The day began with a trip to the Summer Palace of Catherine the Great about 40km south of St. Petersburg. This palace was the Russians' version of the Versailles. You could see a BBC 18th century period piece being filmed here. The palace and grounds were spectacular.
After the palace, we got dropped off at the Summer Gardens back in St. Petersburg. Lovely parks with very ornate statues and fountains.
From there we wandered across the Field of Mars, which contains a memorial (eternal flame) to the defenders of the Leningrad (WWII siege that went for 3 years, attacked from the South by the Nazis and the North by the Finnish. Hitler wanted to starve the population. He nearly succeeded, close to 1 million of the population died and there were stories of cannibalism).
We passed the Church of The Spilled Blood, one more time! Just because we could. Down the canal from there we caught a cruise, which took us around St. Petersburg and the sights. Great cruise but a bit chilly on the main river, the Neva.
A short break later we decided to go and see if there was anything happening at the Palace Square. We arrived and something was being set up, but we weren't too sure what, and it was starting at 9:00 pm. With an hour to spare we had a beer in the park nearby. Kristin bought some hats to keep warm (we seemed to be the only people in St. Petersburg wearing those hats, wonder why?)
We met a few locals, whose English was as good as our Russian. The first lady was a Russian literature teacher, I think! She gave Kristin her St. Petersburg flag. The next person to sit with us was a bit of a pest. (From Siberia about 25y.o. and virtually no English, his Google translate come up with, "I will entertain you", which meant I'll buy you a beer. We had a hotdog with our beer. The pest then recruited a girl who could speak English, who was very nice, also a teacher and from another part of Siberia. After a while we decided to go and look at the concert, so we made our goodbyes to our new friends.
The concert was a full blown Opera, with a full orchestra, dancing and many different singers, all for free as a part of the St. Petersburg celebrations (May 27 is the anniversary day).
After the concert finished (11:00 pm although it felt like 7 pm, as it doesn't really get dark at this time of year) we returned to the hotel.
In the morning, we went for a walk around the South West of St . Petersburg for a couple of hours. Kristin wanted to find the Lion's bridge, but the Trip Advisor location was incorrect. Anyhow off to Estonia (Tallinn) now.
Russia was a great place to visit and would stringly recommend it to anyone. Very little English spoken but somehow we managed to get by.
Cheers,
A & K.
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