Saint Petersburg - City Tour and Cruise

Sunday June 19th

	Despite the late night, we somehow managed to emerge at the appointed time. This was the view from my hotel room window at 08:52am as I was about to head down for breakfast.

At 10:09 we were already at our first stop of our city tour, Isaakievskaya Square.

	Anastasia starts by giving us a an overview of the sights visible from this location..

Immediately behind Anastasia was the Monument to Nicholas I, the iron-willed and notoriously despotic ruler of Russia from 1825 to 1855.

	To our left was St Isaac's Cathedral, built from 1818 to 1858. We were offered the chance to see the view from the colonnade around the drum of the dome, but balked at the entrance fee of around $8.50, which is a lot of money in Russia.

Also at this stop is the famous Astoria hotel - in the center of this picture. The Astoria was famous as the location selected by Hitler for his anticipated victory party, for which he apparently got so far as to have had the invitations printed. It is still a functioning hotel, so Ulf and I decided that if it was good enough for Hitler then it was worth a visit from us as well, so trying to look as afluent as possible we marched past the doormen checked out the facilities like any discerning potential guest.

	Just before getting back on the bus, Ulf finds some street vendors selling some Russian aviators goggles. He decides that it is cheaper to just get a picture wearing them than to actually buy them. Probably just as well, as they make it look a bit as though he is auditioning for the next remake of 'The Fly'.

Then as 10:37 we stop for a walk around the area at the tip of Vasilevsky Island.

	A hydrofoil, possibly one of the ones that can be taken to Petrodvorets, passing in front of the Peter and Paul Fortress.

The next stop, at 10:59, was the "Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood", so named because it was built on the spot where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in March 1881. It is also known as the "Resurrection of Christ Church". It is notable for the multitude of detailed mosaics which cover the walls both inside and out. The church was built between 1883 and 1907, was closed by the Bolsheviks in the 1930s, and re-opened in 1997 after 30 years of restoration.

	I wandered down a little market (along the left hand side of this picture) providing another view of the church as I crossed the bridge to return on the other side of the canal.

At 11:34 our coach drops us beside the famous cruiser 'Aurora', mothballed from the Russo-Japanese war. We were running behind schedule at this point, and Anastasia informed us that we would have only ten minutes here and that conseqently there would be no time to see it close up.

	However Ulf and I were not detered and decided to make a dash for the gangway while the rest of the party was distracted taking photos of each other...

A mere two minutes later we are crossing the gangway..

	which affords an excellent view of the famous guns, a blank round from one of which signalled the beginning of the October Revolution on the night of 25th October, 1917. The shot was intended to demoralize the defenders of the Winter Palace.

At 11:39, poised ready to start another revolution..

	11:40, four minutes before the bus leaves, and we spot the rest of the others posing for another photo back on shore. They may have thought that they were going to get a picture without Ulf and I to steal the show, but they will only have to look closely at the two figures waving from the side of the Aurora to see that we foiled their plan...

At 12:08 we arrive at our lunch venue - a resturant/bar with an appropriately nautical theme called 'Club Nemo'.

	Today I was lunching Zulkeffeli, Yahya and Fathinul from Malaysia. They are all strict vegetarians, so the set menu was a bit of a problem for them. Here at 12:57 we had just been served our desert of apple pie and ice cream, which I think was one thing everyone could eat.

At 13:19 it was time for our boat trip, and we had just gotten of the bus at the landing point.

	At 13:21 our boat was just arriving..

and at 13:28 we were underway, and just heading under our first bridge. As you can see, there wasn't much headroom under some of them. Fortunately there was a little bell that was rung each time we were about to go under such a bridge, so you knew when to duck even if you weren't paying attention.

	Arash emerges from filming the downstairs seating.

13:33 and we are just about to emerge from the canal onto the Neva river.

	At 13:34 we are passing by the Peter and Paul Fortress.

with the trinity bridge off to its left

	Further to the left on Vasilevsky Island, the Stock Exchange and one of the Rostral Columns.

And to the right, The other side of State Hermitage Museum.

	Heading under the Trinity Bridge at 13:46..

At 13:51 we seem to be beside on of the parks..

	This looked a bit like the part of the canal I saw earlier when I had had a quick walk through the Mikhail gardens during our morning stop at the "Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ".

This landing looks a bit like the place we were sitting at after dinner last night - except for the blue tardis that seems to have landed at this one.

	At 14:07 we now seem to be heading toward the "Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ", so this is probably the Griboedova canal, and we probably were passing the Mikhail gardens earlier.

At 14:26 there is just time to get someone to take a quick picture with me in it..

	At 14:30 we had come to the end of the cruise and were clambering off of our boat back onto dry land, via an intermediate boat due to a bit of nautical double parking..

At 14:36, Anastasia conceals her grief very well as she arranges the drop off point at which we would bid her and our bus farewell.

An hour and a half later the group had split into two, and we were making our way down Nevsky Prospect, while the other group, having made the mistake of taking some navigational advice from one of our number, was heading off in completely the wrong direction for where they wanted to go... At 16:12 we were just stopping by a street vendor for some drinks and/or ice cream, which for some reason seemed to be fascinating at least one passing local.

Another try without locals trying to get into the picture..

	Here, at 19:13, we had split up some more, and Ulf, Natacha and I were taking a break on a little floating bar.

Our train departed at 00:38, arriving at Moscow at 9:07am. Unfortunately our return journey was to be a rather less luxurous affair than our outward one. This time we were to have no compartment, and not even a bed. Just regular seats in a common carriage. So monday was going to be a challenging day...

I usually like to snap a picture of the train schedule which seems always to be conveniently placed at the end of every carriage on Russian trains. The lets me follow the progress of our journey and predict the stops without having to keep leaving my seat. However on this occasion the system seems to have broken down, as the timetable at the end of our carriage was for trains 23 and 24, whereas our was train no. 47, so the timings bore no relation to our journey...

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