Love locks from the Black to the White Sea

My interest in love locks started in Cologne, long ago. In fact I had seen the first one crossing the Rhine on Hohenzollern Bridge walking toward the cathedral (Kölner Dom) and the main railway station. I had misjudged the lock to serve some mundane purpose like chaining a bike. Later, when thousands of locks "suddenly" were locked to the bridge even I suspected the real purpose that these locks are love locks.
In Cologne several people wanted to study this phenomenon, but I have never seen any work being published.
Some pictures and a German text are here:
http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2009/04/die-liebesschlosser-von-koln.html 

During my travel from the Black Sea to the White Sea I have seen many places with love locks, which didn´t surprise me, judging from the wedding business, of which I shall tell more later in this blog post series on my recent travels. Here are a few pictures. The most interesting place has been Arkhangelsk, where city authorities supplied a rack simply for the purpose of putting the love locks to it. Quite near there is also a graffiti on the wall to the beach concerning marriage and love, of course.

Kiev - on a high bridge with a nice view (not to be seen here)

A very humble beginning in Moscow

Arkhangelsk has much more

Arkhangelsk - there even a rack for locks next to the bridge and near the church, and you can sea the river Dvina

I nearly missed the locks in St. Petersburg, looking at this couple

Related links for this travel:
Antoniyevo-Siysky Monastery (Антониево-Сийский монастырь) http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2012/10/antoniyevo-siysky-monastery.html
On changing Moldovan Lei in Odessa
http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2012/10/on-changing-moldovan-lei-in-odessa.html  
The Very Basic Guide to Russian http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2012/10/the-very-basic-guide-to-russian.html  
Crime and Punishment (St. Petersburg) http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2012/10/crime-and-punishment.html  
Hram Ilias – the hidden silence near the Red Place in Moscow http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2012/10/hram-ilias-hidden-silence-near-red.html  
Kishinev – the prologue of this year’s travels http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2012/10/kishinev-prologue-of-this-years-travels.html