Day Six - Jun 1, 2013
St. Petersburg, Russia
Daily Didactic
It was a great day in the former Soviet Union. We rose mid-morning and headed back to Zoom Cafe in time for breakfast. Brian went with his stateside standby, eggs sunnyside up and potatoes, but Theresa tried the cheese curd with fruit and sour cream. Both were pleased. Very full, we stopped back at the hostel to purchase tickets for today's target, the Hermitage Musuem, online. We were told the queue can be long and this would let us skip it. Printed tickets in hand, we walked the half dozen blocks to the Hermitage (the former Winter Palace of the Catherine the Great) and headed past the relatively short line. Unsure where to go next we were sent three different places by three very helpful people and eventually redeemed our online vouchers in time to walk in with the guy who had been at the end of the normal line when we arrived. The museum was enormous and (taking a lesson from last summer) Theresa identified her areas of our interest. Four or five hours later we had consumed a healthy dose of European and Italian Renaissance art, as well as Egyptian, ancient Eurasian, and Siberian antiquities. In the process we also explored a fair chunk of the Winter Palace. Nice digs if you can get them. Eventually we returned to another beautiful summer day in St. Petersburg and worked our way around the Palace Square and up Nevsky Prospect to another recommendation of the hostel for some authentic Russian fare. While neither of us are good judges of Russian authenticity, the food was very good and filling. They seem to eat a lot of potatoes in Russia. We walked the few blocks back up the canal to our hostel, stopping at the mini-market again for some beverages and the cash machine to square up with the hostel for our room. After some painting and guide book reading, we managed to stay up to a normal hour. It appears we may be finally acclimated to the 12 hour time zone shift. Must be time to move on.
Today's Photos
