A stroll around St Petersburg

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We varied our breakfast after yesterdays cereal that looked like semolina and went instead for the "Berliner".The standard components from yesterdat but with a donut that looked in the picture like it would have cream.It didn't but there was gooy chocolate inside so that made up for the lack of cream.
City walk director,Gretchen(unpaid,after all this is a budget trip)had scoured the St Petes map last night and had plotted a walk that would take in many of the fine buildings in the vicinity of our hotel,along the riverbank and over to the Petrograd side where the original city started.And then later,after an afternoon nap,we would head down to a working monastary with a very old cemetary containing many famous dead Russians including Taichofsky(not spelt right I think) and Dostoyevsky(now we are talking big names!!).
We took one of the many small canals to the Church of the Spilled Blood,so named because it was built over the spot where Alexander II was assassinated in 1881.The church had taken 20 years to be completed and was turned into a potato storehouse during Soviet times as the state didn't want the churches having the presence they used to have before Communism.The place has been fully restored and we marvelled at the mosaic interior which was quite amazing and really stunning.The church has those onion shape domes similar to St Basils in Red Square but not as big and as many.Another very photogenic church both outside and of course inside with all the mosaics.No wonder it took 20 years to complete.
Next was the park where the eternal flame was and onto Peter the Greats summer garden and palace(just down the road from his winter palace).The gardens were just beautiful and it was a pleasure strolling around in the sunshine.The summer palace was rather small in comparison to the winter one.Apparently Peter had agrophobia hence the small rooms.
Then it was over the bridge to the Petrograd siude and the Peter and Paul Fortress designed by a Frenchman as a fort and used for many purposes over the years including part as a prison for political prisioners in Alexander the Greats reign.
On the path into the fort there is a small sandy beach on the riverbank.From a distance we could see there were people sunbathing and it was Gretchens eagle eye that spotted that some of the people were NUDE!!As we were still a distance I offered to confirm her revelation by zooming the video camera lens on them and confirmed her discovery!!Hardy people these Russians although none wre actually in swimming and the temperature was in the the high teens.
Inside the fort there was a huge church with Tsars and other leaders buried in the cemetary at the rear of the church.Having visited a church already today we decidednot to pay the R300 for a look inside and instead headed back to the other side of the river via the next bridge.All the bridges that cross the Neva are raised in the early hours of the morning for a few hours.Difficult to understand why they bother as all of the navigatable traffic seemed to get under the bridges when they were being used for cars etc quite OK.
It had been a good nearly 4 hour stroll on a lovely clear spring day and we were ready for the planned afternoon rest back in our hotel room.
After our rest up we headed for our only planned trip on the subway to get to the monastary and old cemetary about 4 km away on Nevsky Prospect,the main drag thru the city.After a little bit of difficulty trying to find where you descended into the subway station we wanted(there were big M signs on the pavement but no obvious stairs or path leading to the subway)we finally found it and joined the rush throngs.
We needed to take one line for a station and then change lines.The first part was simple but he second took a little figuringout as we went the wrong way initially.Getting onto the second train was an odd affair as well.
As we entered the platform you could not see the rail line.Then we discovered that there were doors at all the openings which opened when a train pulled in to let people access to the train which hopefully pulled up in the right place to match up the train doors to the platform doors!!
We were lucky to arrive into the church at the monastary while one of the monks was taking a service in a side chapel and we stopped and listened to the incantations while the people attending stood straight upright with hands by their side listening as if in a trance.During the incantation the monk chanting took a breather and a choir of voices took over.All this was going on behind a screen at the front of the chapel.We have visited several churches but this was the first time we had seen any action and we were very fortunate.
The cemetary was quite a mess when you considered all the famous people buried there.As all the gravestones were written in Russian we didnt get to actually make out who was who.Perhaps the monks just don't have time to keep up the care of the cemetary.
One of the ideas of making our way down the main road this far was to see how long it would take to walk from our hotel to the station where we would catch a bus for the airport on Wednesday and also to find somewhere new for dinner amongst the seemingly hundreds of eateries.
As we walked a big Pub sign loomed out at us and we thought OK lets give it a try.We didnt stay as it was a London pub serving only Pommy beers and we will have enough of that in the next few weeks.We want to continue to drink and eat local while we can.
We ended up in a restaurant across the road from the Moscow station and ordered two large Baltic beers adding another label to our tastings.Not a bad drop and it was the coldest beer that we have had served to us and helped make it hit the spot.
Gretchen went safe with a pizza while I ventured out a little with a pot of meat with veges.
The walk up Nevsky took us 45 mins in the crowds still around at 9pm at night so that gave us an indication of how long it will be for us to walk with our suitcases.One thing in our favour will be that the pavement is very wide and flat all the way.

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Photos

Nevsky Prospect,St Petersburg
The main drag thru the city and 4 km in length.This was the street the taxi that took us to the hotel did 90kph down in traffic as busy as this !!