The second half or our second day in St. Petersburg was spent touring Emperor Paul I’s Palace.  It was much smaller (but still very impressive), than his mother Catherine the Great’s palace that we toured in the morning.  The palace was built on the orders of Catherine for her son in the 18th century.

. This palace too, has undergone extensive restoration to repair all the damage the building sustained during the Second World War.  All of the Imperial residences were victims of wanton destruction by the Nazis during the time of occupation of St. Petersburg. Thankfully, all of these beautiful rooms had been photographed many times so there were ample images to show how they looked.  Most of the art treasures had been removed and hidden as the German army neared the city.

 No neo-classical mansion would be complete without an Egyptian Room.

We were certainly blessed with beautiful weather for our two days in St. Petersburg

. We had a short rain shower near the end of the day and I took the photo on the left below through the wet glass of the bus window.  I kind of like the effect.

Fire Departments are recognizable anywhere.  I think the apartment building (close-ups below) could use some serious renovating.We set sail at 6 o’clock and had a nice view during dinner of several mini-man made islands, which, I am assuming, were created for defense of the harbour.The good weather continued as we sailed overnight to Helsinki, Finland.