Day One in St Petersburg - To the Venice of the North

We’re up at the crack of dawn this morning, checked out and on the bus by 5.30am with our boxed breakfast - our third Metropol morning dining experience. The sky is already blue, and it’s going to be a fine day.

At the busy train station we thank and farewell Kirill and our driver Alexander and take our Business Class seats in Coach 2 of the high speed Sapsan train. Train is the most economical and convenient way to travel between the two cities (it’s a long slog by road) and our journey will take four hours. The Doubledecker overnight train has just arrived from St Petersburg at the next door platform after an 8-hour journey - through the windows we can see small sleeping berths with disheveled beds which don’t look too comfortable. We settle in to our very comfortable seats and depart for St Petersburg at 7am.

As Helen and Valerie are unfortunately no longer with us, I had cancelled their seats, which have been snapped up by a young Asian lad and a strapping Russian who sit in our midst. The latter promptly starts snoring at a level nothing could ever drown out. The train is silent and smooth so there is no loud clickety-clack to mask the noise.

The outskirts of Moscow are full of tenement blocks and the occasional church, gold domes gleaming in the middle of absolutely nowhere. 

The drinks trolley comes and wine is on offer even at this early hour. It’s Sharon’s birthday today so we celebrate with a wine; after all, it’s not every day you turn another year older while transitioning from one Russian city to another (unless you’re Russian of course!) It’s a local plonk in a tiny glass and it goes down very easily with Happy Birthday cheer. Chatter and laughter fills the air, especially when Shirley announces she can’t keep her legs together on account of the box between them! Her breakfast box, that is! The Russian girl who is also in our midst, and looks like she’s had a rather hard night, joins in the revelry and chats away for a while before retreating to her laptop and headphones. 

Out the window, there are lots of trees, with small cabins dotted amongst them. Every so often we pass an industrial area (complete with gold domed church), and clusters of apartment towers, but mostly it’s acres of woodlands and rural cabin-style wooden housing. The snoring behind us doesn’t let up. At one point a man from the other end of the carriage comes along; he’s had enough and gives the snoring guy a big poke, telling him to be quiet. It doesn’t work.

Brunch is served. Our hotel breakfast box, with its sandwiches, pastries and fruit, has already filled us up, but there’s always room for more ... The 3-course brunch is plentiful and edible but not quite to the standard we’ve become accustomed to. The food on this trip has been really fantastic. 

Tenement blocks loom into view again en masse and soon enough we arrive at the station in St Petersburg. Just to confuse things, it’s called Moskovsky Station. The one in Moscow is called Leningradsky Station. 

Our new guide Anastasia is there to greet us with a bright and cheery manner and she organises us and our luggage onto the bus. She is young, bubbly and efficient and has a walker organised for Sheila who is reluctant at first but, with encouragement, she uses it. The bus is a short walk away due to parking limitations, so it definitely makes things easier. She needs to take care of that leg.

We drive around the city, along the main drag - Nevsky Prospekt - and see a statue of Catherine the Great. The weather is perfect.

We stop at the interestingly-named Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood; it’s not dissimilar to St Basil’s with its coloured domes. I’ve seen a lot of stunning Churches around the world but this one strikes a real chord with me, perhaps on account of the gorgeous blue/teal colour tones inside it. Stunning. Outside there is scaffolding which rather spoils exterior photo opportunities but once work is complete it will be spectacular. Inside and out, this church, situated on a canal and by a park, is amazing. Sharon and I are mesmerised by the spectacular lighting everywhere in the Churches and palaces - the many chandeliers as well as the natural light that floods throughout the spaces creating a beautiful atmosphere. I absolutely love this particular church.

It’s time for lunch (as if we haven’t eaten enough already!) and we walk across the canal to Restaurant St Petersburg where we enjoy a delicious meal (chicken Kiev) in charming surroundings. The stained-glass umbrella decor and gorgeous entrance to the toilets take us by surprise. The food fills us to the brim.

Next stop is the town of Pushkin, about an hour away - we’ll be visiting Catherine Palace, an OTT Rococo Palace that was the summer residence of the Tsars. 

It’s a hot day without a cloud in the sky. We enter the enormous palace grounds at the group entrance area and marvel at this massive blue, white and gold building. There is scaffolding on one wing, perhaps they are painting or doing some maintenance - relentless tasks in a place this size. 

It’s busy, and there’s a solid queue to get in, but it’s nothing compared to the public entrances on the other side where queues stretch forever and wait times are 4+ hours. Horrific, but people from all around the world are dutifully waiting for their turn to see the opulence within. Go with a group tour unless you want to spend all day there. Or better still, visit in winter when there are no queues or crowds. I saw this place covered in a veil of white 40 years ago and to see it snow-covered is special.

We go through the various halls - it’s a bit like Versailles, with white and gold and mirrors in all directions. It’s mind-blowing and head-shaking stuff. Empress Elizabeth (Daughter of Catherine and Peter the Great) sure had a taste for the ornate. It’s fascinating to see but, after numerous rooms of such decadence, it’s nice to come across the more sedate dining rooms and parlours in tones of sage and lemon. This palace is truly a showcase of Elizabeth’s extravagance - on party nights she would walk through the many linked rooms on her own personal “runway” to the massive ballroom, wearing her finest attire, selected after many changes of dresses until she had found the one that was right for the occasion. Apparently she had over 15,000 dresses and thousands of pairs of shoes so I guess choosing was not a simple task. And I’d say “extravagance” is an understatement. The ballroom can be hired and we are told that Elton John celebrated a birthday here at some point. What a party that would have been!

Like all the amazing palaces and churches we’ve seen, this one is hard to describe. Photos never do them justice, the grandeur can really only be experienced in person. Get to Russia and get amongst it all if you can.

We return to the bus, weary in the warm afternoon sun, past queues that are still stretching for miles. We can’t imagine that most of these people will even  get in today, but still they wait patiently for their chance to see what we’ve just seen. 

Uh-oh we have lost Hugh and Erice! Anastasia and I hot-foot it back to the exit searching as we go; the driver rings to say they are now on board the bus. Phew! They had somehow got themselves to then other side of the road. 

Back to the city and we check into the Domina Hotel which sits on the Moyka Canal. It is modernist and colourful, rooms in shades of vibrant green and plush purple. It’s not to everyone’s taste but the rooms are spacious and comfortable. The evening is free for a spot of dinner, a walk along the canal, a well-earned rest. I enjoy a local red wine with Elaine in the hotel bar, which comes with delicious fried flat bread and nuts. That’s dinner done and dusted. Sleep beckons. 

OBSERVATION OF THE DAY: It’s “White Night” time of year when the days are long and the nights are short. Our weather is perfect and the sky is still blue until nearly midnight. It never gets fully dark and, by 4am, the sky is turning blue again. 

Actually, it’s rarely blue at all here - Anastasia tells us St Petersburg has on average just 39 days of blue skies and sunshine per year. Mostly the skies are dull and grey. We are fortunate to see St Petersburg at its best, and the forecast for the coming days is the same.