23 June
The flight arrived at Saint Petersburg airport right on time. At Immigration, the lady officer asked us to put our hair
behind our ears and smile like our passport photo. We explained that we were sun burnt so may be browner than the photo on our visa. It seemed to take little longer
than usual but in no time we were through. In the baggage area, our bag
had arrived. Outside a gentleman waited
for us with our name on a Go Russia signboard. When we asked about an ATM, he showed us his phone. That was funny.
His English was limited but he was very nice. He finally understood our need. We got to the ATMs. The first one did not
like our card but the second one worked fine.
We took out 7500 roubles (that was barely A$165). This exchange rate is going to be
interesting. We are starting to get used to these interesting exchange rates following our experience with Hungarian florin.
Alex, our pick up person is usually in construction but does
this pick up as a hobby for additional monies.
He has a 25 year old daughter and an 11 year old son as well as a wife
and loves to travel. He has been to lots
of European country. His idea of heaven
is 40 deg heat with a cold beer; an essential requirement is that water temperature be above 30 deg. So for him, Bali and Greece are great. He loves everything Italian too because it is
so romantic. He asked my travelling companion her favourite place in the world and what she did for a living. He pointed out to us the sights as we
approach St Petersburg. He told us about the upcoming Red Sails festival. The airport was around 22 km from the city center. When my travelling companion asked him what he thought of the current situation in Russia, he said to separate governments from the people. Governments are always in some kind of angle or other, but people are all hearts. It is actually a rather wise philosophy. We were glad that we had been picked up as all the street signs were in Russian and written in Cyrillic alphabets. It would have been difficult to navigate by ourselves. At the hotel, there was no place to park so he dropped us off and kiss
the hands of my travelling companion before letting us go.
At the hotel, no one else for our group has arrived yet, so we checked into our room, picked the bed next to the window, dropped a note for our room mate to be,
and went out to get some lunch. The hotel front desk was most helpful and spoke excellent English. She advised us that the city center was really safe for tourists and directed us to the main street, Nevsky Prospect where we had traveled to the hotel from the airport earlier.
We walked out of our hotel, turned left and then left again on to Nevsky Prospect. The first tourist spot we encountered was the Lutheran Church, the oldest in St
Petersburg, but it was closed. Next to
that was Marketplace and there was a crowd queuing to eat. This should be a nice place to have lunch. We sat down waiting
for table service but was advised by the young lady whose table we asked to
share that it was self service. That was nice of her to let us know. It was a buffet style place. We can choose what we would like to eat. We got a banana smoothie, marinated mushrooms and pilaf – all for 490 roubles
(something like A$9.80). While
inexpensive, the portions was not enough to be totally filling. But it was enough to counter the giant bowl of coffee we had earlier that morning which was having an adverse effect on the stomach.
Our plan for the rest of the day was to visit the Faberge Museum and to go on the canal boat tour. The museum is located on the bank of the Fontanka River and the English canal boat tour is located on the same bank at the corner of Nevsky Prospect and the Fontanka embankment. On the way, was Kazaksky Cathedral.
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| Kazansky Cathedral |
We had been a little late in attempting to get e-tickets for the Faberge museum. There must be some cut-off time that we had not known about. So we would have to buy a ticket on the spot. There are English tours available. But when we got there, the last tickets were sold to the person in front of us. So we opted for the self guided tour which together with the audio guide cost the same as the guided tour (entrance : 450 roubles with 150 roubles audio guide; around AUD12). The museum was very opulent. Besides the Faberge collection, it also exhibited items made by the house of Faberge for royalties, dignitaries and high society of that era. Faberge eggs were presented to the empress by the tsars on Easter. Imperial faberge eggs typically took an entire year to complete. As soon as one was delivered, the design for the next began. The idea of the Faberge egg is that it contain a secret which contained another secret, a modification from the matryoshka dolls concept in that secret was itself a gift. We spent hours there, examining in great details the items that were exhibited. There was an Australian TV team there making a documentary about Faberge at that time. Reception alerted us to it. We saw them upstairs and had a chat with the ABC crew that was filming the documentary.
