Our Last Day in St. Petersburg

September 13th 2017

It is our last day in St Petersburg and our last full day in Russia. We have loads to try and fit in so we have an early breakfast and pack as we won't have time to do it later; we are going to the theatre...again! We also don't want to waste time coming back to the hotel so I have to take my "posh" clothes (a dress and shoes) with me in my bag.

Our first stop is the Hermitage and Winter Palace. We get a bus along Nevsky Prospect, which is 4.5 kilometres long, and get off just before the museum. Thankfully, we bought our tickets online so we get to use a separate entrance in the small hermitage building. It is only 10.30am but the queues are pretty big already. Once in, visitors have to leave their jackets with the cloakroom; this seems to be a thing in Russia, we have had to do it in numerous places. 

As we enter through the barriers using our printed tickets, we get a map of the main building. We knew the place was huge, but there are 3 floors in 5 interconnecting buildings with over 3 million catalogued works; where do you even start! We walked through Ancient Egypt to get to the European masters; there were so many paintings and sculptures, as well as many other pieces. Here are a few that we saw.

Rembrandt

Da Vinci

Mummified Priest from 12th Century BC

Michelangelo

After 3 hours, we needed a seat and something to eat; back to the ever tasty honey cake! I think I will attempt to make it when I get home. We sat for a half hour then set off round British art, Greek and Ancient Egypt and around some of the rooms of the Winter Palace, which was stunning! There was an impressionist and post-impressionist exhibition in the General Staff Quarters so we left the Hermitage and wandered across the road; we were so tired by this point, it was now 3.30pm that we managed to find a "Matisse Room" but that was about it. 

We left the museums at 4pm; there is just too much to do in one day! Plus, it is tiring; we walked about 4 miles in the museum itself. We decided to head for a quick beer before dinner! 

I was determined to have caviar and do as the Russians do; well maybe not in a five star hotel but I'm not complaining! We went to the Caviar Bar, Dom Perignon in the Grand Hotel Europe. I had changed into my posh frock in the bathroom of the previous bar so I looked a bit more respectable; I know what you are thinking, classy!

We ordered the Imperial Cocktail to start; it was Beluga caviar with Beluga vodka, Oscietra Caviar with Tsarskaya Gold vodka and Salmon Caviar with Russian Standard Platinum vodka.  The waiter told us to down the vodka in one as this was the Russian way; the Beluga combination was definitely my favourite! It was expensive (3600 roubles about £50) but delicious and we really enjoyed the experience. When in Rome and all that....

We weren't finished yet, after the caviar, we had some Borscht. The waiter was determined that we do everything the Russian way so he heaped on the sour cream. It was also delicious; I think this might be my staple diet when I come back home.

Dinner was lovely and we had saved some room for dessert. Instead of having something in the restaurant, we decided to try the Soviet Donut shop; it was recommended to us by our walking tour guide. The best part was the price, it was 14 roubles (19p) for a donut! They were really doughy but tasty.

As I said in a post a few days ago, we bought tickets for the Hermitage Theatre; it used to be the Royals theatre. What I didn't tell you was the story around it...

The theatre is very expensive in Russia, not like at home where you can buy tickets for a reasonable price. We were contemplating seeing Swan Lake, composed by Tchaikovsky, and now one of the most popular of ballets in the world. There were various places which we could go to, ranging from £80 to £150. The night we had dinner in Masha and the Bear, we had a few drinks and decided to just go for it....so we bought tickets for the Hermitage Theatre. 

We arrived about 40 minutes before the performance; there is no allocated seating so we thought we would get in early. We were completely wrong, the place was full of massive groups, primarily Chinese tourists in groups of 30+. The theatre is only supposed to hold 200 but I am convinced there were many more, we were packed in like sardines! Thankfully, we weren't too late and got a decent seat up the top so we could look down on the orchestra and stage. 

The performance was fantastic. The only annoying thing was the number of people filming and taking photographs, even though we were told not to. But it was definitely worth seeing a ballet in Russia. 

We decided to walk back down Nevsky Prospect towards our hotel and popped into a few souvenir shops on the way....we might have bought some Beluga vodka!

It was almost 11.30pm and we had ordered a taxi for 5.45am the next morning; it was definitely bedtime!