St Petersburg - Day 4

Our flight home wasn't until 1540 so after a fairly leisurely breakfast we checked out but left our cases at the Golden Triangle so we could wander round unencumbered for a couple of hours.

So many of the buildings are amazing, with little details on them you spend the whole time looking up at them and walking into lamp posts etc.

Nice planters made from offcuts of wood.

Having studied the guide books, Ian came up with a couple of places which sounded really interesting, but first we were off to visit the Church on the Spilled Blood just down the road - although looking at it from the front I think it should be renamed Church of the Split Condom (we think the restoration works may be finished as it looks like the scaffolding is being taken down).

Unfortunately it didn't open for another 3/4 hour although it was already covered in ants, so we went for a walk across the Field of Mars where Ian could warm his hands by the Eternal Flame commemorating the victim of all the revolutions and wars that have befallen StP.

I think I mentioned before the streets are full of trip hazards and I honestly don't think spirit levels have reached StP as everything is so uneven.

We headed for the Summer Garden which was designed by Peter the Great and contained a small palace and 250 statues of which 80 still remain.  Sadly it was closed on Tuesdays so all we could do was peer forlornly though the fence.

The Stroganov Palace which houses an impressive sculpture collection was also closed on Tuesdays.  So back to the Spilled Blood.

We'd read it would be packed solid inside so we were pleasantly surprised and the inside was just as beautiful as the outside.

A little model showing what it looks like without scaffolding.

Outside was the first place we'd encountered tat stalls, although there were plenty of souvenir shops around.  Mostly selling babushkas of one variety or another.

Most cars we saw were relatively modern and far eastern makes but this Lada reminded me of the old joke 

Q-  What's the difference between a Lada and a skip?

A-  A Lada has wheels on it

It was absolutely full of rubbish.

Next we visited the Kazan Cathedral back on Nevsky Prospekt and this was the first church we've been in that's requested No Photography, which was a shame as there was a service of some kind going on; there were 6/7 priests in beautiful turquoise and gold robes singing away plus a small choir providing responses.  

Not my photo and not at Kazan Cathedral but the outfit looks similar.  I'd assumed the priests would be in black like Greek Orthodox but maybe cathedral is "high church"

I would have loved a few shots but, as always, I respected it was a place of worship for many people.  Incidentally the congregation (mostly middle aged women) didn't sit, but stood around the alter area.  The first Russian Orthodox Service we've witnessed and very lovely too.

We then decided to get on a tram as it was the only form of transport we hadn't used.  Although each tram/bus has a touch pad for ticket collection, they still have lady conductors onboard who then rescan the cards each time - socialist job creation maybe.  

We only went a few stops and walked to the Faberge Museum - we didn't have time for a tour but wanted to get a little present for a friend.  The museum is on the bank of one of the canals on yesterday's boat tour and we'd seen these lovely bridge statues from the water.  4 different horse statues on each corner - I only managed to get 3 as the 4th was in deep shade.

Faberge was really busy but they kindly let us into the shop area (via extensive security and bag searching) and we bought a fridge magnet.

A pity we didn't have longer as I certainly could have spent more time in the shop, let alone the museum itself!

Over the last few days we've seen an awful lot of people in costumes promoting various things, although like these two not always clear what.  The best though was a Burger King coffee mug, how the poor chap/ess could see I don't know.

Also people covered in paint pretending to be statues seems quite prevalent here.  And I'm guessing this chap was about to set up his stall somewhere.

We hopped on a bus to get us back to the hotel, retrieved our little cases and headed for the metro firstly and then No39 bus back to the airport.  On the way in I'd noticed this roundabout so attempted to get it through the bus windows.

Seemingly very quickly we were back at the airport, boarding passes collected and heading for the lounge.  Except it was being refurbished and half of it was closed off so everyone was herded together in a small cafe like space whilst hammers rained and drills squealed.  The food was less than appetizing.

Although clearly not everyone was as fussy as me!

So that bought our little St Petersburg Sojourn to an end, we had a lovely few days and although we didn't get to see all we would have like to, we certainly saw a fair amount.  Enough left for another trip sometime, maybe - although we'll plan our itinerary a bit better; if we'd swopped Monday for Tuesday we'd have gained entrance to so much more.

I didn't feel we'd got full use out of our City Card particularly as we'd had to load it to cover transport, but when I totted up all the places we used it, we actually saved ourselves R960 (£8) each.