The alarm clock started our trip rudely at 3:30 on Boxing Day morning, fortunately the taxi was on time and the roads were quiet and we soon racked up a world record number of fox sightings before 5am on our way to Heathrow. After a long day of flying we descended into the cloud above St Petersburg, never to see the sun again....well, for five days anyway. We then had to work out how to get to our hotel; fortunately we met a friendly Russian lady on the bus who was very helpful, despite not knowing a word of English and us not even able to understand Russian letters, let alone full words. After some teething issues at the metro gates we found our hotel with relative ease and dealt with some administration issues like visa registration and booking our train for Moscow before a walk to find somewhere for dinner.
We spent the next two days in St Petersburg, and most of the time was spent sightseeing.
Church of Spilled Blood.
The interior walls and ceiling of this church were almost completely covered in mosaic. We went to a lot of cathedrals / churches and most of the were quite similar - huge domed buildings with a lot of artwork, marble floors, usually an awful lot of gold (or wood painted in gold) and no pews, just big open spaces where people wander round and light candles, cross themselves and kiss pictures of Jesus.
The main square in St Petersburg, complete with ice skating rink.
Inside the Hermitage (a huge art museum) was amazing, and warm. We spent most of an afternoon in there and still only saw a fraction of it.
St Petersburg wasn’t as cold as I'd expected, in terms of recorded temperature. It varied between -3 and 2 degrees but the wind chill was rough. It was also quite dirty, there was a thin layer of snow on the ground and this would get covered in a layer of powdery looking black grime. The roads were constantly wet and mucky and all the cars covered in black muck from the road. I did laugh at one old truck with duel wheels that went past, one of the outside wheels was completely wrecked and it didn't look very stable.
The fire in the park was a favorite spot.
Ice swimming in the river anyone? (Yes, that is a river.) We did see someone go in the day before, and I even stole a towel to have a go myself but with a howling wind and driving snow I am not ashamed to say that I chickened out.
Catching pre frozen fish?
The Bronze Horseman
The overnight train from St Petersburg to Moscow was a bit of an experience. we managed to work out which train to get on, and which carriage but had no idea what compartment we were in so slotted into a free one and got kicked out. Eventually we found our correct cabin and moved in with a Russian couple and their 2 year old, who was extremely well behaved but the guy chugged back a beer and smoked a fag and proceed to snore louder than any noise capable of being made by a train. On top of that, we were in the top bunks and roasted, even so we managed to arrive in a reasonable state at 7am after our trip. Fortunately our room was ready at the hotel so we checked in for a much needed shower.
After windy St Petersburg, a calm Moscow at -4 degrees seemed tropical so we shed a couple of layers and ventured out but the wind picked up in the afternoon and we froze again. The local law enforcers didn't help matters when they questioned us about our visas and accused us of not registering our visas. They told us it was extremely illegal and that we'd have to come down to the station and pay a 2,500 ruble fine (about £50). We were pretty annoyed as we were certain that our visas had been registered but we were missing an important slip of paper that proved this. After standing shivering for 10 minutes, going to the station sounded quite appealing, at least we'd be out of the wind but I was called over to be spoken to alone and offered the opportunity to pay the fine on the spot. Fortunately I'd heard of these shenanigans before so called his bluff and told him we'd go to the station, as wouldn't he have to write up a report? After that we were told to go back to the hotel and ensure our visas were registered and didn't have to pay a single kopek, which was a relief but it did shake us up a little. Turns out he was partially right; we did need the slip of paper but couldn't get it as the immigration department was closed.
Statue of Peter the Great
St Basil's cathedral in Red Square
Looking up the river towards the Kremlin
Red Square - St Basils to the left, Lenin's tomb (where you can go in and see him) in the immediate right and the Kremlin walls behind that.
Snow plows waiting for colder weather.
Moscow didn't seem as friendly as St Petersburg, although maybe our impression was distorted by the crooked cop, a jeering man in the markets and a shifty customer at the Metro station with wads of cash doing deals with others in the line. We always had to be on our guard and were warned about pickpockets, in both cities. Nonetheless, the sights were very impressive, the highlight of Moscow was probably The Armory inside the Kremlin which has an incredible stash of gold, silver, diamonds, Faberge eggs and other valuables. (No photos allowed unfortunately.) We wandered around a very rich area of Moscow and even from our short visit it seemed very clear that there was a huge difference between the rich and poor. It is not a place I'd like to be homeless either, although not as bad as the village on the news that lost its heating and regularly gets to -70 degrees.
The Kremlin is home to the biggest bell in the world, which has never been rung so I don't even know if that means it can qualify as a bell.
We managed to sample some of the local food and the highlight was probably the fish soup and the lowlight the random goo and the raw fish in the salad bar. We also gave the vodka a bit of a taste and managed to score a couple of bottles of Ukrainian peppered honey vodka at the airport but had it confiscated at Zurich on the way back as it hadn't come from an EU country which was very disappointing.
As for travel, Londoners will not be surprised to hear that St Petersburg and Moscow both have better underground systems that London - it costs about 23p per ride and we never waited longer than a minute for a train. The St Petersburg metro is the deepest in the world and Moscow was a long way down too. Some of their stations are incredible, the one below is pretty standard but others have won prizes!
