The Hermitage Museum

When I was putting this trip together it seemed like a good idea to add an extension to Helsinki and St Petersburg. At the time I thought it would be a relatively simple matter, however it turned into being something of a nightmare. After starting arrangements with three different Australian Travel Agencies (all of who abandoned the task as being "too hard") I eventually found a travel agency based in Latvia who said they would make the arrangements for us. The problem was that it was difficult (ie nearly impossible) to get any information from them for months at a time. Often phone calls went unanswered and email were ignored. It was certainly a cause of stress.

About two months prior to our departure the time came to make the full payment for this part of our trip. The stress levels escalated further. Somewhere in the back of my mind I had the fear that we were being fleeced.

Fortunately it has turned out that none of my fears were warranted. The arrangements have gone almost exactly to plan. The hotel that we were given in Helsinki was great and the Sokos Vasilievsky in St Petersburg was easily the best hotel of our entire trip. It was a wonderful way to finish a memorable adventure.

This afternoon was our chance to tour the famous Hermitage Museum, one of the three largest museums in the world. Its vast collection of priceless works of art and pieces of antiquity would take a lifetime to see. We only had three hours, so we didn't manage to see quite everything. What we did see was about ten cruise liners worth of passengers all trying to force themselves through the museum at the same time as us. In many places the throng of people actually made the experience quite unpleasant, but that is the price you must pay to view such famous artworks.

Svetlana led us through the bewildering sequence of massive rooms at a breakneck pace. From time to time we stopped to examine a particular item in greater detail. The Hermitage contains two pieces by Leonardo da Vinci and these were obviously one of the major attractions for the thousands of visitors.

In 1985 a crazed young man attacked Rembrandt's Danae painting. At the time it was regarded as the most beautiful and valuable piece of art in the entire collection. At first it was thought to be so badly damaged that it could never be repaired. After thirteen years of painstaking repair and restoration, it is now back on display. It is no longer claimed to be the entire work of Rembrandt as some parts had to be completely repainted. It is still a remarkable piece of art, but it is now securely protected by armoured glass.

By 5 pm we were all absolutely exhausted. It had been a very long day and we were well and truly ready to return to our hotel for a little quietness and rest. In spite of the crush of people, we still considered ourselves fortunate to have had the opportunity to view some of the greatest artworks of all time.

Tomorrow will be our last full day here, the following day we begin the long journey home.Read more