St Petersburg

Tuesday 12 July 2005

Another stroll around sundry parks, we live in the poorer part of town, City improves closer to the river. Took in the Winter Palace, Yusupov Palace, where Rasputin was murdered and thrown into the Moyka, had a great boat trip 1.5 hours up and down the Neva and took in the Peter and Paul fortress - gun goes off at noon with a huge blast. Went to a pub before catching the bus to Tallin at 12.50am.

Monday 11 July 2005

Woke up to another russian breakfast. Hang on to your food otherwise it gets snatched by overly Slavonic waitresses! A lovely walk along the Neva River to the Summer Palace Gardens - beautiful oaks - to Palace Square, where one of the revolution masacres took place, overlooked by the exotic Winter Palace and Hermitage Museum - the latter closed on Mondays! Went shopping, spent time in the INet Cafe, very yuppy - bloody Russian machines! Posted some goods and then a leisurely stroll back to our hotel for MGTs.