St. Petersburg - The Other Half (or the 99%)

Tuesday, 25 September - Thursday, 27 September, 2018

I'm taking a break here from palaces - not everything in St. Petersburg is worthy of the tsars. Here is a selection of "everyday" St. Petersburg sights.

A panoramic view of the Neva River from our ship, docked at the passenger pier on the southeast outskirts of St. Petersburg.

This new bridge, the Bolshoy Obukhovsky Bridge, on the ring road around St. Petersburg, is the only bridge in St. Petersburg high enough to allow ships to pass underneath without requiring a drawbridge. All the other bridges in St. Petersburg are drawbridges that open about 1 AM to allow ship traffic through the city. The Metro also shuts down about this time, effectively eliminating any other passage across the Neva until 5 or 6 AM, when the Metro opens and the bridges are closed to allow the traffic to flow again.

We continued to see many barges carrying logs along the river.

It was hard to get a photo, but we saw a number of these garage complexes. Originally built for apartment block dwellers to have a space for their cars, many (most?) have been converted into independent workshops/businesses.

I'm not sure what he was doing, but clearly this worker dangling on a building near the Hermitage was prepared to handle significant repairs.

The newer apartment blocks are much more attractive than the old Soviet-style concrete boxes.

Another apartment block on the Neva River.

Even boxy apartment complexes can have interesting variations.

This fancifully painted building was near the passenger pier.