St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg: Stupendous, Superlative, Spectacular...Sick even!!

Goodbye Singapore

After goodbyes to Katie and Amelia, we caught a taxi to Changi and awaited the arrival of Don and Sigi. Right on time they appeared and, after getting our boarding passes we headed straight for the nearest bar - poolside in the open air. Stars are not a common sight in Singapore, but the fresh air was welcome and hard to believe we were still at the airport.

After a long flight thru and a couple of forgettable movies, dawn arrived and we arrived at Helsinki Airport for a few hours layover, while waiting to get aboard our turboprop bound for St Petersburg. 

Flybe.com? Ever heard of them? On the tarmac at Helsinki

Alex, our pick up man was somewhat taken aback by the size of Coopers’ bike boxes, but we managed to squeeze everything in to the one mid-sized passenger car. I must admit to being surprised to see not Ladas everywhere but modern, expensive cars from around the world - Mercs, BMWs, Audis especially, even Bentleys and Hummers. American culture’s long tentacles have established a firm grip here judging by the prevalence of Apple products, IBM computers and even good ol’ Maccas.

Our apartment is situated in a great spot. Very central. Walking distance to all the must-see touristy spots like the Hermitage and the Church on the Spilled Blood. Bought a Petersburg 5 day tourist card which gives us free access to quite a few sites. Good value for the price but a bit of a saga finding the office to pay for and pick up the cards. Don and I rode around St Petersburg looking for some obscure building in an equally obscure street and, when we finally did find it, had to navigate our way around a maze to find the correct office.

Hermitage (Winter Palace) along the Neva riverfront

So, that's the outside of the Hermitage. What's it like inside? See below for a few pics.

The grand entrance staircase. A bit too much gold for my liking.

Not a bad spot to read the Herald over a cuppa.

Guests gather in this room to sip Champers before the ball. This is a small section of the mosaic floor.

Just one of many, many galleries full of priceless works from the great masters including Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Picasso, Pissaro, Monet, Rodin and so on. There are two massive malachite urns standing on top of malachite slabs in this room. The floor is parquetry.

In the adjoining room are two massive urns made of lapis lazuli.

Daylight extends well into the night here. It’s still very light at midnight. Gets a little dusky from then to 4am and then sunrise again. The church of the Saviour on the Spilled Blood is a nice little example of Russian architecture at its finest. It sits alongside one of the many canals.

The Church on the Spilled Blood. Odd name. Beautiful building. Pity about the overhead wires.

A hip spot to catch a beer and watch a few buskers perform late at night. You know, while the sun's still up.

We’ve done lots of walking including an interesting roof top tour which involved clamouring around on top of various residential buildings, getting a view from above the city skyline. There are no buildings here above 5 storeys as none have ever been allowed to be taller than the Palaces.

Rooftop view

We also took a stroll over one of the bridges across the Neva to the Peter and Paul fortress.

St. Petersburger's taking the chance to catch a few rays while they can.

Inside the St Peter and Paul cathedral.

More gold. This is just the altar.

If you love queues, this is a great country to visit. We bought a St Petersburg card hoping it would help us avoid the long queues at the ticket kiosks wherever we go, but, sadly, no. Still the hydrofoil trip over to Peterhof was great. Peterhof was built as a sort of weekender by Peter the Great. It's said that he had a hand in creating the fountains but methinks he probably didn't handle the shovel much. More like "You, build me a squirty thingy over there. One that I like, or else!" God like power must have been heaps of fun. Still, it's a pretty amazing set of fountains which are unlikely to be bettered elsewhere.

Sue in the queue

a glimpse of the beautiful surrounds at Peterhof

Sue, Siggy, Don and, er, Boris jr.

Pete's watery playground

I thought the bolshies got rid of them all!

Real gold (maybe once upon a time)

Pete's weekender

Room for a dozen weddings in the back yard. No, make that 2 dozen.

This morning, Don and Siggy took their bikes for a shakedown ride and to checkout the whereabouts of the railway station that we all need to get to on Sunday morning.

The pics above show our backyard and the street out the front of our apartment in SPB. Don and Siggy found their way to the station and back no problems and are ready to rock and roll Sunday morning. Meanwhile we still have tonight and tomorrow to soak up the ambience of this amazing city. This blog's starting to get a bit unwieldy so I'll finish it here and give a further St Petersburg update in another post.

Until then...