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

Pereslavl-Zalessky

Here I am in Peŕeslavl-Zalessky, about 150km NE of Moscow, Russia. It's a long time since I took to the saddle but decided to give it a go.

I stayed clear of the main roads and kept to the dirt tracks.

Beautiful scenery around the lake.

St Petersburg

I am away at the moment. I'm sure many of you will recognise this church in St Petersburg, Russia

 More about the trip when I return home.

Peel, Isle of Man

The day we visited Peel on the Isle of Man it was pouring with rain. We decided to go to a cafe for a hot drink whilst we waited for the rain to pass. There we met Jeremiah, a 60+ cyclist from California, who was peddling his way around Ireland and the UK pitching his tent wherever he found some grassy level ground. Everyone in the cafe joined in the conversation. It is a very friendly and welcoming Island. By the time we left the cafe, the rain had stopped and we wandered through the town to the Cathedral, the only one on the Island.










Inside the Cathedral we bumped into Jeremiah again ( on the right) who had made the acquaintance of Henry. Henry worked at the Cathedral doing a variety of jobs in return for food and shelter. Today he was supervising three prisoners who were digging up the driveway. The prisoners had volunteered for the work and would not be paid but would receive their food and enjoy time out of the prison. They seemed happy in what they were doing but I didn't photograph them.

Henry offered to give us a guided tour of the garden which charts the history of Christianity on the Isle of Man in plants and structures. The Dean of the Cathedral wanted to bring the ethos of the Cathedral into the outside to encourage more people to visit the church. It is an impressive project. Eventually there will be a series of 17 gardens within the grounds of the church. Twelve of the gardens will tell the story of the island and five will have special themes.

This part of the garden is one of the two hemispheres mentioned in the description below which is an extract from the Cathedral's website :

This garden looks at a period dominated by two world wars and a church having to come to terms with the unspeakable horrors of Auschwitz - Birkenau.The Isle of Man because of its geographical position was used as a place of internment. During the First World War Knockaloe, was the largest enemy alien internment camp in the British Isles The gardens four gardens around this structure represent Genocide Each of the gardens features fables associated with the genocide, for example, the German garden is based on Little Red Riding Hood. (The Third Reich saw Little Red Riding Hood as representing the German people with the evil wolf representing the Jews). Either side of this sculpture are two circular gardens divided into two hemispheres

There is much still to do to complete this project.

I hope to return to the Island and see for myself the finished garden.

Henry had already invited Jeremiah to stay for lunch and extended the invite to us but sadly we declined as there was still much to see on our last day on the Island. The rain clouds had moved on and the sun and blue skies were making an appearance as we wandered through the streets.

These are the remains of S Peter's church which was deemed unsafe after a fire in 1958 and was demolished shortly afterwards. Originally built around 1550, only the outer walls and the clock and bell tower from 1872 remain.

The sun was now shining and we walked down to the sea. It is a sandy beach although I think the one at the Port of Erin is a better one for families.

We walked round the coast a short distance to Peel Castle.

Peel castle is situated on St Patrick's Isle, a  small island connected to the town by a causeway. The castle was constructed in the 11th century by the Vikings. It has had many additions and alterations over the centuries.

The sea was a greeny blue and crystal clear.

The round tower dates back to the 10th and 11th century and was originally part of a celtic monastery.

10th century St Patrick's chapel.

Local police station

 This is the police station in Castletown, Isle of Man. As far as I can gather the police moved into this building, part of the Civic Centre in November 2017 from a purpose built Victorian building. 

 The mural goes around the building

Above the Underground update

As my regular readers will know, a few years ago I set myself the challenge of visiting every one of the 270 underground stations in London to photograph and research places of interest in the vicinity of the stations. I have been doing this now for almost five years and have only just completed four out of the eleven lines and visited 104 stations.  I keep saying I need to speed things up and this year have set a target of two per month.  I have just completed the Circle Line which was overflowing with places of interest.

Read about Hammersmith, the last station on the Circle Line here:here