St Petersburg

Day 161 St Petersburg

After a smooth train journey from Moscow we arrived into St Petersburg at 8am. It was a lovely fresh morning with the sun shining. We are staying with family friends, Mike and Sue Allen, as Mike got a new job here last year. We walked down the main street Nevsky Prospekt towards their apartment, which is in a great location in the city centre. It took us about 20 minutes to arrive at the apartment where Mike was waiting for us as Sue is away.

After giving us a city overview Mike left for work and we got a shower and some breakfast. Once refreshed we walked up the main street to the river to catch a hydrofoil boat to Peterhof. The hydrofoil took 30 minutes to travel on the Gulf of Finland to Peterhof.

The Peterhof is a palace that was built by Peter the Great and was home to many Tsars after him. We spent a few hours enjoying the gardens which are full of palaces, statues and fountains. The grand cascade is made up of 140 fountains, with all the statutes being covered in gold.

At 3pm we got a return hydrofoil back to the city, our legs were tired from all the walking we had done. After a rest in the apartment we visited the local corner shop, where we bought some food to cook for dinner, as Mike had a previous engagement. It was strange that it did not feel odd cooking in someone else's kitchen, we are used to using many different kitchens as we have been away from ours for so long!


8/7
Day 162

Today we visited the famous State Hermitage of St Petersburg. After a frustrating 3 hour wait in the queue we eventually entered the Winter Palace at approximately 2pm! The hermitage is an enormous collection of art (over 3 million pieces), housed in 5 large linked buildings, many of which were state rooms before the revolution.

We spent over 3 hours walking round the buildings trying to see as much as possible before it closed, or our legs dropped off! The winter palace is very grand both inside and out. Many rooms are ornately decorated and the state rooms contain original furniture. Art galleries are on the top floor and include Monet and Picasso paintings.

On the way back to the apartment we walked towards the Church on Spilled Blood. The multi domed church was built in memory of the assassination of Tsar Alexander the second who was blown up in 1881. In the evening we enjoyed a meal with Mike.

9/7
Day 163

We had a lazy morning as we were tired after all the walking of the last few days,we have seen 8 cities in 6 weeks, so we have nearly had enough of sight seeing. The weather was very wet in the morning so we did not venture out into the city until after midday. We had a quick walk around the Gostiny Dvor, one of the worlds first shopping centres.

We visited the impressive Kazan Cathedral that sits on the Nevsky Prospekt, it was built based on St Paul's in Rome and has many large columns inside and out of the building. Virtually every building is elegant in St Petersburg, you could easily stay here a month and still not see everything.

Next we walked through Admiralty Gardens to St Isaacs Cathedral. Another huge cathedral with gold domed roofs. We climbed the 262 steps up to the colonnade which circled the large dome of the cathedral. It provided us with an excellent view of this huge city (population 4.7 million). The weather had also cleared up and the sun came out to improve our photographs.

We walked back along the river and down the busy shopping street. After a rest we went back out in the late afternoon sunshine for a walk and to get some dinner.

10/7
Day 164

This morning we took the underground metro to take us the other side of the Neva river. For some reason the train did not stop at the station we expected so we had a bit of a walk to do. The sun was shining and it was about 25 degrees centigrade. We stopped at a park and enjoyed a coffee and continued to head back towards the river as we had planned to visit The Peter and Paul Fortress today.

We spent a few hours walking around the buildings inside the fortress including a prison and cathedral. This was the first settlement in St Petersburg and is where many Tsars and their families are now buried.

After leaving the fortress we walked down the riverside and passed Peters cabin, Peter the Greats log cabin that was his home while the fortress was being built. We walked to the cruiser Aurora battle ship where we boarded a boat to take us through the canals and back to Nevsky Prospekt.

We did some last souvenir shopping and had our last meal at Mama Roma, an Italian restaurant. Summer evenings are lovely in this city as it hardly gets dark, however, we are glad we are not here in Winter when it hardly gets light!



11/7
Day 165

We had breakfast with Mike, we then caught a bus to take us to the other side of the river, where the Tall Ships had moored the previous day as part of the Baltic Race 2009. It was a beautiful morning in St Petersburg and we enjoyed looking at all the large sailing yachts on our last morning.

After some lunch Mike escorted us to the underground metro to make sure we safely made our last train journey to the airport. We arrived at Moskovskaya station, where we walked to the nearby plaza to take our first picture of a statue of Lenin, before finding a public bus to take us to the airport.

We arrived at the airport early but the time soon passed and we got through security 2 hours before our flight. It was nerve racking going through customs and passport control, but there was no need to worry as we got through with no problems. After stocking up with Russian vodka in duty free we got our last drink in TGI Fridays before boarding our final flight.

Our British Airways flight took off at 5pm (St Petersburg time), it was a pleasant flight and we landed into Heathrow at 5pm GMT. It was a 3 hour flight but with the time difference meant it took no time at all!!!

London was grey and wet, just as we had expected. As the trains cost so much in England we had taken the cheaper and more convenient option of hiring a car for a few days. After collecting a car we left Heathrow at 6pm and strangely enjoyed travelling north on a quiet M1 motorway (very unusual).

It was a great journey and only took us 2 and a half hours. We drove to Morley where we sat in the car and enjoyed fish and chips from the Mermaid, they were great! Eventually we arrived home at 10pm just as it was getting dark and were welcomed home by our neighbours, John and Lynn.

Our parents had made sure that we had essentials in our fridge and that our house and garden were neat and tidy, we felt like we had just returned from a short holiday!

We opened all our post while enjoying a beer and a Smirnoff Ice (thanks Dad!). It was a huge relief to be home in one piece. We have enjoyed every day of our trip, although it has been challenging exploring a new place every day and not staying in a place more than 4 nights.

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