St. Petersburg

After leaving Mockba and heading to St. Petersburg on Saturday afternoon we started the evening with a Russian ballet! We went to the Mariinsky Theatre for "Great Ballerinas of the Mariinsky Ballet Gala". Part 1 including acts from Swan Lake, Giselle and a few others and Part 2 was Ballet Imperial. We truly enjoyed the ballet and were pleased that we went. We had made a reservation for a traditional Russian restuarant after the ballet called Sadko which was amazing! I had beef medalions with potato pancakes and Scott had Chicken Kiev over mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables. We were eating our appetizer when two waiter/waitress decided to serenade us with some Opera.

Below is a picture of the Mariinsky Theatre and some of the ballerinas:





























Here are the waiter and waitress belting out the Opera at the restaurant near the Mariinsky Theatre.



























The bill came in a Russian nesting doll.














Sunday we left the hotel for The Hermitage. There was a long line out the building and we waited and waited and you get the picture....waited to get in. 2 hours passed and we were finally getting to the front of the line so we got in and walked around the palace and saw the grand ballrooms, etc and lots of foreign art and were highly disappointed that we actually decided to go in. Afterwards, we got some lunch and headed to the Church on Spilled Blood, where Alexander II was assassanated. The Church on Spilled Blood took my breath away with the sure beauty of it. The inside of the Church is full of mosaics which are absolutly amazing to see. After the Church we meandered through the city down little sides streets to find whatever was there. We went up to the hotels SkyBar which overlooked the city and watched the sunset at around 1:15am (yes that is correct). It is light in Russia in the summer time from about 4:30am till 1:15am and in the winter they the same amount of hours of darkness.

The Church on Spilled Blood:


You can see the detail of the mosaics which is from floor to ceiling in the Church on Spilled Blood.











Monday was a day of just walking around the city and seeing whatever else there was before leaving for London again. When we got to the airport it was interesting to be standing in line at the BA counter because depending on what line you got in depending on what seats you got. Each agent had a section of the plane with stickers on it. So it did not matter if you requested seats online or not since you got whatever they had. Very interesting.



We had a wonderful trip and were extremely happy that we decided to go to Russia! I will leave you with a few other pictures from St. Petersburg:



On the left is a view towards the Hermitage from the top of St. Isaac's Cathedral and on the right is one of the many beautiful canals in St. Petersburg.



















St. Isaac's Cathedral above






Someone walking a brown bear