Why Didn't We Do This Trip In Summer?

There certainly are a lot of reasons. But it's hard to think of them when your bum is freezing, your neck feels like pins and needles and your head is steaming...

However, St Petersburg is more lovely every day. Today, much to our delight, was sunny though bitterly cold when the breezes blow. We took the metro to city centre. It is so familiar and natural now. Strange how easily one can acclimate. We walked down Nevsky Prospect, across the bridge to Peter and Paul Fortress. The Romanov remains we hurriedly moved to the cathedral here from the Ekatarinburg mineshaft they were found in in the 1990's. There is a small shrine to them, but nothing spectacular. Apparently Yeltsin asked for ten million dollars for the transfer and ceremony, but was only given one million. That aside it is an impressive cathedral, intricate angelic paintings on the ceiling and ornate golden shrines and statues.

The surrounding area includes a fortress wall, prison, commandant's house (featuring artifacts from St Petersburg's history) and a rocket/space museum. We walked out to a pier off of the fortress wall and saw people leaning against the stones half naked, sunbathing. I think one woman was topless! It was bizarre, but Kip said she had seen it in a travel video and it's quite common for people to be catching rays out there all through the year.

All in all an interesting experience and I'm glad we were "forced" into spending another day here.

We hop a train to Moscow in the afternoon tomorrow and will be in that evening. I'm sure we will find a place to get online there, so more from me in the next few days.

Thank you all for your notes and emails. It is so important to hear from all of you while I travel.