St Petersburg the real city of churches

I am from Adelaide and they call it the city of churches. Somehow, I think whoever thought of that title never went to St Petersburg. Within 2 km of each other are the 2 most amazing churches I have seen. Yesterday was St Isaac's cathedral and today we went for a walk to The Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood. This church was built on the site where Alexander II was mortally wounded in 1881.

A temporary shrine was built over the location and construction of the main church started in 1883 and was completed in 1907 with the original shrine still inside the church.

All of the images are made of mosaics and each stone is its natural colour. The church is undergoing some restoration work on the spire and a lot of restoration has already been done.

At 2.00 PM we were transferred from the hotel to the ship by coach. The travel director on the coach had a thick Russian accent, which coupled with the average PA system, made it difficult to understand a lot of what she said. Some things need no explanation though. Once onboard, we were greeted with caviar and vodka in the Tzar Bar, followed by a birch juice. When we returned to the cabin my suitcase was sitting outside the door but Ann's was nowhere to be seen. We eventually find the suitcase 2 hours later and the reason it was delayed. Note to self, make sure the name on the bag tag matches the name on the tickets for boarding.

Orientation went well followed by a 3 course dinner. Everything is sounding good so far. The evening view from the boat is quite spectacular as well.