After a hearty breakfast, we boarded the bus for a tour of the city. We must have seen all 42 of the canals and bridges that give St. Petersburg its nickname, the Venice of the North. Julia, our tour guide, shared a lot of history with us. St. Petersburg was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great (reigned from 1689-1725) as his "Window on the West." He wanted to modernize Russia by patterning it after European culture and technology. After the city was built, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg. We got a good look at Peter on horseback when we passed a huge statue built to honor him. The back hoof of the horse is crushing a snake. The snake symbolizes Sweden, a great enemy of Peter's Russia. The Canal The Aurora Down by the Peter and Paul Fortress, where all of the czars are buried, we toured the Aurora, the battleship that fired the first shot of the 1917 Russian Revolution.