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| A Faberge egg |
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| And the secret present inside |
Before we went to the Faberge museum, we had bought our ticket for the next available English canal boat tour which was scheduled for 9pm. Cost was 1000 roubles (AUD20). We still had 1.5 hr before the boat tour so we decided to go for a wonder around the area. First we stopped at a cafe on the same street and picked up a snack.
The Anchor Bridge that spans the Fontanka River was itself quite interesting. We crossed the bridge to the other side of the Nevsky Prospect. We got as far as the Catherine Gardens and the Music Theatre. There was a great nature photo exhibition in the Catherine Gardens. We then popped our heads into the Galleria, the largest shopping mall in St Petersburgh, with more than 250 stores. There were ornate murals on some of the walls. We crossed back using the underpass and arrived at the boat jetty 30 minutes before departure time. We boarded as soon as they allowed us to, choosing a seat at the back row so that we can stand and do photography without interrupting anyone else's view.
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| Cruising on Fontaka River In the distant is the Church of our Saviour on Spilled Blood |
We were joined by the Italian couple that we
had met earlier when purchasing the ticket for the canal boat trip. A Spanish family in
front asked why we speak Spanish when we noted the daughter was upset about the
bird doo on her jacket. We had told her that it would wash out and that it was good luck when a bird did that. The canal tour
guide spoke great English and provided a lot of useful information as we traveled through the various canals. Most of them were spanned by stone or steel bridges that were relatively low, so one had to ensure that one was seated when the boat passed under these.
St Petersburg was the original capital of Russia until it
was moved to Moscow by Lenin after the Revolution of 1917. He feared invasion as St Petersburg is very near to the Russian border. It was built as an
European capital with elements from architects who have studied in Europe and
Italy. Consequently it has quite a big mix of
architectures. Founded by Peter the
Great, who originally built what is now the Peter and Paul fortress, the
administration was meant to be on Bastion Island but difficulty in
communications back then required it to be moved to the mainland. Back in those days, no bridges were permitted between Bastion Island and the mainland. Peter's court were provided with boats and there were extensive instructions on how the boats were to be used. Failure to comply
would result in fines.
We cruised through 5 canals. Our guide was not too fussed about complying
with safety rules as long as we kept an eye on our heads. She gave warnings when we came upon the super low
bridges.
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| Soviet era block |
We saw Tolstoy’s residence.
Apparently, he could not afford to live within the city so he lived
outside. He decorated his place as best as he could so that it had the city feel. We were introduced to Pushkin’s place as well as
Stroganoff’s pink palace. There were
many castles, churches and palaces. There were also some Soviet era blocks which were not too pretty. She pointed out Michael’s
Castle. which was built to ensure that he was protected from plots to kill him but he was
assassinated in his bedroom 40 days after moving into the castle. Today it is the institute for engineers. A lot of castles and churches were used as something else and looted during the soviet era but since 1991, they have
been returned to the community who had restored some of them.
There was the Summer Gardens which was originally used only by the
elite but are now enjoyed by all. We sailed past the Hermitage, on to the Neve River and circled Bastion
Island before going back into the Canal.
Red Sails, graduation event, with fireworks and merry making would take
place on Sat, the evening that we would on a train bound for Moscow. We saw preparation for that celebration, some fireworks and this tall ship that would sail up the Neve when the drawbridge across the Neve in front of the Hermitage opens.
Probably the most distinctive dome was that of Trinity church with its bright blue dome dotted with gold stars.
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| Trinity Church |
The weather kept dry until towards the end of the cruise when it
began to drizzle. It was time to make for
our hotel. We were glad that since our experience in Riga, we now lined our backpack with our waterproof bag which kept everything dry.
Even though the cruise finished at 10.30pm, it was
still light everywhere. The white nights are not dissimilar to what we had experienced at the Arctic. As we walked back to our hotel, we stopped for a hot corn on cob. The vendor spoke to us in
perfect Mandarin. They have linguists in St Petersburg. Entering our room, we found our room mate Martin had checked in. He is a really cool chap and is a seasoned traveler like us. We think we would get along just fine. We
chatted for a bit, getting to know each other.
