St Petersberg and

We hit the Hermitage museum first to get it out of way ( as Amy said) but we were feeling a little weary  so the whole place seemed a bit overwhelming. In fact the whole city of St Petersburg was a little overwhelming. Every where you turn there is another amazing building , huge statue, gigantic mosaic, priceless painting or gold embossed domed church. 

It took us a while to get into our flat  and we were ready to collapse on our beds . However what I thought was a flat totally to ourselves turned out to be a shared apartment with 5 other people. ( yes something got lost in the translation ) . Everyone seems to have  a room or a bed  in our group so we are happy ( although a little intrigued about where some of the other guests were sleeping). It is also a great  central location ( Harley can easily get us out and walk the city streets ( well me anyway ). After a quick evening recovery nap  and a three course Armenian dinner with live music thrown in we head off  to the white nights Cycling tour which started at 10: 30 pm . Yes I know it's way past my bed time but bed time is also another thing that has gone out the window here . We cycle through a night that is mostly eerie twilight in the drizzling rain . 

The highlight  destination ( which we didn't realise at the time  ) was watching one of the bridge openings on the Neva river.  We were wondering what all the fuss was about , but in st petersberg watching the bridges open in the early morning is a great  romantic destination . Hundreds of people seemed to be standing there at 1: 30 am just waiting to watch the engineering phenomenon that happens every night in summer to let the cargo ships go through. 

Having got home at 3 am the crew were not quite as enthusiastic on day 2  in St Petersberg . Today they were happy to blindly follow tour leader "H" ( in sleep walk mode ) wherever he took us ( no break away groups this time) . So after a  slightly later start we climbed St Isaac's church steeple  and walked the posh shopping street. ( yes tour leader " H " knows the way to his tour group 's heart ). We stopped at a Russian cafe that use to be the singer sewing machine HQ.  It also had a great book shop with lots of novels I couldn't read but they all looked delightful if you could only get your head around Russian and the cryllic script.

After another very filling ( and rich) meal we headed off to the gruesomely named church of the Spilt Blood . It was the spot  where Alexander someone or other  was Murdered and they built the church over the spot where he was actually killed ( A very ornate crime scene) as well as an excuse for more amazing mosaics, gold  finishes and dome roof tops . After finding the best pie shop in st Petersberg ( according to our landlady any way) we headed back to the flat to catch up again on sleep we lost night the before ( these kids have no stamina according to tour leader "H")  and  to watch Dominic's washing wave in the breeze on the line , six floors up just outside our window ( don't let them blow away  mum). 

We then head off to another Armenian dinner - yes how can we possibly fit in more food but all this walking the streets and museums and churches works up an appetite. 

H  , Dom and I then went street Promenading another favourite pass time  for most St Petersbergians late into the white night . Also Lots of the local young fellas seemed to like hooning up and down the main drag in their hotted up cars at this time of night. (  ain't the would the same all over) 

Our last day  . We are up early but the tour group is still flagging with colds and the long crazy white nights . Harley , Dom and I head off to the Peter and Paul fort  where all the Russian emperors have been buried and every second tour group in Russia seems to have turned up ready  to fight to the death ( well atleast a few bumps and bruises) for their position in line . I can't say too much about the site as most of the explanation signs  are in Russian  ( and it again was huge) but we got to know where the goods bits were because that was also usually where we had to elbow our way through ( Tour leader "H" sent his troops in for this task ) to try and see what everyone was looking at. 

We headed off on a walk to another gruesome museum ( emperor Peter  loved to collect body parts) but again on a beautiful st petersberg day the queues were a bit long for our starving troops to wait. 

We found ourselves a local cafe ( with no English menu) and took some wild guesses for lunch . Again the food was fantastic ( if a bit of a surprise) and we continued to add to our repetoire of things we want to try and cook when we get home .

We head back to the flat as we have to be on the boat again for Helsinki by evening. ( and the boat's all you can eat smorgasbord awaits )