Today's afternoon is the town of Yaroslavl, one of the oldest towns in Russia, founded in 1010 (yep, just missed the millennium celebration). Today the city has a population of 650,000 working mostly with oil refining and rubber tire manufacturing. The most amazing sight, in my opinion, was the Church of Elijah the Prophet. Built in 1650, this church has amazing frescoes, as Ernest's pictures capture I think. We listened to a male quartet sing in a small chapel that was really amazing. In addition, we were here on Friday, and as we had learned previously in our Russian tradition discussion, most weddings occur on Friday so they have the whole weekend to celebrate. As such, we saw several bridal couples and Ernest had to photograph them. Also, as a tradition, if the crowd yells "gorda" ... read more

Today we traveled outside St. Petersburg to the town of Pushkin to see Catherine the Great's summer palace. From there we went onto Peterhof, Peter the Great's summer palace that is called the Versailles of Russia. Pushkin, Catherine's summer palace, actually dates back to Peter the Great when he gave it to his wife Catherine I. Their daughter, Elizabeth, ordered it expanded from 14 rooms to 300 rooms and each room, like the Hermitage (winter palace) was gilded in gold. This is the place of the famous Amber Room. The room is completely covered in various types of amber. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures in there. The original amber was given by the King of Prussia to prevent a war but during the removal of art in WWII the original amber was stolen ... read more

We arrived fine but tired in St. Petersburg yesterday. However, the boat has no internet and my iPad can't pick up a 3G signal. We are visiting the Hermitage today and Ernest and I slipped away from the group to hit the internet cafe and send this message.....also for me to check the UGA score from yesterday, sounds like a heartbreaker! I will be keeping notes daily on what we see and do and we'll send pictures and notes out when we get back to the states. Again, if you prefer not to be on my distribution, just let me know. It's no problem. ... read more

Here are some wedding pictures from our photographer... read more

It's Over! We had a beautiful day at the castle. It was windy but the only day this week it didn't rain and there was sun. We were picked up at the hotel by a 1946 Rover. The driver had to wait a bit cause we having a bit of trouble getting those weird laces to stay tied on the shoes Ernest was wearing. It was so cool riding in this car out to the castle. Ernest can tell more about the car details cause he's into that stuff, but it was cool. We arrived at the castle and our videographer and photographer were capturing every moment. I gave in and let Ernest bring his camera but he was under strict instructions not to touch it till after the ceremony. We walked down the long path ... read more