I think we’ll sleep well tonight. We walked our little feet off, plus climbed 262 steps to the colonnade of St. Isaac’s cathedral. We had morning on our own, so all 6 of us went to St. Isaac’s. On the way we found a geocache. The cathedral is overwhelming – baroque, mosaics, gold leaf everything… We split up after that and Dan and I climbed to the colonnade to check out the view – worth it.
We then walked to the Pushkin arts & souvenir store recommended by our guide, where I bought a beautiful Faberge replica containing a swan. It is also a music box playing Swan Lake. The store had lots of different matryoshka dolls, including for every NFL team. We found one for the Texans. Each doll had a long-retired player: Matt Schaub, Andre Johnson, Owen Daniels, Ben Tate..you get the idea. We had enough time for a lunch of soup & salad at The Idiot cafe (Dostoevsky).
Our afternoon tour was a whirlwind walk through The Hermitage, aka Winter Palace. The rooms alone were awesome, then on top of it there were masterpieces of art seldom seen by most in the world. Three of our group were worn out and opted to go back to the hotel, while the other three of us toured the new museum (old building refurbished in modern interior) where the Impressionist collection is now housed.
A little beer, vodka and wine plus a delicious dinner of beef stroganoff and we are totally ready for relaxation.