A rainy day

A day of buses and boats, we had to get to the Peter & Paul Fortress complex today and we did it by using our hopon hopoff tickets purchased yesterday. Well that's what we thought. Unfortunately we only bus tickets not a combo ticket, so we had to buy a boat ticket to get to where we wanted to go.

The Fortress complex contained many museums and the Cathedral that contained the tombs of most of the Tsars and members of the Romanov family. Another place of interest was the Prison that housed criminals prior to the Revolution and political prisoners after. A grim place. The cell in the pic was filled with one prisoner prior to 1917 but crammed with up to twenty when the Bolsheviks ran the place. It was finally closed in 1924.

Rushing around to see all the spots and get back to the boat, in two hours was a rush but we managed it. The next stop was a visit to the Cruiser Aurora, a National Monument moored on the embankment. It was inexplicably closed

but we did see a St. Petersburg tradition - that of a bridal party rushing around Town to get their pics taken in as many as ten locations. The other sight at this spot was the Cabin of Peter the great - it too was closed, and we spent time waiting for the next boat in a bazaar.

Onto the next stop we alit at the Faberge Museum. Home of the famous collection of Faberge eggs collected by the Tsars it also housed an exhibition of some Salvador Dali pieces and many displays of Russian silversmithing, Mainly traditional tea services and intricate they were too. Take  a look at the punchbowl in the pic on the right.

Calling it a day at about 4.30 pm we walked back to the hotel in the intermittent rain.   

Out later that evening we finished up by having dinner in an Italian resto contained inside a three storey traditional building - you have to see what's behind these facades to really appreciate the extent of the post-war reconstruction.