My shower was cold this morning.  I found out, over the now customary strange breakfast, that St Petersburg is without hot water every Friday.  Strange, but we are in Russia I suppose.

We made our way down to the Hermitage to see the galleries and museums.  Apparently there are 2.7 million artefacts and if I was to spend ten seconds in front of each one it would take nine months to get round them all!  My entry ticket was free because I had my student card with me – always worth having!

The next four hours were spent in complete awe at what I was seeing in front of me.  Every room seemed to have a Picasso or a Michelangelo artefact or an ancient Egyptian tomb.  I would rank this ahead of Le Louvre and it has the added bonus that there is nowhere near a many tourists here.

We left the Hermitage a bit dazed and crossed the famous Dvortsovaya Square on our way to St Isaac’s cathedral.  We decided to climb the 262 steps to the top of the colonnade and take in the panoramic views of the city.  Because of the weather we could see for miles and had a stunning view of St Peter and Paul’s fortress on the other side of the Neva River.

Because the weather was so good I decided to walk up to St Peter and Paul’s.  In the sunshine the fortress looked magnificent and I went outside to see what the beach was like that surrounds it.  The whole area is very laid back and peaceful.  I managed to see the famous statue of Peter the Great where his head was clearly far too small for the body.  That raised a chuckle because I had never believed the stories about it before.

Having left the fortress I took in the biggest mosque in Europe and crossed the Neva again to find somewhere to eat.  I stumbled across a fantastic outdoor restaurant and had the best meal of the entire trip whilst watching canal boats go by.  As soon as I was finished it was time to go to the Hermitage Theatre and see Giselle.

I met up with everyone else from the group and we took dozens of photos of the magnificent surroundings.  The ballet was incredible and the time passed unbelievably quickly.  Afterwards everyone was raving about particular moves and the unbelievably good acoustics in the theatre.

We decided to go for a meal in a superb little Italian restaurant before we went back to the hotel.  However, at 23:40 we got to the metro station only to find that the gates were shut.  We were told that they kept going until midnight – obviously not!  The taxi drivers are con artists and so the only option left was to walk/run the four miles back to the hotel before the city bridges were raised at 01:15.  If we didn’t cross the bridges in time we’d have had to spend the night on park benches.  Fortunately St Petersburg was experiencing one of its ‘white nights’ and so we dashed home in brilliant sunshine!  In a way it was a good experience for us as we got to see parts of St Petersburg that we wouldn’t have otherwise seen.

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