ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
Being here in Russia is an awesome experience for me.  Back in "the day" visiting any communist country was not possible.   And of all those countries,  Russia was the most impossible.   I suppose  that was because Russia was the heart of communism.   But now, as tensions between us and them have eased off a bit, we have entered into a new relational Era...not to mention I am no longer attached to the military...more than 45 years now.
   St Petersburg is a city rich in history, where Czars ruled with an iron fist and built palaces and monuments for themselves with no expense speared.   There are more palaces than a person would be able to fully see in a lifetime.  Huge rooms decorated with rare paintings, gold, jewels and precious stones, exquisite woodworking on walls and floors, enormous solid marble columns weighing several tons and decorations enough in almost every room to make your jaw drop.  Much of this vast fortune was mined from Russia's Ural Mountains.  Much if the early history was about Peter The Great and Catherine The Great.
   We spent two  days touring a portion of these famous palaces and churches that literally dripped with gold.  Anna, our tour guide, a short, gray haired Russian lady, a citizen of St Petersburg, was an encyclopedia of knowledge.  I have never known a fellow codger with so much knowledge.  She talked for two days, almost non-stop, spouting names, dates, background and bits of information that gave one full insight into Russian history.  She said she has been leading tours for 25 years.   Before that she taught Art in school.    
   Anna knew a lot about Catherine the Great.  Paintings of her showed she was a plain looking woman,  very short in stature and built like a Dirrigable.   Little is known of her many husbands...Anna thought maybe 23.  It seems as if she could only tolerate one for about a year (or in some cases,  the other way around, I presume).  As she was in power for 23 years, her husbands could have numbered that many.  Whenever she grew tired of one, he would soon find himself banished to Siberia, never to return, although she was kind enough to set him up with a bag full of money.  So she did have a good heart...well, part of it anyway.
   Anna said that because she was short like Catherine the Great, we could call her, Anna the Great!  Makes sense!
   Two days of Anna's lectures of Russian History, of identifying every building along every street we went, how the streets got the it names and everything we saw that Peter the Great designed or built from canals, roads and buildings to ships.
   We are Palaced out of our minds!!!