Europe

We had nothing planned for this morning other than a bit of a sleep in, so it was about 10:15am before we made it downstairs to breakfast. We didn’t think we’d be stopping for lunch today so we had a pretty big breakfast (although we seem to be doing that most days anyway!).

It was after midday by the time we headed out for the fifteen-minute walk to our first destination, the Hermitage Museum. On the way, we passed the headquarters of the Russian Navy.

We were awestruck yesterday by the size and opulence of the Catherine Palace (the Summer Palace) but the Hermitage (the Winter Palace) was something else again. With more than 1,500 rooms it is a building on a monumental scale.

After leaving our coats in the cloak room we headed off to explore the palace. Pretty quickly we decided that we’d better consult a map. We found a little booth with some maps and opened our map to form a plan of attack. Since neither of us could read the map without glasses, we reached for the one pair we had brought with us today, only to realise they were in a coat pocket back in the cloak room. Luckily, we were able to find our way back to the cloak room where we collected the glasses and then set off for a second time!

The Winter Palace was used by the Russian emperors from 1732 through until it was stormed in the Russian Revolution in 1917. Its grandeur was in line with the size of the Russian empire, which was the third largest empire in history and controlled almost one sixth of the earth’s land mass at its peak. Every room we went in was packed with incredible antiquities and art. Our favourite item was James Cox’s incredible mechanical gold Peacock Clock, owned by Catherine II. We walked over 5km inside the museum and even then we knew that we had probably only just scratched the surface. But, accepting that we could only take in a small percentage of what was there, we had to move on.

Our next stop was the Fabergé Museum, a walk of about half an hour from the Hermitage Museum. The weather today was slightly warmer (just above zero) so walking was really quite pleasant by comparison with yesterday. On the way to the Fabergé Museum we passed many interesting places.

By the time we got to the Fabergé Museum, we were feeling a little weary. We decided that the first activity in the museum would be a trip to the cafe for a sit-down and a late-afternoon snack (which included a chocolate Fabergé egg!).

Revitalised from our short break, we then headed into the museum proper. The House of Fabergé was a jewellery firm founded by Gustav Fabergé in 1842 in Saint Petersburg. The firm subsequently flourished under the direction of Gustav’s sons and grandsons. The company was nationalised by the Bolsheviks in 1918. The brand name Fabergé has since been bought and sold many times but its connection with the original family is long gone. The House of Fabergé became famous for the design of its jewel-encrusted eggs for the Russian tsars. The museum has a beautiful collection of these eggs, as well as a large collection of other jewellery and art, all housed in a magnificent historical building.

It was nearly 7:00pm by the time we had finished exploring the Fabergé Museum so we decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel. We discussed hailing a taxi but our lack of Russian made that a dubious proposition so we decided we’d walk back.

By the time we arrived back at the hotel, we were pretty exhausted from a long day on our feet so, rather than head out for dinner, we took the soft option and ordered room service.

We are leaving Saint Petersburg early tomorrow afternoon, bound for Helsinki. So we’ll probably just take it easy in the hotel in the morning before heading to the airport.