Friday (St. Petersburg by bus)

This morning we ate breakfast at the hotel. The breakfast consists of stopping by the front desk and grabbing a tiny container of yogurt and coffee (if you’re so inclined). Needless to say, the meal was not substantial but fortunately we had an early lunch at 1 PM after only walking 2 or 3 miles. We ate at a very nice restaurant and the food was excellent. The meal consisted of bread, salad, vegetable soup, fried potatoes (nicely seasoned) and crepes with a very tasty berry sauce for dessert. This tasty repast would prove to be the only real meal of the day.

The schedule for this morning was the Russian Hermitage which is an excellent museum much like the Louvre in France. However, we did not go the Hermitage but instead visited the summer palace of Catherine the Great. This trip was not in our budget so we each needed to donate $25 to the cause. The palace was very impressive and contains the world-famous Amber room that was captured by the Nazis and has never been seen since. We saw a re-creation of the room based on black and white photos of the original. I had previously read a book about the Amber room and was excited to see it in person. The good news is that we were allowed to take pictures throughout the palace except one room. The bad news is that room was, of course, the Amber Room. So I did the next best thing, I bought a post card of the room and photographed it.

Our English speaking guide on this trip is excellent. By now you should know her name. As with all the English-speaking women of Ukraine and Russia with whom I have conversed her name was Natasha. She really knows here stuff and her English is quite good.

After the palace, we went to see the Church of the Spilled Blood. I gather it was named after a Czar who was killed on the site. The church is incredible and rivals St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow. Roland and I took a quick peek inside and the murals were impressive. We didn’t have time to do the full tour.

At this same spot we also did some shopping at the nearby Tourist Trap, I mean Mart. I found some key chains for my sons and that was all I bought. I’m quite proud of myself.

This morning my roommate, Roland, complained to the hotel management about the lack of hot water in our shower. We had no problem getting hot water from the sink but the shower was always only freezing cold. They promised to send someone to fix it while we were gone which apparently they did because now there is no hot water at all. Problem solved.