I think you must change your plans

Chirch on the Spilt Blood - the center of St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg -- and another homestay hostess. This one was named Tonya, and she took us in hand and organized us in the same way that Katia and Zenia did. We really appreciated her initiative because when we did not show up at her place on schedule (because our driver did not show up at the railway station on schedule) she called the travel agent and got them to send him to pick us up, a mere three hours late. Apparently he "confused" 6:30 am with 6:30 pm! As compensation for our distress the travel agent offered to provide our transportation out of St. Petersburg at no additonal cost -- so we got a free ride to the airport when we left town.

The driver took us right through the center of the city, along the famous Nevsky Pospect. It's lined with beautiful 5 storyhigh buildings that would not look out of place in Paris. Then we spotted the Winter Castle, the Hermitage, the famous Church on the Spilt Blood...and then we continued through masses of soviet apartment blocks. When we finally got to Tonya's apartment (in one of those Soviety blocks) she sat us down and fed us blini with sour cream and home-made jam, gave us a map and explained the subway system. She lives across the street and over the bridge from the final subway stop before the Gulf of Finland, so it's easy to navigate -- trains only go one way from there and it's two stops to the center of town.

Tzar John William the First!

We spent the day at the Peter and Paul Fortress, admiring the St Petersburg skyline through the rain and looking at tombs of Russian Tzars and Emperors. The best part was the "Street of Time" for children, John got to dress up as a Tzar and pose on the model of the dockyard. We also walked through the "secret passage" and saw a 3D film about floods in the city. All very fun.

The next day we went to the Hermitage and see the art collections. In the end it was the building itself that was more interesting, because it's unique to Russia, and the paintings (we kind of got stuck in the French Collection) are similar to ones we can see in other museums around the world. Highlights? Stuffed horses carrying models wearing full suits of armour, Peter the Great's saddle and his personal weapons, the rooms that the last Tzars lived in before the revolution.

The highlight of the day for John was a visit to "Water World". Tonya the hostess did not approve of this at all! She told us "I think you must change your plans" and then very sternly told John that there are swimming pools everywhere, but only one St. Petersburg. My resistance to the Russian matriarch is developing, we did not change our plans and the pool was a great success. It was about 20 minutes walk from the apartment, it included 7 waterslide (including one magnificent water drop, John will explain it on his blog), a "lazy river", a wave pool and all kinds of fountains, water jets, bubble pools, etc. There were also hot tubs, saunas and steam rooms. The pool water was much warmer than we are used to, but Nelson said the hot tubs were not hot enough! The saunas were not that hot either, he says. When we paid to go in we each got a bracelet with an electronic bar code built into it. This gave us access to lockers, which were locked/opened when we held the bar code to a reader on the wall. Very slick!

For our final day in the city we went to the Armory, where John got his fill of weapons, from rocks to rocket launchers. I wanted to go on a boat ride on the rivers/canals, and knew that there was an English language trip at 5:00. We quick marched from the boat "Aurora" (which is on permanent display in the harbour, sailors here fired the shot that started the revoluton) and made it to the dock at 4:48. The boat was just pulling out, so we missed our trip. Compensated with beer (for us), fanta and ice cream (for John) in a park on the Nevsky Prospect and watched the parade of people go by.

Young Russian women were very high heels and very short skirts (or very tight pants). Quite glamerous, but their balance on the cobblestones looks precarious. Many men carry courier bags that look like large purses, but the women's purses are even bigger. Babushkas still wear headscarves and everyone gets out of their way on the sidewalk and in the subway. Cell phones are ubiquitious.

On to Warsaw......