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| Here is Daddy doing a handstand, almost spilling some blood himself! Good thing he didn't or we'd have to build him a monument too! |
Yesterday we went to Saint Petersburg Russia! One of my favorite sites was the Church on the Spilled Blood. You might think that that is a weird name, but it is actually named after Tsar Alexander the second, because his legs got blown off by a bomb in a terrorist attack on March 1, 1881, at that place and he bled to death. There is also a statue of Alexander II in Helsinki on Senate Square in front of the big cathedral. The church is also known as the Church of the Resurrection of Christ. The church was started by Alexander the third in memory of his father. The funds were provided by the imperial family and private donations but the money was stolen by a member of the tsars family so it took 24 years to build the church. It took from 1883 till 1907 to finish.
This is a another Handstand shot, (it is a bit better than Daddys!) with the Church on Spilled Blood in the background. and the other is a picture of all of us, all upright!
We figured out that those domes on the top are called onion domes. The bright colours are made of jewelers enamel.
On the left is a picture of a wedding with the Church on Spilled Blood in the background, and on the right is a picture of the wedding couple holding doves and they let them go.
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| This is a picture of a bridge where people have placed all different kinds of locks. |
On Daddy's "first" hand stand he didn't really even make it up to hand stand.
ReplyDeleteInteresting handstand by daddy. Appears to be getting some needed assistance from mummy.
ReplyDeleteThe Church of spilled blood!?!??! Now why does it not surprise me Jaybob that you found the most "bloody" of the sites the most fascinating. Were you able to get to the State Hermitage Museum? They have a spectacular collection of Italian renaissance painting as well as Oriental Art. I think that and the Museum of Non Conformist Art would top of my list when in St. Petersburg:-) Uncle Crabby and I have seen the lock bridge many times on our travels. It seems to be quite the romantic thing to do when traveling to find a bridge over water, lock your love forever and then throw the key into the water. Very symbolic when you realize that water is emotion and its fluidity while the bridge is what we cross as we leave one way of being to transition into another with the one we love. And the lock? well that could be jail or safety depending on the circumstance and the arrangement:-)
ReplyDelete"Church of the Spilled Blood", so what is it called in Russian?
ReplyDeleteIf I may say so, I think Uncle Crabby did a much better handstand at the Louvre than your Dad did in St. Petersburg. Uncle Crabby even had his legs straight.
Looks like it must have been getting cold as you guys were all bundled up with gloves on. How was the Russian food? What was your favourite? Were there any Chinese restaurants in St. Petersburg. It's become an obsession for Uncle Crabby to take photos of Chinese restaurants in faraway places around the world just to prove that there are Chinese people everywhere (or that everyone has a "thing" for Chinese food).