Feel free to hit the SLIDESHOW control (top right) and explore the great scenery, architecture, jewelry, bibles, and art treasures of the Russian Czars. I have added many identifying captions and historical references. This trip is sponsored every summer by the Commonwealth Club of California, a leader in educational travel. For information and reservations see: (www.commonwealthclub.org)

The gallery describes a 2005 journey, first through Moscow, and then along the Volga River to various ports of call, and finally to St. Petersburg, the former capital of Russia between 1720 and 1917. But this is really a journey through a thousand years of Russian history, and a brief glimpse at the future.

The Czars built luxurious palaces, cultured elegant gardens, and accumulated hundreds of the greatest paintings and sculptures in Europe. Moscow's Kremlin Armory houses gilded and bejewelled crowns, carriages, Faberge eggs, and other treasures. Many of the world's finest masterpieces, by such artists as Rembrandt, Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, Raphael, Kandinsky, Gainsborough, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Renoir, Matisse, and Picasso, can be viewed in museums in Moscow and St.Petersburg. Most notably the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and the Pushkin Museum in Moscow have on display some of the world's greatest art treasures. My photos of many masterpieces from the Hermitage can be found near the end of this multi-page gallery.

All of these Russia images, including those in the darkened museums, were captured by the Nikon D2x, a 12 megapixel digital marvel, together with a variety of very special lenses.