Daroga na Pushkin (the road to Pushkin)

On a November day in 2004 we took a bus from Sankt Peterburg (Санкт-Петербург) to Pavlovsk, the imperial palace built for Tsar Pavel I. (For a tour by a former curator, click here.) This means taking the road toward the village now called Pushkin after the great Russian writer, though also known as Tsarskoye Selo (Tsar's Village).

The following are not great photos and they are all shot through the rain-spotted windows of the bus. Still, I enjoy them. (In all cases, clicking on the photo, or right-clicking to open in a new window, will give you a much larger photo with detail.)

The first is some of the architecture of St. Petersburg as we began our outing.
Then, as we rode further from the center of the city, we were treated to what is called "Stalinist wedding-cake architecture." You can see how this squat decorated form might resemble a wedding cake. Stalinist architecture was could be stodgy, utterly failing in elegant lines and proportions, and served chiefly to glorify the state and communicate Soviet ideals.
OK. This is a bit quirky but I shot the photo because to me the scene was beautiful, including the colorful machinery. Mostly, of course, the tracery of tree branches.
And this is when we crossed railroad tracks. There is something about railroad tracks, leading off to destinations that trigger our imaginations.
That's it. Just sharing a bit of a rainy day.