Thursday 4th October 2012 - Day 1 - London to St Petersburg, Russia

As our flight was at 9.20am from Heathrow we had to leave home at 4.30am, i.e. the middle of the night! We actually got to Heathrow 20mins too early to check in so we had a coffee to wake up, thanks to Marge and Pop for being our taxi! While checking in they called security on us to check our visas, thankfully we passed all their tests and made it through with no problems. We purchased a couple of filters for the camera and an extra plug adaptor then just relaxed for a bit before boarding. I was in the middle seat on the plane with a rather large Russian chap on my left! The flight went smoothly and quite quickly what with the odd nap and sudoku puzzle broken up by a full English breakfast.
Arriving at St Petersburg the weather was overcast and fresh. We had to complete another entry form but made our way through ok to collect bags and met our man holding a Go Russia sign board. He walked us over to his BMW oh no, Hyundai that wobbled some what! He was a nice chap and he drove us a good half hour to our Nevsky Grand Hotel. It was a pleasant surprise to find out they had us booked in, it was all paid for already and they gave us our train ticket for two days time. So far, so good!

We found our twin room that is now twin after we separated our single beds! It is small, basic but clean and comfy. One thing we found strange is that some things are designed for extremely tall people like service counters and notices, but other things such as the bath and low light switches are designed for tiny people. We literally dumped our bags that weighed exactly 12kgs each then set off with camera and guide book in hand to explore the sights. We headed along the main road Nevsky Prospekt and came across the main square where a man in a pink coat clarified the situation for us!

There was the huge Winter Palace (Hermitage) building and the Alexander Column where Jon had to film a family dancing! We then walked over to the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood… a bit of a mouthful! This was quite awesome to see, its one of the typical brightly coloured domed buildings that screams Russia at you! However, we got slightly distracted by the tourist souvenir stalls that were selling mini Russian Dolls that had about 15 inside each other going down to the size of a grain of sand and of course, the Russian hats! We could not resist unfortunately, so despite the weather being fairly mild, there we were walking the streets will full blown rabbit fur hats!

We thought we looked quite cool, until after a few minutes we realised that every passer by either just gave us a funny look, or gave us a funny look and laughed or took a picture of us on the sly! We walked through the beautiful Mikhailovsky Gardens where all the trees were autumnal and the atmosphere was lovely. Even the lady sitting on the bench blowing bubbles was enjoying herself all alone. As it was approaching 7pm local time being 3hours ahead of the UK, we found a lovely bar and grill where we sat in a kind of inside/outside dining area where there was electric heaters and blankets.

We had Beef Stroganoff and mash potato that was delicious, plenty of garlic. Jon finished on a cheese board with honey and I went for the apple strudel followed by a humungous pot of English Tea not Mint Tea while Jon went for a litre of Leffe Blonde. We relaxed at dinner for approx 2 and half hours then walked back to the hotel in our hats, via a book shop to buy my first postcard! I forgot to mention that Jon found his Russian bride this afternoon! We have also learnt some Russian today… Spokoynoy Nochi!