He told us that the couple travelling with us are Paul and Wendy. They are mom and son.
We chatted till almost
1 am before we went to bed. We were awoken at 3am by the partying from the bar
in the street below, the loud Harley cruising up and down the street as well
as clip clop of hooves from horse drawn carriage that plied at that hour. St Petersburg did not sleep on white nights.
24 June
Went down to breakfast around 8 with our room mate and found that it was very crowded. It was difficult to get a seat at a table. We met Paul and Wendy
briefly but did not do the usual introduction. Martin and my travelling companion discussed the poll results of Brexit. No one could believe that it had passed. The general expectation was that it would fail but by a sufficiently narrow margin that nothing would change but a loud and clear message of alarm would be sent to the European Union administration with the hope that it would initiate some overdue and very necessary reforms.
We were being collected at 10.30 am at the reception for our city tour. Natalia came to collect us with a car for a hop on hop off city tour. Today, we would get to see the front of
the buildings whose back we have seen on the canal tour.
Our tour guide appeared to have a fixed script. She provided the same information as our guide on the canal boat tour but she repeated herself a few times. We asked Natalie about the difference between the Soviet era and the Russian Federation. She said that there are more opportunities now and the ideology is
different. But back in the Soviet days,
education and medical care were free.
The slums were removed during that time (the reasons for the huge Stalin-ish blocks).
St Petersburgh had had a few name changes before its
original name was resumed in 1991. It was known Leningrad during the Soviet era, and at one point Petrograd.
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| Stroganoff Castle |
Natalia was not the most responsive of guides. She does not give you that warm feeling. It did not feel like she was trying to relate. She was there to do a task, and all she wanted to do was communicate her information to us, fulfill the letter of the itinerary and then be done. She was not so responsive as to what we would like to do, or the order we would like to do them. The area that we covered of St Petersburg was not vast. The distances were large as we were circling the huge blocks to get where we wanted to go.
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| The famed Astoria Hotel |
The pink Stroganoff
Castle was just down the street to the right of the junction with the street where our hotel was located. Our first stop was the Palace Square where Alexander Column stood between the Hermitage and the Admiralty building. We were told this was where we would have to meet the next morning for the Hermitage museum tour. A stage was being erected for the Red Sails festival. There were horse drawn carriages and people dressed in costumes of Imperial Russia to take photos with tourists wandering around the square.
On the way we passed the Astoria Hotel. Hitler was so sure that Leningrad would fall easily that he reportedly printed the invitations to the victory party to be held there ahead of time. Leningrad never did fall to the Nazis.
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| St Issac Cathedral |
Not far from there was St Issac's Cathedral with its ornate gold dome, the spire of which was under maintenance and surrounded by scaffolding. It is possible to see a good view of the city from the observatory near the top of the dome though we did not go there.
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| St Nicholas |
Our next actual stop was the white and blue St Nicholas Cathedral, named for the patron saint of sailors. This area used to be sailors' quarter. St Nick's is reputedly one of the most beautiful churches in St Petersburg. No photography permitted inside unfortunately.
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| Wish granting griffin |
We crossed the Neve to the University Embankment where we visited the 3500 year old sphinxes. Flanking the steps into the Neve are two bronze griffins. Locals believed that wishes whispered into the ears of the griffins will be granted. We all took turns whispering our wishes.
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| The 17th Century frigate Shtanart at its mooring and the hovercraft of Peterhof Express |
We then proceeded to the Exchange Square where the old Stock Exchange which looks like a Greek temple is sited. In front of it are two Rostral columns with allegorical figures personifying the rivers of European Russia.
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| St Peters & Paul's Cathedral tallest Orthodox Church |
Back into the car, we headed to our next stop - Bastion Island. The car stopped in front of the Kronverkskiy Bridge, a wooden trestle bridge. We could see the reddish building of the military academy from there. There was no time to visit any of the buildings within the Peter and Paul fortress, which was a real pity. However, we did a walk around the grounds. The fortress was the original citadel of Peter the Great back in the 17th Century.
