St Petersburg

After 1,000km of cycling from Stockholm we finally arrived in St Petersburg.

 

Once in St Petersburg, you are once again in modern Europe .  It is like stepping out of the past into the present.  There are not so many Ladas and you can buy whatever you want in the shops.

 

We loved this city.  It has an grand feeling because of the large buildings, wide avenues and canals.  At 32 degrees celsius, it was the hottest August St Petersburg has had in a long time and all the girls were out in their summer clothing which meant lots of miniskirts and hot pants parading the streets.

 

 

Since leaving Brussels, Robert had been reading a book about the “ Amber Room ”, a room entirely made of amber, which was stolen from Catherine’s Palace by the Nazis during WWII.  The Amber Room was fabled as the eighth wonder of the world.  Now that we were finally in St Petersburg, Robert couldn’t wait to go and see the reconstructed Amber Room that was only completed a few years ago at enormous expense to the Russian government.

 

 

Catherine’s Palace was no disappointment as it is absolutely stunning on a scale that rivals Versailles but the Amber room turned out to be, unfortunately, possibly the ugliest room in the palace.  It is a bit like one of those pictures made of sea shells that tourists buy.  In a word “Kitch”…but that is just my opinion.

 

We celebrated Charlie’s mum’s 60th birthday with a trip to a grand theatre show of Russian folk music and dancing before heading back to Finland.