Fireworks in St Pete!!!
Have had a brilliant time here!!! went to Peter & Paul Fortress - just like a castle - all dec.'d out inside and it was really good (the gardens were beautiful - good for snowballs!!! - would be gorgeous in summer with all the waterfalls going) but I was more impressed with the history of the place - eg never used as a fortress, Catherine the Great holed up there in one of the 'cabins', and how the Nazis used it as a base during their seige of Leningrad/St Pete... And had big fluffy snow flakes coming down - beautiful!!!
After that Pauline, Justin, Wendy and I mad our way to church of the Spilled Blood (bit of a replica of St Basil's in Moscow) - the mosaics were amazing - and again the history - how a bomb went thru the central dome in WW2 but didn't explode... They had souvineer markets near by - did a bit of bargaining and got some Russian dolls :) Then for our final group dinner we went to a great Georgian restaurant... and then it was our final breakfast (sniff sniff)... Wendy and John had flights out that day, Anjela lives in St Pete, and Pauline and Justin are flying out the Sunday pretty much the same time as me (but going to Switzerland)... that night they had fireworks to celebrate the anniversary of defeating the German seige of St pete - a good way to celebrate our last group night!
Anyway yesterday I went to St Isaac's (the third largest dome in the world) - absolutely brilliant views of the city from the top of the colonade! - and then I made my way to the Bronze Horseman and then walked along the Neva River to the Summer Garden (reminded me of the books...) - summer garden would be amazing in summer (haha) - all the statues etc are covered in winter... Then went onto the Museum dedicated to the defenders of Leningrad - most of it was in russian - but it was still really interesting and the photos that they had in there were pretty powerful... they also had guns, weapons and other little relics... and then climbed to the top of this old water tower - so did a fair bit of walking to work up my appepitite for my final diner in St Pete with Pauline and Justin...
Anyway am off for my last walk along Nevskiy Prospect before going out to the airport...!
can't believe the 21 days is all over - has been absolutely brilliant - defintely recommend it! The winter train doesn't have any tourists (we didn't meet any) - so definitely would travel with someone then - but summer meant to be tourist heaven so would meet plenty of people on the train...
but I have loved the whole trip!!!! - had no bad bits - loved the train, the cold (travelled thru -40, and got to the -30s a few times and regularly -20s!!!), the snow, the scenery, the people (even the rude ones!) - it was fantastic!!!! ( have 9 rolls of film to prove it!!!)
Pukka! (bye!)