Reminiscences 2025
From the Baltic countries we sailed to St. Petersburg. Where memory serves twenty years later, the blur is of palaces and museums that I would see again. But never enough. St. Petersburg is full of the old (but not the oldest) 
and some of the richest sites in Russia. The sumptuous palaces which serve as reminders of wealth beyond dreams; the Summer Palaces which now houses the Hermitage Museum. That world-class edifice with 
world-class holdings, initially the private collection of the Romanovs, added to by confiscation from wealthy Russians. Two days was enough to skim the surface–this was, after all–one of those pompous pretentious capitals (17 
something to 1920s?), though much was destroyed during the seige in World War II (and rebuilt). We saw, from my pictures, the standards. We did make it out to the Peterhof, happily.
Helsinki I remember as cool and raining. Appropriately, we heard Sibelius Finlandia, 
composed while Finland was part of Russia. The brief visit downtown showcased Scandinavian design and some wonderful shops. And the magnificent Evangelical Lutheran Helsinki Cathedral.