Saint Petersburg (short: SPb, Russian: Санкт-Петербург) is a city of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. It is informally known as Piter (Пи́тер). SPb is the northernmost city of the world with over one million people. SPb is often described as the most Westeuropean city of Russia. From 1924 to 1991, in honor of Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union, the city was called Leningrad (Ленинград).
Quite a busy little harbor. I love the taxi ferries. It seems a delightful way of getting from one city to another; and I notice there is also a lovely cruise liner in the background. I was amazed at the number of international cruise liners on the river from St. Petersburg to Helsinki which Lara had photographed on her recent trip to Helsinki. It appears the cruise liners are doing exceptionally well during this time of economic chaos.
The harbour of St. Petersburg is an important access of Russia to the Baltic Sea. It is the most important port of Russia for the transportation of goods of Eastern Europe and the whole North Asian region. The number of container ships is therefore much higher than the number of ferries. Unfortunately I have no pictures of Petersburg harbour. Maybe we should ask Lara to shoot some photos of the large docks ;o)))
I will definitely ask Lara to get me a few photos of the large container docks. I believe there were one or two in the photos she took as she embarked upon her cruise to Helsinki. The port from which she left, however, appeared to be all ferries and ocean liners. She sent me some fascinating photos of her cruise. Among them was how the locks operate. Even though I've seen a number of locks--including here in Ottawa--I never knew how they operated. She photographed the procedure from beginning to end. I was quite intrigued. There were a number of container barges on her Helsinki trip. In fact, there was one directly behind her ocean liner in the lock. At first, I thought the barge was going to be in the rear lower deck of her ship. There is no room--in any direction--for anyone to change their mind or make a navagational error. Lara always tries to get photos for me each week. With the extreme heat, humidity and storms Russia's been experiencing the past few weeks, it's been difficult.
Please wait...
