St. Petersburg Day 1 - Wandering

We arrived at the hotel in City #3 a little after 3:00.  It's a Marriott this time, which feels pretty comfortable and familiar.  We savor we the wifi for a few minutes, then headed out to explore the city.

We found the Mariinsky Theatre where their new theater, the Mariinsky II, just barely opened.  As you can see, they built the new complex right over some of the old buildings:

The green building barely in the frame on the left is the original Mariinsky, which is still in use. In fact, we picked up tickets to the opera there tomorrow night!

We wandered the city for a while seeing buildings like these:

They are grand and comfortably European-looking.

Mom found an Italian restaurant near Nevsky Prospect on TripAdviser and we all agreed that some familiar comfort food with a bit more flavor than the usual Russian meal sounded just right.  Here's the parade of dishes:

It was delicious!

Fortified and hydrated, we continued down the Prospect to where you can see  the Church on Spilled Blood:

"I want to go to there," Dad said.  So we did:

We got there after closing and just in time to get caught in a downpour, but we'll be back!

(Ah, rain hair!)