A long weekend in Russia
St Petersburg is definitely a gentler introduction to Russia, with more English spoken and a more tourist friendly atmosphere. Taking into account a 4hr flight from London and a 2hr time difference, you have less than half a day on your first day. However, if you plan your trip for summer, then the long, light nights definitely are an advantage. Being July when we were there, it didn’t really get dark until gone 1am and then rose soon after. We spent most of the remainder of our first day exploring the centre of St Petersburg and finding our bearings. From the square outside the famous Hermitage art gallery, we wandered over the many bridges of St Petersburg, across to Vasileostrovskaya island, then on to Peter and Paul Fortress. Stopping here for dinner, we then crossed another bridge to the Church of our Saviour on Spilled Blood. Walking down to and along the famous Nevsky Prospekt Street, before heading back to our hotel to collapse in our beds.
On our first full day, we headed down to St Isaac’s Cathedral, climbing the tower for bird’s eye views of the city. From up here, you get an idea of just how many canals and rivers there are and why the city is referred to as the “Venice of the North”. Then it was back to the intricate Church of our Saviour on Spilled Blood, but this time it was open and we were able to go inside. I can safely say that whilst I don’t know what I was expecting, I was not expecting that. The entire inside is made of mosaics. All the walls, the ceiling and even a large part of the floor. It was phenomenal. One of the best ways to see the city is from the canals and there are plenty of boat trips available to help with this - pick your boat carefully here.
We had pre-booked tickets for the Mariinsky ballet which was to be at the Mariinsky theatre. It was a lovely cultural experience and one I would certainly recommend. Once the ballet had finished it was still light and only about 10.30pm so we went in search of dinner and a drink or two. Every night in summer at 1.30am, all the major bridges of St Petersburg are raised to let ships in and out and for some reason this seems to be a major tourist attraction with a party atmosphere by the river banks. Just ensure that you are on the right side of the bridges before they lift as they don’t go back down until 5.30am!
The next day, we took a day trip to just outside the city and the amazing summer palace of St Peterhof. This was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. The amount of gold statues in the impressive fountains glittering in the sunlight should have made us realise there’d be more inside. The first room you come to is the ballroom and here the entire room is made of gold. Walls, ceilings, pillars, window frames; sensational! Sadly no photos are allowed. Many of the other rooms, whilst not quite as golden, were also a sight to behold. The Palace is a 30 min hydrofoil journey from the Hermitage and upon returning here, were somewhat disappointing that our timings did not allow us to enter on this occasion.
The following day, it was time to see how good our ability was to understand Russian train tickets. We had booked the 1.30pm fast Sapsan train to Moscow, but the tickets were purely in Russian so there was always an element of doubt! Happily, we had the right train and we even, with a bit of guesswork, managed to find our reserved seats. The train ran to time, was clean and comfortable, much like many other longer distance trains in Europe. We reached top speeds of just over 200kmph and so made the 440 mile journey in a little over 3.5 hours. Once in Moscow it was the little issue of getting to our hotel using a metro system that had no English. Luckily, the metro stations are so extravagant you don’t mind stopping for an extra 5 minutes in order to match up symbols and find your station. Both cities have reliable, fast, safe metro systems with the only difference being the lack of English in Moscow. All lines are colour coded though so it’s only once on the platform and deciding which direction to catch a train that is becomes an issue!
For us, the main attractions were Red Square and the Kremlin. For this reason, we knew that approximately 24 hours would be sufficient. On the first evening, we spent time seeing Red Square by night. My personal highlight was finally get up close to St Basil’s Cathedral with its multitude of colours and looking almost like a cake decoration. Being further south than St Petersburg, the sun set earlier around 11.00pm.
With our final day in Russia, we headed down to the Kremlin avoiding the ridiculously long queues to the Lenin Mausoleum. Our first stop was to the Armoury – a very interesting museum with weapons, outfits, jewellery and much more including a display of Fabergé Eggs. The audio guide is highly recommended as it gives a much deeper insight into the displays. Once out of the Armoury, it was into the main part of the Kremlin – Cathedral Square. There are 3 separate churches within the Kremlin, each one different but beautiful. Assumption Cathedral was the burial site of the patriarchs, Archangel Cathedral was the site of many coronations whilst Annunciation Cathedral was used as an actual church. Finally, within the Kremlin were the Tsar Bell Tower and Bell. After all this walking we decided to head back into the Red Square and see the inside of St Basil’s. The church is actually 8 separate chapels all linked together, with St Basil’s being just one of them – the last one to be built. Downstairs is a museum whilst upstairs are the actual chapels.
After a late lunch, we finished off our trip with a visit to the Contemporary History Museum. Charting more recent history than the majority of other displays we had seen, the only downside was the lack of English description. As we neared the end and hit WWII the museum got a lot more interesting but we had to rush a little as it was time to head to the airport. Our little sojourn in Russia, with its extravagant palaces and beautiful churches, had come to end and left us wanting much more.