The walking tour of St Petersberg was on Sunday and from 10:30 to 3:30 we wandered the streets of the former capital and saw the sights. From the Nevisky Prospect (Main Street), across canals and bridges to the Hermitage we saw historic spots like the place where water was drawn during the seige of Leningrad, the place where people gather to Walrus* and the Peter and Paul Fortress. We also saw the Church of the Savior on Spilt Blood which is a mass of onion-shaped domes in bright Teris like coloured mosaics.We learned the origin of the Russian 'drinky-drinky' sign which is to flick your neck with your index finger. Apparently the weather vane of the Peter and Paul Church was damaged in a storm and was needed to be fixed quickly for the visit of some dignitary or other. It was going to take too long to get the scaffolding sorted but luckily a passing Siberian peasant stepped in. He shinned up the 120+ metre spire using a length of rope and skills honed on the massive trees of his home region and, tools in hand, worked away for a day and a half to fix it. When he got down the Tsar was so impressed he gave him the coat off his back, 5,000 Rubles and got him a tattoo of the double headed eagle on his neck. All barmen were then ordered to give the man bearing this tattoo all the free drinks he wanted, which actually turned out to be quite a lot. And the legend lives on...
Today's sightseeing trip was to Tsarkoye Selo (AKA Tsar's Village) which is the former out of town retreat of the Tsars. It's about 15km out of town and was built by Catherine The Great who was of the opinion that, when it comes to buildings, more is more. The palace is a mass of blue facade and gold statues and is the sort of place you'd need a scooter to get around. The snowy grounds contain various smaller palaces, a pyramid where Catherine buried her pet dogs and The Chessman Column which was built to commemmorate a naval battle over the Turks. The temperature was between -5 and -10 with a couple of degrees of windchill so we kept moving where possible and kept the gloves even when operating the camera.
Tonight at 11pm we head off to the countryside between here and Moscow to a little place called Staritsa for a few days horse riding and making snowmen, possibly out of ourselves.
*Walrussing is the noble pastime of cutting a hole in the ice, diving in and having a quick swim. We would have had a go but none of us had our trunks on. Maybe next time...
