Digging today my folders for the nice 
2007 - Have a bike -- will travel
Back in 2007 my wife and me obtained two foldable Shulz bikes -- designed in the English fashion -- which upgraded our range and travelling possibilities. The photos below captured in September 2008, when we travelled to Ekaterinhoff park (located in the suburbs of St.Petersburg; 2 centuries ago said location was a summer residence of Russian Empress Ekaterina II ).
2008 - Molvin Column, Ekaterihnoff
This work of art is not a well-known one. The Molvin Column was installed by the architect Auguste Montferrand (1824). It got its name by the name of the sugar factory Molvo. And it served as a prototype for one of St.Petersburg' symbols - the Alexander Column, decorating the Winter Palace square. The said column is sittin quietly in the closet in the Ekaterinhoff park.
Молвинская колонна -- была установлена архитектором Огюстом Монферраном (1824). Свое название получила по имени сахарозаводчика Молво. Послужила прототипом для одного из символов Петербурга - Александровской колонны, украшающей дворцовую площадь.
2008 - The lattice of the Ekaterinhof park
The lattice is decorated with the monograms of Emperor Alexander II and the symbols of the Russian Empire. An amazing thing is, that there are quite a few places at St.Petersburg where you can see things like that. (The city was for 200 years the capitol of the great empire and the cradle for emperor family, once had a lot of this stuff, believe me. And it did not surviv the next 50 years...). After the victory of the revolution in 1917 ALL imperial attributes throughout the city were demolished: crowns, coats of arms, monograms. Survived quite a few, the ones that were completely embarrassing to destroy (like Hermitage Palace), or which were "far away" and did not pierce the eyes, like this lattice at Eekaterinhof.
После победившей в 1917 революции по всему городу уничтожались много лет ВСЕ царские атрибуты: короны, гербы, вензеля. Уцелело только то что было совсем стыдно уничтожить, или то что находилось "далеко" и не кололо глаз, как вот эта решетка в Екатеринхофе.
