St Petersburg

  St Petersburg, Russia
Monday, July 7, 2008

SP is our first taste of Russia and is really amazing.  Beautiful is probably not the right word as there is plenty that is not beautiful but then on every street, seemingly every time you walk down even the same street you discover a new really imposing, majestic building that gives a clue to past glories.

This is Krystyna having a bit of fun in the main square:

KA in Dvortsovaya Square

The harbour is beautiful too:

Fountain in St Petersburg Harbour

Lots of ladas and other soviet era cars that really add to the character.

The Cable Guy's Van

We have been walking around a lot, checking out the various churches and cathedrals and the Hermitage museum, which is E-N-O-U-R-M-O-U-S. This is the entrance steps to the second floor of the Hermitage, grand is an understatement

Entrance Steps to the Hermitage

Tip for this is definitely buy your tickets on line before you go so that you don't have to queue up.  It's not immediately obvious when you're there that you don't have to queue but just go up to the front of the queue with your vouchers and you'll get straight in.  There's a sign that proves this on the ticket office window but (helpfully) you can't see it until you're about a foot away. 
Hermitage is an amazing place, the rooms in the Winter Palace are so luxurious and oppulent and present a great environment for showing off the art works.  Take the room here that is only used for one painting.

Big Room for One Painting - Hermitage

or this hallway

Decorative Hall in the Hermitage

Also having a bit of fun with trying out speaking Russian and reading every sign we see that's written in the Cyrillic alphabet.  It takes some getting used to!

The sun never sets properly at this time, which is a little confusing too, walking around and it's getting a bit dark so you think about dinner and it is in fact about 11.30pm!!

Sunset time - 11.40pm

Also went to Peterhof, which was a Palace built in the style of the Versailles Palace, with water fountains everywhere you look.

Peterhof

The trip over was on a hydrofoil, like this:

Hydrofoil to get to Peterhof

Overnight train from here to Moscow.  Train left at 00.40 but of course it wasn't dark...

More and photos soon...