Yep, after Moscow, it did have a more cosmopolitan buzz to it.
After our fast train from Moscow we checked into our hotel, found a late dinner, and hit the cot around midnight.
Next day was a very "religious" day. Amongst a host of places visited, the highlights were probably the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, built on the site where Alexander II was murdered, and St Isaac's Cathedral.
St Isaac's is nothing short of stupendous. It's massive - has the 4th highest cupola of any cathedral in the world, took 40 years to build, finishing in 1858. It has 28 massive red granite columns around the outside, each weighing 114 tons, the granite for them having been shipped from Finland. The architect was 30 years old when the building was started, and 70 when finished, dying a month after completion. A life's work, I guess.
That night we went to another opera. The Csar's Bride. Once again, love, love spurned, intrigue, dirty deeds, and death. Just can't get enough culture!
Day 2 in St Petersburg was spent mostly at The Hermitage Museum in the beautiful Winter Palace of Peter The Great. This place is huge - you could spend days in there and not see it all. Our guide, Irina, left us there at 2pm, and we later walked back down Nevsky Prospect, the main drag to our hotel, stopping for a sangria and afternoon nibble at Singers Cafe, then visited yet another cathedral across the road.
Back in St P around 2, we caught a late lunch, wandered down the road to pick up tickets for our late night excursion on the canals, back for a clean up before the "farewell" dinner on the company, then out again for an exploratory of the St P Metro, and finally fronted up for our 12:20 boat departure.
It was freezing and drizzling rain, but undeterred we mopped down some top deck seats, wrapped ourselves in blankies, put up the brollies and settled in. We had also brought along a small bottle of Russian spirit to warm the insides! The beautifully lit buildings were stunning at night, and we thoroughly enjoyed the trip. Only problem was that due to a problem with the opening of one of the many bridges, we were 30 minutes late disembarking and were then faced with a 30 minute walk back to the hotel. We fell into bed at 4am. Buggared. But it was a funny night.
Next morning, a tad dusty, we said our farewells over breakfast, and headed for the station to pick up our fast train to Helsinki.
