The Castle

Today we went on a tour of the castle with some of our new Russian friends. Vyborg castle is a confusing mix of Swedish, Finnish and Russian buildings stretching over the eras. Today was one of the few sunny days we've seen thus far, and it was beautiful weather for going out, though it is getting colder. Sadly, the mild illness we've all been fighting went to my head today and made me rather miserable. Thankfully the photos don't convey that, so you can enjoy them without the side affects of congestion.

Ten little children, sitting in a tree. One fell off and bumped his head, Etc.

The castle in the sun. We got in to the tower for free, apparently because every so often large families get in for free, and it's also off season, and so the museum was closed.

The courtyard. Russia doesn't seem very tidy to me; maybe that's just the way cities are, but there's lots of beer bottles, broken glass, cigarettes and garbage in the streets. The castle didn't have so much garbage, but it still looked a little unkept. Apparently at one point it was a prison. In May and June they have jousts and reenactments here. 

There was a small room off the tower gate with chain mail, helmets and such for everyone to try on. The guys loved it.

Looking over the old part of Vyborg

We walked up to the top of the tower. Tower steps are not, I think, for the faint-of-heart. There must be a tower maker's creed that all steps must be rickety and scary looking. These steps were metal, winding up the wall. In the center there were dusty planks that had been "under construction" for some time.

Looking out over the Bay

Having seen the view we walked to the indoor market to buy some gifts. The market is kind of a tourist place, but it also has fresh meat and vegetables. There was also china, boots, hats, linens, and the famous Russian nesting dolls. I bought two metres of linen and one small nesting doll. I don't really like the style of the dolls, since they're so bright and so many colors-some of them even had glitter- but I figured I'd get in trouble if I didn't buy at least one to take home.

Good old Torkol up on his pedestal.

We had borscht today; Pastor F and his wife came over last night to help us make a big pot of it along with some cottage cheese bars. Good stuff!

The old clock tower that was part of some old building of some particular nationality that I can't recall.

Red Square and the statue of Lenin, on our way home.