A Walk Along Nevsky Prospekt

This is the "main drag" of St. Petersburg beginning at Admiralty Square across from the Hermitage and extending through the city. We walked it as far as Uprising Square starting at the English Embankment. (The pedometer reported that this was about 7 miles round trip!) It was a fascinating afternoon as we poked in and out of stores and historic spots and again we were glad for our Russian visas as others w/o them could not leave the ship unescorted.
The first picture is of Kazan Cathedral. It looks better in the picture than real life and after once serving as the Museum of Atheism now I think a Russian Orthodox Church. We started out with down jackets and rain coats....the afternoon warmed and so it was pleasant when in the sun. As you can see from the second picture, they are just beginning to plant annuals mid June. Winters are harsh. Besides being dark for many months there is much snow.
Of special interest was Stockmans Department Store! We had stopped in at Stockmans in Helsinki, a wonderful store with a huge underground grocery and specialty store. And so we wanted to know what a Russian Stockmans was like! The upper floors reminded me of Macy's and the lower floor was just about as amazing as the Helsinki store. There were many shoppers filling their grocery carts with just about anything we could buy at home or elsewhere in the world from specialty meats to caviar of Heinz catsup!
We even found a huge cooler filled with Driscolls strawberries, raspberries and blueberries!