Bonnie Writes:
So our first full day in St. Petersburg dawned bright, sunny and cold. After a quick breakfast, I added 2 layers to my ensemble (long underwear shirt and my jacket on top of my vest). Nicole loaned me a hat and gloves. She added a wool layer to her gear and we were off. We caught a bus back to the train station and then got tickets to (you guessed it) the Hop On-Hop Off bus. After a couple of hours of an overview of the city (everything from Uprising Square, The Arts Square, St Petersburg State Circus, the Summer Garden, Church of the Spilled Blood, the Hermitage, the Palace Embankment, the Admiralty Embankment and more statues and monuments than you can possibly imagine) we arrived at St. Isaac’s Cathedral and decided to get off for a while. After a refreshing coffee for Nicole and a cup of tea for me, we decided to change buses and see the other side of the river. There were more palaces, fortresses, statues, the zoo and museums. We ended up again at St. Isaac’s Cathedral and decided to go in. Talk about breathtaking; the artwork is beyond description. I was convinced that a number of pieces were paintings when in reality they are mosaics. You need to be really close to tell.
We walked along the river past the many, many palaces – who knew there were so many nobles that each needed their own palace. We ended up at the square bordered by the summer palace, the Hermitage and the General Staff building. After looking around there we went walking through the central district. It is fun to see all the high fashion store names in Russian.
Finally it was time for our Russian dinner. I had stroganoff (which was invented in St. Petersburg) and Nicole went with pelmeni. Of course I needed to try out the Russian wine (equally as good as those German ones I might add). We ended with Russian tiramisu – nothing like the Italian/American but really yummy. All in all, a great day!