Like doing nothing twice . . .

. . . in cold, damp weather. So, I had been reading in my Lonely Planet Guide to Russia about this amazing event that occurs nightly in St. Petersburg - the raising of all the drawbridges at midnight to allow the bigger ships to pass. According to the Guide this happens every night, and it's a big deal, and all the bridges stay open for a couple hours. With this in mind, I bundled up and went out into the St. Petersburg night to catch this - luckily, it was cold, but not bitter and not snowing. So, I arrived at the bridge down by the Hermitage around 11:40 and stayed there, walking back forth along the sidewalk to try and keep warm, until 1:15 when I finally gave up and went back to my little room. Nothing happened. At around 12:30 some guards closed off the bridge to automobile traffic, although people continued to walk across, but the drawbridge never went up - and I could see a couple other bridges in the distance and traffic was still moving. I'm not really mad at the Russians - it's not their job to entertain me, although it would be nice (grin). Rather, it would be nice if the folks who wrote the travel guide would have been a little more accurate in their description. Still, it was beautiful just walking up and down by the river, looking at the Winter Palace and across the water at the Peter and Paul Fortress. A work crew was stringing lights on the trees along the river. So, unless I catch pneumonia again, I'm not going to complain too bitterly.