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| The final resting place of the Tsar Nicholas II's family |
We stopped to admire the Cathedral of St Peter and Paul. Entry to the cathedral involved a ticket purchase and a long queue, neither of which had been included in this short tour. This is the cathedral which contain the tombs of all emperors of Russia from Peter the Great onward. Tsar Nicholas and his family are interred in the side St Catherine's Chapel. This appeared to be the most popular to visitors. The island is basically a museum these days.
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| Statue of Peter the Great |
We stopped at the statue of Peter the Great, whose proportions are a little strange. He was reputed to be a tall gentlemen with long gangling limbs and fingers. His fingers shone from visitors rubbing on them. We exited via the exit near Ioannoskiy Bridge. We did not visit the beach nor the sand sculptures that were being built there as we had observed the evening before during the boat canal tour.
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| The little red and supposedly famous church whose name we cannot recall and we can't find |
We were then brought to a souvenir store where coffee could be had opposite a tiny red brick old chapel. That was a useless 20 minutes of a stop as none of us had wanted to buy any souvenirs there at the overpriced store, but our guide did not seem to care. One would have thought that Go.Russia paid her enough monies not to do this to us and waste our time.
After the break, we crossed the Neva again via the Troitskiy Bridge, and stopped to pay a visit to the Field of Mars where monuments to the revolutionaries are located. On the way we passed the Summer Gardens. After the visit to the Field of Mars, we made a last stop outside the Church of our Saviour on Spilled Blood also known as Church of Christ the Redeemer. Here, Tsar Alaxander was fatally wounded. Externally, this church looks prettier than St Basil's in Moscow. We made an outside photo stop and took note of the visiting hours intending to come back later in the afternoon.
Our car tour ended at precisely 2pm. Natalia dropped us off. During the coffee break, we had conferred that we would not tip Natalia as we did not feel that she had tailored anything at all to our wish list, running the tour more like a regimental visit than anything else. She gave us our instructions on the next morning's meeting place and time. We politely thanked her and went off to get our lunches.
We were thinking that the Free walking tour of St Peterburg may be more fun and have guides who were more personable. That was the main characteristic of each of our free walking tour guides thus far.
Martin was going to do what we had done the previous day. We sat down to lunch with Paul and Wendy at the sushi place outside out
hotel. We had herrings and potatoes. We took off after lunch, having first changed
into pants as it was getting a little chilly compared to the ultra warm morning. The cleaning lady came in as we were in the bathroom changing. She was curious as to
where we were from. She was impressed that we had traveled all the way from Australia.
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| Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood |
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| Interior of Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood |
We first went to explore the Church of Spilled Blood (entry
was 250 rubbles before 6pm with 100 rubbles for audio guide, total of AUD7). It is a very impressive church. Every bit
of that church is covered with mosaic. Nothing is painted except for the Icontasis –
which had some painted panels; these were destroyed during the Soviet era from neglect when it was used as a warehouse. The church
commemorates the assassination of the Tsar who was shot near the canal. The canopy is over the side of the canal, making the architecture of the church
a difficult one. The church celebrates
only commemoration of this Tsar who apparently got out of his carriage to save
a servant (he abolished serfdom in Russia) who had been hurt during a first
failed attempt to set a bomb off to kill the Tsar. That gave the assassinator the second opportunity to throw another bomb which ultimately killed the Tsar. No weddings or funerals or
other services were celebrated at this church. To understand why such practices are found, one would need to understand the sacred places that are ascribed to the emperors in the Russian Orthodox Church. They were deemed representatives of God on earth.
Looking at the art on the ceiling of this church, we were better able to appreciate what the inside of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul might have looked like when it was a church.
We learnt that the onion domes were the most effective to prevent accumulation of snow in this region which experiences heavy winter snowfall. Icons and decorations in the interior
of the church were all related to the life of Christ and his Resurrection.
