Exploring St Petersburg - Day 2

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Wow! What a huge day today! We were up early because our first tour was leaving at 9, and we’d gotten to bed after midnight last night! So after a quick brekkie, we were off, through border control and onto our tour bus with the great Andrey, the local tour guide. So we were off to the Hermitage. We were very lucky because the museum, which is usually seen by 30,000 people each day, but is closed on Mondays, was opened particularly for us. The Hermitage was built as a private museum for Catherine the Great and if you spent a minute in front of each exhibit you would take 8 years to go through it. So we toured the highlights of the highlights tour!! We went through the Winter Palace, the Small Hermitage, the Old Hermitage and the Small Hermitage. We also saw a hanging garden - 2 metres of soil were put on top of the roof of the stables and trees and flowers planted, so Catherine go see a garden on the floors she occupied. We also toured the state rooms - the small throne room, and the large throne room, the Pavillion Hall, amongst others, before entering the art section, with Rembrandt, Rubens, da Vinci, Michaelangelo and Titian well represented.

We then returned to the ship in time for a quick bite of lunch before heading out again on the Through the Eyes of Russians tour. First experience was a ride on the metro - from the second deepest metro station in the world (the deepest is in Kiev). We saw the beautiful presentation of their stations, made to be like a palace for the people. We caught the metro to a station next door to a market place where the locals buy their fruit, veg and meat. They also, very conveniently, had a souvenir stall.

After the markets we were taken to a restaurant where we were treated to Russian snacks and a vodka tasting - 3 different shots of vodka, accompanied by folkloric music and dancing.

On return to our ship we had time for a bit of a snooze before preparing for an evening out. Silversea had arranged a complimentary symphony concert for us at the Grand Hall of the St Petersburg Academic Philharmonia, preceded by a champagne reception, well, Russian sparkling wine which was very nice. The concert was amazing, with pieces by Mussorgsk, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Shostakovich, Kachaturian and Tchaikovsky, oh and a couple of others I didn’t recognise.

On our return to the ship, because we’d all been away during dinner time, they’d opened one of the restaurants and were serving champagne and finger food treats. Lovely night!! Huge day! We are exhausted!

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