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Having had an awesome weekend of beer, barbeques amd hot-tubbing in the Forest of Dean, the time came to start our five month adventure starting with a night in the Stansted Travel Lodge. Successfully, we managed to get up in time for an early morning flight (that's a 66%!h(MISSING)it rate for us on such flights now) to St Petersburg via Dusseldorf. With no queues, easy check-in, a half-empty flight and a happy ending chocolate when getting off the planes it all seemed too easy. Long may it continue...
Arriving in St Petersburg, we met our first fellow Trans-Mongolian-ites. Similarly, they had never been to Russia before but cunningly were doing the journey with a Russian friend they were meeting. That's definitely a form of cheating - it's much better immerse yourself in a foreign country armed with nothing but a guide book and an
'Speak Easy Russian' i phone app! Needless to say, five minutes later confusion set in as we needed to navigate our first hurdle into the city centre from the airport....
A mini-bus, a metro and a 15 minute walk later we were in our first hostel. The Location Hostel just 200m from the Hermitage,
300m from St. Issacs Cathedral and 200m from Nevsky Prospect. Nevsky Prospect (apparently the most famous road in Russia) is busily being prepared for the National Day celebrations on 9 May - where the stereotypical military parades (missiles and all) are unleashed. We won't be here for that, we have that in store for when the equivalent parade rolls into Red Square in Moscow - which is where we head off to tomorrow.
However, whilst we've been in St Petersburg we've seen and done plenty of things. The main highlights have been the Peter and Paul Fortress, which also houses a cathedral also named after Peter and Paul. The main attraction here was the Cathedral, which houses the tombs of most of the old Russian Emperors and Emperesses - including the murdered Tsar Nicholas II, family and servants who were buried here in 1998 after their bodies had been found and identified (40 years apart).
We have also taken a day trip out to Petrodvorets, or more simply referred to as Peterhof, which was a grand palace of the tsars based out on the Gulf of Finland. This places is the Versaille of Russia and was very impressive
with large sculputured gardens and a grand interior. Walking around it has been cold - it's still only 5-10 degrees and spring has still not had a chance to arrive. A general feeling we have is that we are a few weeks to early to see sites such as this at its best - St Petersburg is probably a place that is best enjoyed in a blanket of snow or in full bloom!
This morning we rolled across the road to the Hermitage, mainly set in the Winter Palace. This place was extrordinary, and was the pick of the sights to date. The Hermitage world-class art museum. Given that neither of us are 'of the arts' we both really enjoyed it. There's a nice balance of famous pieces of art work (Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Monet, Carraggio, Gauguin) set off against the nice history of the Winter Palace, with gold (lots of gold) guilded everything, stunning ceiling designs and grand staircases. To top it all off, the first Thursday of every month is free entry for all!!
The Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood was also quite a sight. Modelled on St Basils in Moscow, the inside
of the church is covered head to toe in beautiful mosaics (painstakingly restored) in brilliant colours. Difficult to explain it properly, but hopefully the photo will show it off.
Overall - first thoughts on St Petersburg are that we're growing to like it more and more. When we first arrived everything seemed very concrete and run down with a lack of anything green. However, having wondered around a bit more the real beauty of the city is on the inside of its buildings. There's a lot of restoration work going on all over the city so it should just get better and better. If you're ever planning a visit though, aim for the summer and the long white nights...
That's all for now. We'll sign back in with tales of Moscow and our first over night train next week...
For now:
Спокойной ноуи
Spakoynay nochee
Good night!!
P.S. Don't forget to flick through all the photos...
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Rik & Marian
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St Petersburg
Looks like a smashing start to your tour, and a very good way of keeping us up to date. What is the food like? Any good photos & recipe cards? Love, Dad & Marian