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| Beautiful carving adorning the Admiralty Building |
After the church visit, we thought we would go to the Summer
Garden for a walk but by mistake we thought the garden adjacent to the church
was the Summer Garden. It was closed for
maintenance though so we decided to go and check out the grounds around the
Hermitage, walking along the Neve River.
We stopped momentarily to watch the concert that was in front of the Admiralty
building. Young students were performing a hip hop number. We bought a corn on cob for 130 rubbles (AUD 2.6), paid 30 rubbles (AUD 0.06) for bathroom use there. We also picked up some pastries for dinner. We saw folks walking through the Admiralty
Building so we did the same and found ourselves a block from our hotel on
Nevsky Prospect.
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| Interior of Kazansky Cathedral |
It being still early, we decided to go and see Kazansky
Cathedral which is the Cathedral of the Romanovs. Our Lady of Kazan icon (a 16th Century copy), the most venerated icon in Russia, is kept there. There was a service going on in one of the
annex. There was a long line of Russians waiting to pay respects to the icon.
As we were leaving the Cathedral, it started to rain so we headed back to the
hotel. It was barely 7pm. We made a mental note of the Starbucks cafe near
the Kazansky Cathedral.
Martin came in around 8pm and found us napping with our computer in front of us. We had fallen asleep while blogging. We chatted about where we had been since the morning tour. We could not get the
TV to give us our English channel again so that we could catch up on Brexit. So we watched High School Musical in
Russian. It was probably the only thing one could watch and understand without the need to understand the actual words! He then went out to get dinner. By then we were too lazy to get dressed for the outside, so we stayed in and ate our snacks as we were not really hungry either. Martin came back shortly after. We decided to make it an early night as we both had interrupted sleep the night before. During the night, my travelling companion coughed quite a bit and hoped that she had
not disturbed her room mate too much. She was still recovering from that nasty cold she had caught in Prague.
26 June, Saturday.
This morning we decided to go to breakfast early, around 8 am. We were joined shortly after arrival by Paul and Wendy. It
was good to be early for breakfast. Much more sedate. We all went our separate ways after breakfast. We had agreed to meet Paul and Wendy on the steps of our hotel and walk them to the Hermitage. Martin would meet us there.
After breakfast, we packed. At 9.30
am, we went to leave our luggage. Olga
at reception was the best, treating our computer and camera bag with extreme
care, keeping it with her in the front office. Apparently, her shift is 24 hrs long. She is still smiling. Wow, what a gem and what an attitude. Working rules surely differ from those in Australia!
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| What we found outside Rock Star Cafe |
We made a quick dash to Starbucks and got us a proper coffee
– soy cap goes for 225 rubles (AUD 4.5), must be a rare treat for the locals. We sat for a while to people watch as we sipped coffee before coming
back to get Paul and Wendy at 10 am. Together, we walked to the Alexander Column. On the way, we passed the Rock Star Cafe with an interesting exhibit on the street in front of it. Arriving 5 minutes early, we found that Martin was already there. Natalia, on the other hand, was 5 minutes late.
Our first stop, the
Impressionist and Post Impressionist in the Admiralty Building – the collection was
moved from the main Hermitage building due to to its size. Natalia apologised for not knowing which entrance to use as the move to the Admiralty is a relatively new development. Surely, as a career guide, she would know this as the Hermitage is a must-see tourist stop for all visitors to St Petersburg.
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| The Hermitage as seen from Neve River (4 out of 5 distinct buildings can be observed) |
Hermitage is one of the largest and oldest museum in the world. Entry fee is 600 roubles (AUD 12). That is for the entire 6 buildings and over 3m exhibits. There are two entrances, one for group tours and the other for individual visitors. The group tour entrance for the main Hermitage is in front along the Neva River.
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| Interior of Admiralty entrance to the Hermitage exhibits |
The Admiralty building itself has a very interesting architecture, a mix of super modern structures inside the well preserved historic shell. It was not yet too crowded. Here is where we learn what Impressionist
means … it means that the artist captures his impression of the subject, not
necessary the real proportions, colours or textures of the subject itself. A good start to lessons in art history. Then there were the psychological painters – the ones that captures the emotion, aka post-impressionists.
