Farewell St Petersburg. We loved you.

It’s Friday morning and we’re writing this tidy-up as we travel to Moscow for the next leg of the journey.

St Petersburg was absolutely wonderful and would be ideal for a standalone 3-5 day break, except for the fact that if you are British then the whole cost and hassle of a getting a Russian Visa is pretty prohibitive for a short visit (e.g. complex forms, fingerprinting in London, Manchester or Edinburgh). You would barely realise you were in the old Eastern Bloc as it feels like any other vibrant, bustling West European City full of bars and restaurants with plenty of grocery stores and bars open 24/7.

By the way we must mention how lucky we have been with the weather for our three days in the City, as we have enjoyed a perfect unbroken blue sky and 26C daytime temperatures for our stay. This is well above the average for August here and a real bonus which looks like extending into Moscow.

It is obviously a busy, growing tourist destination and as with other places we’ve been to over the past few years, the Chinese dominate. They are bonkers, travelling in big groups and dashing around photographing everything in their path and barging their way past anyone hindering their progress. They were at their most manic in the Hermitage where they were running between rooms trying to photograph as many of the three million exhibits as possible before they left, even if they didn’t have a clue what they were looking at.

Speaking of the Hermitage we must thank our guide Olga who took us round and educated us on the exhibits. She is partially sighted, which would not seem ideal for a guide in an art gallery but it seemed to work well. Our other guide in St Petersburg was the red headed Ludmilla who facilitated the City Tour. A lovely lady who walked us for miles and kept us entertained and informed.

We ate well and on Wednesday dined at an traditional Russian restaurant, Gogol, which was preceded on Tuesday by a modern Russian dining experience at the upmarket Hamlet & Jacks. We promise we won’t recount every meal (or photograph all of our dinners) however we feel we should mention the deconstructed Turkey Lasagne main course and desert of Beetroot cheesecake with gingerbread crust, baked potato ice cream and candied carrot, served at the latter. Both meals were accompanied by good Russian wine and were excellent.

Now we had been warned in guide books and the internet that Russians will only ever drink Vodka neat and it is sacrilege to consider sullying it with another liquid. This did not stop John fancying and ordering a pre dinner Vodka and tonic at Hamlet & Jack’s. On receiving this request the waiter looked on, quite aghast, in a lengthening stunned silence seemingly providing John with an opportunity to change his mind and withdraw this embarrassment. He then asked for the order to be repeated and with a scowl told John ‘OK....we will make you a cocktail’. Lesson learned. We will now only drink neat Vodka for the rest of the trip. G & T is of course perfectly acceptable.

So we expect you’re worried about John’s mosquito bites from Tuesday? Or maybe not...but the good news is that they cleared up quickly and that afternoon Janet saw the mosquito in the room and splattered it on the nice white net curtain. Problem solved, apart from the fact that when we went to bed that evening we saw another mossie and couldn’t catch it. Janet awoke the next morning to several bites so the insects must be working on a rota basis. This was proved as John then encountered a wasp sting on the arm as we waited to go into the Hermitage. We are now both OK until the next time.

Finally it’s confession time. We are doing something which we are not proud of and, hypocritically, have ridiculed others for in the past and however hard it is to admit to our friends.....we have brought with us.........a selfie-stick! Please forgive us and try to understand why we have done it. We feel ashamed but somewhat easier now we have shared this with you.

OK as mentioned we are on the train to Moscow. The Sapsan express is unlike any of the other trains we will be taking on this trip as it is a modern high speed shuttle between the two biggest cities in Russia and takes just 4 hours at up to 155 mph. Just to mention that after boarding the train it was 20 minutes to actual departure time and they played some relaxing music through the carriages. Not sure who chose it, however a playlist containing Away in a Manger, Hark the Herald Angels Sing and Auld Lang Syne may not have been totally appropriate for the time of year!

As we approach Moscow we’re on time for a 13:20 arrival and are excited at the prospect of reaching one of the World’s iconic capitals. They’ve put music on again and our train arrives to the unmistakable Summertime strains of ‘While Sheperds Watch Their Flocks at Night’.

We’ll let you know how the second leg of our tour goes.Read more