On to St Petersburg

The ride was comfortable, although the beds were a little hard. UG slept much better than he expected to. Although with only an 8 hour ride, and being woken up for breakfast about an hour before arrival, it wasn't a long sleep. Breakfast was pancakes and salted salmon, along with tea and buns and apples. Not at the same level as the Marriott in Moscow.
In St Petersburg, we were met by a driver sent by the hotel. This time, I had booked it and we were paying, so when the driver walked up to a Toyota, we were disappointed but not surprised. But then when he passed the Toyota and popped the trunk on the BMW next to it, we grinned at each other.
(Moscow train station in St Petersburg, where the trains from Moscow arrive.)

We arrived at the hotel at about 8:15am. When we checked in, there was a note that check ins before noon would be charged a half day rate. So when she handed me a room key, I asked if there was a charge for the early check in. She smiled and said yes. So I asked what the charge was, she replied, "free of charge." Okay, a charge of zero dollars, score!

So we rested for a few hours, and then decided to go to the Hermitage. It was raining and cold, so an indoor museum seemed like a great idea. However, I forgot to book a ticket online before we left, which would have allowed us to jump the queue. But it's shoulder season, and the lines didn't look very long anyway. We had also been told that we could avoid the lines by hiring a guide. But I felt like I had enough guiding in Moscow, plus I wasn't comfortable finding one and determining the quality of their English. So we stood in the rain for about 20 minutes. Once inside, there was another 10 minute wait, while people shoved us in every direction to get inside and closer to the cashier.
While waiting outside, we heard cannon fire from somewhere.
The Hermitage museum is huge. It's made up of 2 or 3 former palaces of the tsars. The perimeter is over a mile long and there are 3 stories. Apparently if you spent a minute taking in every piece in the Hermitage collection, it would take 8 years to see it all. Only maybe 10% is actually on display at any given time, but that's still a formidable amount of stuff to see. Plus, our feet are still suffering from the walking in Moscow. So we tried to be strategic about the experience, picking areas to visit and mapping out the best way to get there. Unfortunately, the map does not indicate which rooms are closed, and probably a quarter of them are. So we'd walk a quarter mile and up a flight of stairs only to discover that the route is closed and we have to backtrack to where we started. Twice, I tried to take a break on the chairs provided and was yelled at by staff in Russian. And yes, they were chairs for resting, not part of the collection. In one case, I think she was yelling at me for sitting in HER chair.
Some rooms were virtually empty of people, while others reminded me of the Komsomol'skaya metro station at rush hour. In these rooms, it's common to be pushed while people try to get better views of exhibits. There was one room of machinery, but it wasn't properly displayed, most of it was put against the far wall, with ropes preventing getting close enough to read what it was. But the cards in this room were also all in Russian, so close ups wouldn't help too much anyway. The Egyptian mummy room is also popular, but again, only Russian descriptions. Although you don't really need a description to appreciate seeing a mummy on display, or the ancient Egyptian nesting dolls. UG also enjoyed the 19th-20th century French painters rooms, displaying works from Van Gogh, Matisse and Monet. Apparently there's a Da Vinci room, but we never found it. It was probably behind a locked door. I did enjoy the rooms which were restored to the original decor of the tsars. But overall experience of the Hermitage was about a 2. It might be better in peak season, when rooms are fully opened, but then there would be significantly more people.
Outside as we were leaving, a man approached us offering to sell us caviar. Mmm, street caviar! We were almost tempted to buy some just to see what it really was. But our frugality overpowered our curiousity.



After the Hermitage, we decided to take a minor detour to a restaurant which was highly recommended by various sources. I expected we would be eating here a few times during our visit, due to it's proximity to our hotel and supposed good prices. However, it's currently closed for renovations. So we ended up buying some snickers bars at the convenience store next door, and heading back to the hotel. We noticed as we were hanging out in our room that it gets dark rather late here. It was still light out when I brushed my teeth at quarter to 10. I can understand now how the sun doesn't set until after mindnight in the summer, a phenomenon celebrated as the "white nights".
UG ordered some room service, and I fell asleep before it arrived. I was out for 11 hours straight.