Chilling in St Petersburg...

... in more ways than one - it's baltic today (I'd reckon below zero with the wind chill) but it's clear and beautiful.

The city is built at a fairly low level - after the Hermitage was completed at three storeys, it was decreed that this was the perfect height for a building, and nothing in the city could be built higher. The streets are wide, and many of the buildings appear to be the original c19th fronts, which is pretty impressive given the battering it received during the war.

The feel is, as many have no doubt said before me, very european - it reminds me most of Amsterdam, with its network of canals and islands. My favourite part is the Church of the Spilled Blood, so named because it was built on the spot where Alexander II, the reforming Tsar of the c19th, was assassinated - one of those great "what would have happened if..." moments in history. I think the turquiose and green domes are even more striking than the domes of St Basil's in Moscow, though perhaps St Basil's suffers from having rather impressive neighbours!