Some B&W images to transition us from Novgorod to Peterhof, somewhat of a suburb of St. Petersburg, which was built for Peter I and is.... fit for a Tsar, I guess. It's my favorite area near St. Petersburg.



Still in Novgorod, in an open-air museum of wooden buildings.




Our bus got caught in some sort of traffic from hell on the way back to St. Petersburg. It took us something like 9 hours to go 120 miles. This past weekend 9 hours on a bus got me to Helsinki, and that included two stops for border crossings.




Peterhof.






We got to go on a tour of the 'backstage' workings of the fountains. They work without pumps, or something impressive like that.




A trick fountain that we couldn't figure out how to get to turn on.








This is Peter. If you land some coins on the platform near his spur-heeled boots, something good happens, maybe?




I invented this thing called a "Notpose" that is kind of actually a pose. Two of the people in this photo are pulling it off and one seems to have not grasped the idea.