St Petersburg, Russia - January 2018 (Part 2)

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We had thought at one point of doing two days in the Hermitage, but one long one was enough for us and we welcomed the chance to see more of the city and get outside.

We hopped on a Metro to Gor’kovskaya, where we walked along the snowy streets to the Cruiser Aurora.

Reputed to be the ship that sparked the October Revolution, when the crew refused an order to leave port and later fired a blank to indicate the end of the deadline to the Interim Government appointed after the Tsar had abdicated, it has been extensively refurbished (in 2016) and is in lovely condition, sitting amongst a frozen sea of jagged ice.

Unfortunately, there are parts (the stern, the bridge) we weren’t allowed on (fenced off), maybe they always are, maybe because of the slippery decks, but it was worth a visit, although Mandy couldn’t help but compare the identical entry fee (700 Roubles) with the Winter Palace and other museums the previous day!

Most of the information was in Russian only, but there was some in English and you can get a gist for what it’s all about from doing a bit of research on the Web first. The Ship fought the Japanese before WW1, was instrumental in the Revolution, provided disaster relief in Italy and was involved in the defence of Leningrad during WW2 - All this is covered in displays onboard.

I like ships, so I enjoyed it, but an hour was enough to see it all…

Next we wandered along the Neva Embankment to the St Peter and Paul Fortress, which sits on an island directly across from the Winter Palace.

This fortress consists of a fortified wall, surrounding the island, containing a Cathedral and many other historical buildings. Being enclosed, it’s a little time capsule and very little inside looks out of place for one or two hundred years ago.

This was well worth a stroll around in the snow and we spent a while here, before moving on along the Embankment to the Menshikov Palace.

This was the home of Prince Menshikov, close friend of Peter 1 and first governor of Petrograd (Has any city had so many names?). This was a lot grander than Peter 1’s Winter Palace, but a lot more modest than the Tsar Nicholas’ Winter Palace.

It was interesting to wander through the rooms and whilst very modest next to the Winter Palace, it felt more like a home, than a palace and we were both happy to have visited it - If you have time, it’s also included in the 700 Rouble day ticket with the Winter Palace, so you could come here on the same day - As a one off visit, it cost us a modest 300 Roubles.

Sadly Prince Menshikov fell foul of Russian court politics (nothing is new!) and ended his days in exile in Siberia! Not that much changes...

By the time we left it was well past lunchtime and we were hungry, so we walked across one of the lifting bridges over the river and on past the St Isaac’s Cathedral museum. We decided against going in, opting instead to visit the Church of the Spilled Blood on the following day.

We found a beer house called the Craft Brew Cafe , which served a wide selection of Russian and international craft beers (I had a very nice Russian Stout) and excellent burgers for a reasonable price, a short walk from Nevsky Prospekt and St Isaac’s.

We walked back to our hotel, pretty tired and Mandy had developed a sore throat, so we didn’t venture out again that evening.

The final day we had planned to visit the Church of the Spilled Blood, the Engineer’s Castle and, time permitting, the Faberge Museum, before heading off to the airport.

It was a chilly -10C, but although it was gently snowing, it didn’t feel damp, so was bearable in a way that snowy, warmer days in the UK often aren’t.

We walked down Nevsky Prospekt as far as the Griboydeov canal and then walked along it to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood.

Very much modelled on St Basil’s in Moscow’s Red Square, the church (now a Museum, rather than a place of worship) was built on the spot where Tsar Alexander II was fatally wounded by assassins. It was actually only built in the late 19th Century.

Outside, it’s very much like St Basil’s, with bright onion domes a plenty, whilst inside the walls, ceiling and floor are completely covered in bright mosaics.

It’s a pretty remarkable site, which I hadn’t really expected, despite reading about the mosaics - They are everywhere!

The spot where Alexander was wounded (by a bomb) is protected with a (quite modest) shrine, but the church is riot of colour and decoration.

On leaving the Church we headed through the adjacent Mikhailovsky Garden, past the Russian Museum and visited the “Engineer’s Castle”, which was really just another grand building, built around an internal courtyard with a slightly odd statue of a crowned man sitting in a chair!

We carried on and found the Faberge Museum. This cost 450 Roubles each, so was pretty poor value by the standards of the Hermitage (and we’d seen Faberge items in the General Staff Building), but it was still worth a look and some of the Faberge eggs and silverware items were pretty remarkable.

The place, though, did come over a bit self-important and we didn’t stay very long. Most people, there, though seemed pretty impressed.

After a warm drink in a Starbucks on Nevsky Prospekt (That would never have happened on our previous visit to Russia!), we collected our suitcases from the hotel and jumped on the Metro to Moskovskaya, where we boarded a cramped minibus for a 15 minute ride to the airport. The total cost of our return trip from the hotel to the airport was £3.50 and took less time than the taxi had.

OK, it wasn’t rush hour and it was Sunday, but taxis aren’t the quickest or cheapest way to get around St Petersburg.

Getting out of Russia proved no harder than getting in (again, if you had the right bit of paper - They give you a loose piece on arrival, don’t lose it! - it’s a quick process) and we found the terminal eerily quiet.

We ate a very decent lunch in the TGI Fridays in there and then boarded our plane, which was about 30 minutes late departing, but we were back home by 7PM.

We’d enjoyed our trip to St Petersburg.

Our accomodation was a little strange, but perfectly comfortable for our stay, and excellently located.

The sites had lived up to our expectations and the snowfall and frozen river gave us that “Dr Zhivago” experience that we’d wanted.

As a positive side-effect of going in January, most of the museums were quiet and we never felt hemmed in by crowds or had to wait in line to see anything or buy tickets.

If you don’t mind a bit of a chill in the air, we’d recommend it!

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