room was one of the first we entered and it was the biggest of the palace.

The main attraction of Catherineâ€™s Palace was the Amber room. The entire room was made of amber mosaics. Matt said later he thought it was a bit over the top like something Elvis would build. I asked what the difference was between the room of amber and the room of gold. One funny room was made with tin foil lining. Elena explained that when it came out originally it was probably more expensive than amber.

The neat thing about this palace was they had occasional pictures from the destruction brought on by the Germans. Other pictures showed the painstaking efforts put into restoring things to exactly as they were. The walls were all redone after the war but the Russians had taken all furniture and paintings out of the palaces and churches and taken them to Siberia for safekeeping.

As usual when we were about to leave the skies looked like they were going to open up. We made a real quick jaunt through the gardens. They didnâ€™t have the fountains that the Peterhof had mostly because Catherine the Great was afraid of water travel. One thing they did have were two ponds for swans. Elena told us one pond was for black swans and one for white swans. Matt had a bunch of tasteless jokes he was ready to crank off but didnâ€™t due to our new friends from Tennessee. One of them said back home they would all just swim together. Another was wandering how you kept the white swans from the black swans.

We exited the palace and made a real quick stop at Alexanderâ€™s Palace that was still undergoing renovation. This was where Nicholas and Alexandra and their children were held after they were taken prisoners. It was interesting to see the difference between what had been renovated and what had not been renovated.

We went back to the city to take a boat ride through the canals and into the Neva River. On the way we stopped at was planned to be a town hall. It still had a huge statue of Lenin in front so we stopped for a 1-2 minute stop. Down the road some we ran into a major traffic jam due to some work on the drainage canal. Vladimir was at his best again. He turned off the main road and seemed like he was in the middle of nowhere when all of a sudden he was back on the main road past the back up point of the traffic jam.

We reached the city and Elena had us stop at the Peter the Great statue for another bathroom pit stop. I hung on the bus with Tom Newsom and Myers Parsons. They are huge college football fans. Myers son played for Tennessee. I gave them a little bit of a hard time about the Peach Bowl that Maryland beat Tennessee three years ago. Murfreesboro is the home to Middle Tennessee State and apparently they play at Maryland in a couple of years. I told them weâ€™ll have to stay in touch and weâ€™d go to the game.

When everyone finished the pit stop we went around the corner and boarded our canal boat. When we got on board we were given our lunch of one sandwich and one bottle of soda water. Big Tommy and I were the stubborn oneâ€™s who wanted to be on the outside to take pictures. Elena really didnâ€™t want us on the outside deck thinking we werenâ€™t bright enough to duck or come inside to avoid getting hit by the low bridges.

Matt did come to her defense saying it looked like we were going to get knocked into the canal. He changed his mind once he came outside when we got into the river. It was beautiful outside. The Neva River is enormous across in the main section of town. From there you can see St. Isaacâ€™s Cathedral, the Peter the Great Statue, The Hermitage, Peter and Paul Fortress and Cathedral, KGB Headquarters, The Aurora Naval Ship, the Rostral Columns and a bunch of palaces. The Aurora is where they fired a cannon shot that was the signal to start the October Revolution.

Once we got on the river all the men from Tennessee were on the outside back deck. Elena was so worried going out of the canals into the river that she was making announcements over the loud speaker for Wally to be careful. She was saying this as I was inside the boat at this time. She was really nice but she definitely didnâ€™t trust that I could take care of myself for some reason.

There were a couple of women working on the boat selling beer and books. They didnâ€™t seem to be European but were definitely Russian. They were, as Wil said later the first people heâ€™d seen smile the whole two days in St. Petersburg other than Elena and Vladimir. They were amused by my size and I took pictures with them. They didnâ€™t speak Russian but one came over to show Tom and I her family picture of daughter, son-in-law and grand children. Tom reciprocated with his family pictures.

We were on the water for about an hour before heading back to see Vladimir and have him take us to the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Elena tried to worry us again that some people she knew had been pick pocketed. We went over the to the island and went in the church. The cathedral was painted bright yellow with the golden onion domes. Another beautiful church which had the graves inside of former Russian royalty. This included Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, her niece Anna and Nicholas and Alexandra. Nicholas and Alexandra had their own room and the room had six feet tall memorial plaques for all the children including Alexi. Alexi was the youngest child who suffered from hemophilia and was soothed by Rasputin.

I donâ€™t know if I mentioned before but paranoid Elena had set up a code for us to know if a pickpocket was near us. It was just some saying like â€œand the interesting thing about thisâ€