St Petersburg
Alloro
Colin & Belinda Laidlaw
Fri 25 Jul 2014 18:53
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Thursday tour of St Petersburg. First stop (or maybe third) the Peter and Paul forts and the cathedral holding the bony remains of all the Tzars and Tzaresess since Peter. Next a flying visit to a souvenir shop where free coffee and vodka and a stuffed bear were on offer as aids to making a purchase or two. Good as they were these aids brought the owners no financial gain. Then the highlight of the morning - a tour of the Aurora, the ship that launched the Russian Revolution by firing blanks. Last stop a squeeze into the Dostoyevsky museum where The Brothers Karamazov was unfinished due to his untimely death at beaches brook. In the evening we went to the Russian Ballet and enjoyed the best seats in the house as men in very tight tights and wafer thin ballerinas delivered a stunning Swan Lake.
Friday a tour of the Hermitage Museum aka the Winter Palace erstwhile home of Nicholas II. It were reet grand it were. With gold and silver and ferrets an all by gum. Our pretty young guide gamely struggled to commend the delights of the palace against the might of the Chinese army, while we struggled to find coffee and cake. Lunch at Pushkin's local with a vodka and beer followed by some hard bargaining for souvenirs. Tonight looks like a wander to the fair before an early turn in.