Hermitage-St.Petersburg

Woke to find myself in a world shrouded in grey:
Grey skies grey buildings, grey docks, and it’s drizzling.
Welcome to St Petersburg.

But the day got better despite the rain.
Highlight was a visit to the Hermitage museum and winter palace.

We had been warned it would be busy- it was – for the Russians allocate tour guides set times except they all appear to get the same set time with hundreds of tourists descending on this world famous museum at the same time.

With over 1,000 rooms stuffed with some of the worlds best known treasures what do you see? Well our guide opted for the highlights. These included the Gold Room, Rembrandt, Titian, Caravaggio and Michelangelo but we never got to see the Matisse, or Picassos.


However, they claim to have the biggest collections of Rembrandts outside the Netherlands. This one of the Prodigal Son was found unfinished in his studio after his death. It is believed to be a self-portrait and refers to his own relationship with his son.

And in the evening we went to see Swan Lake danced by St Petersburg Ballet Company. The dancing was as expected superb.
But there was almost an international incident when a young Japanese woman videoed the performance, she was asked three times o switch her camera off. And she ignored all three warnings.

To our surprise the Russians did nothing.