Day 1 Arriving in St Petersburg

St Petersburg, a city I have wanted to visit for some time. I arrived a couple of days before I was to join a small group tour entitled 'Back roads of Russia'. I always use Gadventures, a Canadian company, when I want to tour with a group, as the maximum number is 15 and the tours tend to take you away from the main tourist route. This one was no exception. I am now home reflecting on a fabulous trip and hoping to share some of my experiences with you.

I ordered a taxi from inside the airport. You pay for it the desk. As I left the airport building the taxi was waiting for me. I had been given the registration number and told the driver would know my destination and would require no further payment. It was a good system in a country where communication was going to be difficult for me. The driver spoke no English and I spoke no Russian so it was a silent drive into St Petersburg. The traffic was heavy as the driver wove his way in and out of the five lanes of traffic! The hotel was just off the main tourist road, Nevskiy Prospekt. The hotel was in a converted block of flats and occupied the top three floors. My room was on the 5th floor, luckily there was a small lift. It was late afternoon and very hot when I got there so I quickly changed and went off to explore the local area.

I decided not to consult my guide book but just to walk along and get my bearings. As far as I could see all the road names were written using the cyrillic alphabet. I did discover later in the week that some were written using the Roman alphabet but the writing was quite small.I walked the length of Nevskiy Prospekt. Crossing a couple of canals and admiring the architecture.

I ended up in Palace Square with the large column dedicated to Alexander I at its centre.

This building was the one I wanted to see, the Hermitage. It is actually a group of buildings built on the bank of the Neva River.

The green, white and gold of the Winter Palace was built for Tsarina Elizabeth between 1754 and 1762. Successive tsars have added to the building which now houses one of the world's greatest art collections. It is the world's largest museum after the Louvre in Paris. The total number of pieces owned by the museum is around three million. It began with the private collection of Empress Catherine the Great. She wanted Russian Ambassadors around the world to purchase the best pieces of art they could find to then be displayed in the Hermitage. Eventually her collection went on display to the public in 1852.

I wasn't going to visit the museum until tomorrow but I found out that it was late night opening, so I decided to pay the 700 roubles (less than £10), as there was no queue and have a look inside for  the remaining two hours it would be open. It turned out to be a great idea as many people had returned to their cruise ship for dinner and the Museum was very quiet.

The opulent staircase  into the Museum.

Winter Palace state rooms

The St George Hall is used for state meetings today.

In the rooms there are numerous works of art and it is impossible to see everything in one visit. I decided to focus on the Palace more than the art this evening and to come back tomorrow to look at some of the paintings. However, I came across a couple of pieces I couldn't ignore. This is the Crouching Boy by Michelangelo.

In the same room are frescoes from the school of Raphael.

This corridor is a copy of the Vatican's 16th century gallery with 52 chronological biblical scenes.

Almost closing time and I was tired. A good point to leave but I was delighted to have seen so many of the rooms almost empty. 

It was still very light outside as I am here during the 'white nights' when the sun sets for just a couple of hours. The Cinderella coaches outside the Hermitage  awaiting their tourist customers.

I walked back to Nevskiy Prospekt under the archways of Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa

The walk back to the hotel took me back over the canals. Although very tired I was looking forward to seeing more of this exciting city over the next couple of days.

Sharing with Our World Tuesday