First Views of St-Petersburg

It is 14 degs and clear blue skies in St Petersburg today, so great for some walking! Our hotel is in a side street off the main shopping and business street so very convenient. A short walk just two streets away through the archway brought us to the highlight of St Petersburg – the Winter Palace which is now the Hermitage Museum and is second in size only to the Louvre in Paris. Apparently it has some 1057 rooms and we will know much more about it tomorrow as we have a guide booked to show us some of the highlights.

From the Palace we followed a circle across the river, through the park and the makeshift beach area (where quite a few people were out sunbathing in bikinis) to St Peter and Paul fortress, back across the river to wander through yet another park and stop on the canal for some well earned lunch. The café / restaurant was very peaceful and the food was lovely. We then attempted to visit the Church of Christ on Spilled Blood, (apparently the spilled blood belonged to Nicholas the second who was killed by a bomb in 1870), which is an amazingly beautiful structure. However, it is closed on Wednesday so looks as though we will need to return later in the week.

We continued our way back to the main shopping street and joined the crowds enjoying the sunshine and making their way either home at the end of the working day or similar. There are a number of canals crossing the main street with boats ready and waiting to take us on a canal trip while we are here. It was then time for “people watching” which is always interesting so we found a nice outdoor café and a front table and rested for an hour or so. It was 7.30 p.m. when we left the café and the sun is still high in the sky so it will be hours before it is dark here tonight. The summer solstice is 22 June and at that stage it is light for the full 24 hours. It is now 28 May so we will have nearly twenty four hours light now. The Northern Festival of Light which is held on the 22 June.

We will head out again for dinner and an opportunity to experience the evening in an hour or so.