The conference excursion was to Peterhof, the summer palace of the Russian czars. Although hanging around the hotel most of the week got old, the excursions were really memorable.
On the way there, we passed the palace where next month's G8 summit will be held.
We got to Peterhof a little bit early, so we visited this nearby church. According to our guide, the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul was built as part of a contest to build a memorial to the assassinated Czar Alexander II. It came in second to the Church of Spilled Blood.
The palace was incredibly opulent. The style is "Russian Baroque" which apparently differs from other baroque styles due to the white background.
Even though the palace is supposedly "closed" one day a month for cleaning, you can get in that day as part of a tour group.
You can see the picture of Catherine the Great above her throne.
One room was filled with pictures of court ladies, all by the same artist. It was an effect I had never seen before. 
The front of the palace looked out onto the Gulf of Bothnia. Peter planned it so that people would usually arrive by sea. (Usually by issuing the command "F Bothnia->St. Pete.") (That's joke goes out to all you Diplomacy fans.) 
We finish with the second of the "big head" pictures.
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