Saint Petersberg

We have taken the opportunity to see a little more of this city. Nevskiy Prospect is a broad avenue that is the major city street. It is lined with older buildings, including palaces and churches. We have strolled down Nevskiy and looked in on various buildings. These include the only Catholic Church in St Petersberg, which is in a pretty sad state following the destruction of the Soviet years - however, it is once again a church. The Kazan Cathedral looks a little like a mini-St Peters, with arched collonades to two sides. It has been restored and is a functioning church - in fact, we saw a young couple being married when we visited.

We also visited the Church on Spilled Blood - built on the site to commemorate the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881. It is a museum and is now fully restored - it was a warehouse for potatoes in Soviet times. It has impressive mosiacs outside and inside.

Yesterday we travelled outside St Petersburg to Peterhof, the grand palace and retreat of the Tsars on the Gulf of Finland. We successfully navigated local metro and buses to make the journey. The gardens are extensive and the fountains are spectacular. The palace itself is beautiful, based mainly on a rococco style with lots of gilded scrolls. However, the gardens and the fountains are the masterpiece.

It was a popular day there (a Saturday), with large numbers of locals enjoying a day out in the warm sunshine. There was quite a festive atmosphere.

We successfully got ourselves back to the city and went out to the suburbs to see the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad. This consists of a large obelisk and monumental sculptures of soldiers, workers and mothers. It commemorates the victims and the survivors of the 872 siege of this city in 1941-44. An underground memorial hall includes exhibits, marble tablets and mosiacs recording aspects of the siege, including a display of a small 125g piece of bread that was the daily ration at one point. It is said that every family in Leningrad lost someone in the siege - over 1 million died.

We had dinner at a local Russian restaurant. To celebrate our last night in Russia, we had blinis with caviar and vodka and chicken Kiev, with a cold Argentinean white. The white was a treat - it is very difficult to get cold dry white wine.

Today, we will take a look at St Isaac's Cathedral, before departing on the late afternoon train for Helsinki. Time to put away the Russian phrasebook and dig out the one for Scandanavia - pity, we've got the hang of the cyrillic alphabet now!