Russian Safari - St Petersburg

Oct 8th 2014:

An American breakfast to start the day with. The omlette ordered was double egged but the size served appeared to contain many more eggs. Huge would be an understatement to describe it. 

Catherine Palace

We visited the Catherine Palace in Pushkin town. It was the Summer Palace of the ruling monarchs in the past. Words and pictures would never be able to describe it.

Catherine Palace

The "wow factor" is the only adjective that I can use for it. 

I got the first feel of Autumn. Leaves turned yellow and flying off the trees. That's why I presume they call it 'Fall'. Trees bearing leaves in various shades of yellow just adorn this beautiful city of St Petersburg.

Lunch was at "Tandoori nights". And yet again to some of the famous monuments and pics galore.

The souvenir shop boasted of designer fur caps, imitation jewelry, Matryoshka dolls and Russian Vodka. 

Free coffee, free washroom and free vodka were the customer attractive features. 

We ended up just using the free services and window shopping. 

The next 2 hrs were spent in Galeria Mall. Some local chocolates were a steal. Rest all would be easily available back home. As I mentioned before too, it is Russian, Russian all the way. No signs of English anywhere. From the name of the chocolate and it's ingredients to the name of the shop. It is just impossible to purchase anything. We lost interest and waited for the coach to take us to our restaurant for dinner. 

It was indeed a hectic day. 

Oct 9, 2014:

It promised to be another tight scheduled day. After the customary breakfast, we boarded our coach. The temperatures seemed manageable today. 

Or  was it that our bodies had started getting acclimatized?  

The Heritage museum or Winter Palace is the largest museum in the world. It houses masterpieces of various artists including Leonardo da Vinci et al. It is said that even a minute spent at each masterpiece, would take a person 80 years to complete the entire museum. 

The 20 Column Hall, Peacock clock were amongst the notable features. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent visiting the

Peter and Paul Cathedral

Peter and Paul Cathedral followed by the Nicholas Cathedral. 

St Nicholas Cathedral

The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly the cruise over the Neva

and Moika rivers. The banks of the rivers are adorned by various monuments and historical structures.














The illumination at

night over the buildings gives this city a differnt outlook altogether.

It was a Gala dinner and the guests rocked and swayed to the Bollywood tunes.  

Palace Bridge

The best part of the evening was yet to come. Braving the cold and a mild drizzle, we went upto the Palace bridge over the Neva river. We were just in time to watch the bridge opening up from the centre. This is a regular phenomenon that happens daily by 1230am. Gradually, all the other bridges over this river opened up to allow cargo ships to sail through. The road is thus closed for 3-4 hrs every night. 

"Honey, I am sorry I couldn't make it home last night. I was caught up on the other side of the river" - a regular excuse given by spouses. 

Oct 10:

Breakfast and check out. A big traffic snarl created a sort of unexpectedness and we were in danger of losing out on our Cathedral visit for the day. 

Fortunately, It was not to be and the jam started clearing. 

Savior of Spilled Blood Cathedral

The Cathedral known as "The Saviour of Spilled Blood" was alarmingly beautiful. Erected by the son of Alexander II, in memory of his father who was killed in a bloodshed, this place was a photostop only. It was impossible not to take pictures of this monument from all the angles. 

Mikhailovsky Garden

The Mikhailovsky garden was highly picturesque and summed up this beautiful and romantic city of St. Petersburg.