St Petersburg

We had to go on a `ships` tour today, due to Visa regulations. We opted for the Catherines Palace and Hermitage Museum. A long day, 7.30am start and back on board at 5ish. However, it was an amazing day. We had a very good guide, who new her history. We did the Catherines Place first, what a place, we were allowed to take photos, except in the Amber Room. My photos don't` do it justice, so I bought the book, which makes fascinating reading.

Then we went for a `typical` Russian lunch, vegetable salad, pancakes, caviar and sour cream, veg soup and then stroganoff and ice cream followed by ice cold vodka and cava. I couldn`t manage all the food, but I did have the vodka, it would have been rude not to try it.

We then went onto the Hermitage, which is basically the National Museum, again our guide did us proud, we managed to miss all the queues, we only saw a minute section of the museum, due to the fact we only had 2 hours in there.

When we came out of there the queues were horrendous to get in, so much so, that those people who opted to do the afternoon trip to the Hermitage didn't get back on board the ship until 7pm, the ship had to wait for them to board before we could sail.

The photo is untouched, clear blue sky, setting off the golden domes perfectly.