Wednesday Walk along the Neva River Embankment

Greetings, friends! This time I went for a walk along the Neva River embankment, in its lower reaches. Not far from this place the Neva River flows into the Gulf of Finland, but we wouldn't have time to look at the sea surface today: the sun was already setting, the short winter day was ending, and we would get to the Gulf in the dark.

I began my walk at the monument to the Russian navigator Ivan Kruzenshtern. He is a legendary personality. He led a circumnavigation of the globe in 1803-1806, and after the successful completion of the expedition he published a description of the voyage. Later he was engaged in oceanography and published scientific works. Monument to Krusenstern is installed in front of the Naval Academy.

This place for the monument seems to me ideal not only because of the academic institution. Here is an invisible boundary between the "land" and "seaside" parts of the city. Such names are very conventional, you won't find them in the official city toponymy. But if you decide to take a walk along the embankment one day, you will definitely notice how the city turns toward the sea at this point: a forest of ship cranes appears on the horizon, and piers begin to stretch along the embankment.

If I were doing this walk in summer, there would be coaster ships, cargo barges, and other ships waiting for the bridges to rise at night to cross from the Gulf of Finland to Lake Ladoga. But in winter, shipping stops and almost all the piers are empty.

For a walk along the waterfront, you can choose from three options. I usually go down to the lower level and walk along the water's edge. Waves lapping on the granite, seagulls whizzing by, sun glare reflecting off the water surface... But the winter weather makes such a walk difficult. In early December we had snowfalls, then it thawed, then it froze again - as a result, the lower embankment is covered with ice, it is difficult to walk on such a surface.

So I chose the upper embankment. The janitors have done a good job here, and the sidewalk is cleared of ice and snow. You could have chosen a third option for a walk, a little further along the embankment stretches boulevard. Under the crowns of trees is nice to walk during the summer heat.

I notice that not everyone walking prudently chose the most comfortable route. Some chose to walk down-not to the water's edge, but rather to the ice's edge. Perhaps it wasn't as difficult to walk there as I thought it would be.

A woman feeds birds at the end of the embankment. Seagulls and pigeons happily fly to her feet.

Suddenly the clean asphalt that was so easy to walk on ends. The sidewalk is covered with a thick crust of ice. I have to cross to the other side of the street. But it's even better. I can walk up to the Mining University building and take a few pictures from the high steps.

Two statues frame the entrance to the building: Hercules Choking Antaeus and Pluto's Abduction of Proserpine. At Pluto's feet lies the guardian of the underworld, Cerberus the dog. First I take a picture of the Neva panorama, looking in the direction I came from, and then I turn again toward the sunset. At this point the embankment ends, the 19th century industrial area goes on.

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Smartphone	Google Pixel 3a
Location	Saint Petersburg, Russia

This is my entry for the #WednesdayWalk challenge by @tattoodjay.