And cubism – which was Picasso's arena. We were introduced to interesting snippets of some famous artists' lives. Picasso was home tutored by his brilliant dad. Van Gogh was sort of imprisoned by his
parents so suffered great depression through most of his life. We looked at the collection by the Dutch painters who looked at
every day life events from different artistic perspectives. We also had a look at the works of the famous Spanish painters.
After a while, it became a challenge to fully appreciate the subtle differences between all these arts as we are not well schooled in art or art history or art techniques. To us, they were all beautiful and a lot of time and efforts had been invested in their creation. One question popped into our mind again : what have our generation created that would be appreciated in the same manner in centuries to come? Does the impermanence of our times make us all default existentialists?
We next enter the main building of the Hermitage. Although there were only 4 of us, we were required to enter by the group entrance. Natalia sort of sneaked us past the security
check into the cloakroom after bypassing the queue of big group as we were only
four.
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| The celebration of entry at the Hermitage. Note where 3D stops and painting begins at the top |
First, we ascended this huge and
opulently ornate staircase in the Winter Palace over which hung a very impressive crystal chandelier. Mind blowing rooms with
equally mind blowing exhibits followed. To address the journey through the Hermitage would take forever. So, in summary, we found the European collection to be the most impressive …. More paintings,
representative of famous painters, sculptures, furnitures, tapestries,
etc. Wood inlaid and mosaic floors, rich velvet curtains and wall coverings, gilded and sculptured ceilings, delicate and huge ornaments abounded. The ceilings were high. And some of the ceilings of the corridors reminded us of the opulence of the Sistine Chapel.
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| The top is drawn to look like 3D while the bottom is real 3D Cornices and ceiling panels of a room in the Hermitage |
It was when we looked up that we made an interesting observation. Not all rooms have
cornices and ceiling panels that are sculptured. Above a
certain height, they were painted to look like they were sculptured. We were a little surprised so we asked Natalia whether the Hermitage was ever refurbished due to damage. She replied in the negative. It appeared a little odd that such a lavish place would use such a technique to complete construction. We visited the upper rooms of all the 5 constituent buildings of the main Hermitage. Precisely at 2pm, Natalia left us to explore the rest of the Hermitage by ourselves. She took with her our entrance tickets as receipts, leaving us with no option of re-entry so we had to stay within the Hermitage if we wanted to continue our exploration.
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| Winged Deity - Hermitage Syrian collection. 9th Century BC, limestone acquired for Hermitage in 1862 (Relief from palace of Ashuraspiral II at Kalhu (Nimrud) |
We shook her hand but no one
tipped her. We won’t feel bad as we had never felt less impressed with a tour guide before. We all decided to get lunch at the café of the
Hermitage – salmon on rye bread and coffee set us back some 500 rubbles (AUD 20 - prices are beginning to resemble those of Australia?). Martin left the Hermitage after lunch and the other two were
deciding what to do next. We went back to
explore again some of the paths we had walked earlier. This time, we spent a little more time on the Roman statue
collection, as well as the Egyptian, Iranian and Syrian collections. As we looked at the Syrian collection, we wondered if these may be the last remains of that
civilisation that is still preserved. So much of their majestic history has been destroyed in the past five years alone. It is unbelievable that as the human race, we could still carry out such atrocities in such ignorance.
At the end of our stay in the Hermitage we decided to buy some souvenirs. Two Farberge eggs, two T shirts, a few fridge magnets and three books set us back 1600 rubbles (AUD32). The stash was heavier to carry than its costs! Well, at least we do not have to see the inside of a plane
before our Ulaanbaatar to Beijing flight. As we exited, we took time to enjoy the
fountain in the garden before going out towards the front from the Palace
Square towards Neve River.
