ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

We obviously couldn`t do this wonderful city justice in a day, but what we did see was magnificent. Some highlights....

Catherine Palace and THE AMBER ROOM. Wow! Surely anyone who sees this room can`t help but be enchanted by it.Our guide ranked this gem of a place as "one of the wonders of the world". Walls rich and warm in every shade of yellow, gold, bright lemon, peach, orange, it was both beautiful and amazing. It was our personal highlight of the fortnight.

The typical Russian lunch was fun (lots of local musicians sang and shared their clackers) so long as you didnt eat anything! Far too much garlic I`m afraid. But unlimited amounts of neat vodka, (straight from the freezer so icy cold) red wine and champagne.

The Pavlovsk Palace at Pushkin is beautiful and set in fantastic grounds. It is the largest landscape park in Europe and was designed by scottish architect Charles Cameron. We were fortunate enough to see a russian wedding party in full swing in these beautiful grounds. We also saw a RED squirrel(great excitement!)

There are only 16 rapsberry pink Gobelin tapestries in the world and 4 of them are here at Pushkin.



The HERMITAGE! The building was closed to the general public so we were able to enjoy a whistle-stop tour of several of the major works of art.. it houses over 3 million items so we felt privileged to have seen as many as we did. The jade green vases were particularly impressive. They were made using a technique called "trash mosaic"... thousands of tiny tiny pieces of smooth marble all joined together into an intricate design. Lovely.

In fact everything about this building was totally amazing.