St Petersburg: Thursday, October 4, 2018:

We met at 10am for a waterways cruise on the Neva River which offered different views of St Petersburg landmarks.

They included: St Petersburg Circus, the Palace of Paul II, the pavilion in the Summer Gardens, the Institute of Russian Culture, the Fortress of Peter and Paul, the Admiralty building, the building where Catherine I worked originally in a laundry which is now the Constitution Court of the Russian Federation, the Museum of Russia, Hermitage, the naval school, and the Cruiser Aurora – where the blank shot was fired to signal the invasion of the Winter Palace and the start of the Russian Revolution.

It was bloody freezing as I sat on deck. While we were on the river cruise there was a man running from bridge to bridge while waving at the boat. He met us when we got ashore. I think he said his name was Milo and he possibly did this for tips.

We later visited Catherine’s Palace and park – it was the usual drill with covers over our shoes and a guided tour through the various gilded rooms and a constant stream of tourists. But the gardens were quite impressive. As we left we passed a small church and statue to the poet Alexander Pushkin.

We had to be on the coach by 5.50pm to get to the Russian folk night at Nicholas II Palace. It was very entertaining and there were some impressive Cossack dance moves.

They got some members of the audience up on stage to take part. I complimented one of them on how well he did and pointed out the lipstick on his cheek and he said he was never washing it again.

There were courtship dances and traditional instruments including a massive triangular bass guitar type instrument.

There were snacks during the interval, as well as pink champagne and vodka, but they were tiny.

After the theatre Anya spoke to me saying she noticed I was taking a lot of notes and wondered why? I told her I need the information for my photos and to remember what we have done. She seemed impressed and said I seemed intelligent and was interested in what she was saying. I will take that as a compliment.

So, I later ate in the sports bar when we got back to the hotel and enjoyed pork ribs and BBQ sauce – I thought it was an appetiser but it was a main course and, while it was very nice, it was too much late at night.