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| Troitskiy Bridge and Palace Embankment |
It was then that we spotted the open drawbridge … they had stopped
Traffic on that street in preparation for the fireworks tonight. To allow taller boat traffic, the drawbridge
of Troitskiy Bridge was opened. People were skating, skateboarding and walking the street enjoying the sun and the breeze. It created a great ambiance for the walk to the Summer Gardens. The pleasant summery weather made this the perfect day to be exploring gardens in St Petersburg.
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| A statue in the Summer Gardens |
We spent
time exploring the Summer Gardens, checking out the banks of the Fontanka River. The gardens felt a lot bigger through very good use of partitioning hedges. There were collections of statues and fountains. Interestingly, unlike the usual Greek and Roman statues, they were always modest with strategically placed pieces of materials or fig leaves. We decided to take the street parallel to Nevsky Prospect on the way back to the hotel just for a change of scenery and too see what was taking place in the back lanes..
There were more eating places that the locals frequented. We found ourselves in Mikhailovsky Gardens which had been closed the day before. As we exited near the Cathedral of Spilled Blood, we took a short cut from that street to our hotel street
and found ourselves outside the Swedish Consular Office. In that square, an impromptu gathering of latin dancers had gathered. They danced to zouk and kizomba , followed by samba gaffeira.
We were so tempted to participate but they were short of male leads and we were in hiking boots … so we watched them and took
some photos.
At the hotel, we found the rest of our travelling companions. We decided that we would go to dinner together before we were collected for our train that evening to Moscow. We went back towards the same street where we had seen the latin dancers to a place called
James Cook pub. The dancers were no longer there. We
were there till 9.15pm when we went back to the hotel. We retrieved our bags, packed in our shopping and waited for our transfer arrived to pick us up. A German speaking couple joined us. We were a little surprised as we had not been alerted to this by our travel agents.
Apparently,
they are on the same tour as us from here on.
Suziany said she had spotted us at the Hermitage earlier as well as at James
Cook. She turns out to be same age and they are
both lawyers. Their train tickets said they were in the next
cabin to Paul and Wendy on the train to Moscow. We would be in the next carriage and Martin furthest away from all of us. Nevsky Prospect was then closed to traffic for the evening festivities, so we dragged our luggage to near the Starbucks next to Kazansky Cathedral. Our driver took us to the train station and helped us find the platform where our train was parked.
The train looked really impressive, complete with uniformed hostesses as if we were boarding a flight on a posh
airline. If we did not think it was rude, we would have taken a photo wit the train hostess at our carriage. The cabins were wide and
posh with red velvet seats and curtains. Complimentary
coffee or tea was offered before bed and orders were taken for breakfast at 7.40 the next morning before arrival in Moscow targeted
for 8.15, The doors can be locked and
opened with an electronic card assigned to each of the occupants. There were complementary snacks, souvenirs for purchase, and a menu for the dining car which the hostess would be happy to help fetch should one order something. There was also a TV complete with remote control. The hostesses spoke perfect English. Wow - that was really impressive. Tea came served in glasses that sits in a silver tea glass holder. We each get our own power points and there is even complementary wi-fi. Ok, we are now beyond impressed. We later learned that if we were go to straight to Vladivostok from Moscow with only a few stops, we could do the entire trip on similar trains. As we were travelling first class, we were sharing with only one other in our cabin. Martin had not upgraded. His cabin was four sharing and a little less posh with less velvet covers but nonetheless equally comfortable if a little crowded. We were glad that we paid the extra for first class. We were on the Krasnaya Strella from St Petersburg to Moscow. (The difference in price is 70Euros between 2nd and 1st class tickets).
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| A peek at our cabin |
We made a note that we need to pack our main luggage a little thinner in the future so that it could fit in the space under the bunk. We were sharing with a Russian girl from Moscow who spoke limited English and did not appear to have any luggage at all. She stripped to her undies for bed. It is now almost 1 when we spied an orange moon rising
and wished that we could photograph that. The train
traveled at a constant speed and its motions were rhythmically smooth, the kind of motions that lulled one to sleep. Our room mate is already fast asleep.
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