An interlude first, with a couple of issues I hadn't mentioned on my first blog entry for Russia:

- Women in Russia are generally stunning, plus whatever the weather, their national uniform seems to be short skirts and thigh boots. However, there is one bad thing, over about 40 years old, an "ugly gene" seems to kick in and the women of that age resemble battle-axes.

- Smoking sections in restaurants: We went for lunch in a restaurant and were asked if we preferred smoking or non-smoking. Choosing the latter, we were shown to a tiny section of the large restaurant which was the non-smoking area. What was even worse was that this area was on the upper floor and any smoke from the lower floor would drift up to us anyway! Russia is a pro-smoking country!

Our next port of call was St. Petersburg. Founded by Tsar Peter the Great in 1703 and designed largely by European architects, St. Petersburg was the capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundred years. It stopped being the capital after the Russian Revolution of 1917 led by Lenin. It is called the "Venice of the North" due to the numerous canals crossing the city.

We got into St. Petersburg on Wednesday morning at 6.30am, after an 8 hour overnight train ride from Moscow. I slept alright and thought the train was pretty good, however, our Tour Leader, Manuel, warned us that the trains would start getting a lot worse as the trip went on. After lugging our bags across the Metro and walking to our hotel, the Azimut, it was too early to check-in so we deposited our bags in left luggage and after some food, it was off out for an orientation tour of the city. We visited:

- The Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, partly modeled on St. Basil's Cathedral, was built starting in 1883 on the spot where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated.

- The impressive Kazan Cathedral was built in 1801, modeled after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The cathedral is dedicated to Our Lady of Kazan, the most venerated religious painting in Russia. The inside is literally covered with colourful religious mosaics.

- Peter & Paul Fortress was founded in 1703 as the original military fortress for the city, but was mainly used as a political prison for the next 200 years. All Russian Tsars since Peter the Great were buried here.

- The stylish Singer Building, former HQ of the sewing-machine company.

In the afternoon. we visited the State Hermitage, a massive collection of treasures from around the world. There are over 3 million items in the collection and only a small amount on display, although even those could take years to view them all. It is also the biggest collection of paintings in the world (Rembrandt, Rubens, Picasso, da Vinci, etc, etc). The collection is housed in 6 buildings, including the magnificent Winter Palace, which used to be the home of the Russian Tsars. Catherine the Great purchased many thousands of items beginning in 1764, it shows how mind-bogglingly wealthy the Russian Tsars were at that time.

In the evening, we had excellent pizzas in the hotel restaurant, followed by a few beers. There were high-class prostitutes in the foyer again. Not the same ones as in the Moscow hotel though, they weren't following us around!

The next day was a free day so I had a few things I wanted to see and headed off by myself. First stop, my research into St. Petersburg had unearthed the Erotica Museum! As regular followers of my travels will know, I try to see unusual places everywhere I go in addition to the main sights! The Erotica Museum is actually set in a prostate centre, and while I was walking around looking at the displays, patients were waiting to be seen and staff were going about their normal business. Strangely, the nurses' uniform comprised tiny miniskirts and low-cut tops, I'm no expert on prostate problems but does that help the patients? The exhibits comprised many hundreds of items of "tourist tat", ie. the sort of stuff I buy on holiday because of the schoolboy humour it represents. Actually, there were a few items there which I actually did have, maybe I should set up a Bridgwater Erotic Museum with items from my personal collection? The reason people actually go to this "museum" is that it contains the supposed penis of Rasputin, the Mad Monk, circa late 19th century - all 24cm and two fists thick of it!

After, I paid a visit to the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, which houses a gruesome collection of malformed foetuses (really!) which draws in crowds of people fascinated with the macabre. Peter the Great, in the early 18th century, asked his people to send him human and animal foetuses, the more deformed the better, and many hundreds are displayed in this collection. Not being an expert, I'm not sure if they're real or not! This was the only part of the museum where you couldn't take photos but if anyone is interested, the catalogue containing images is here (note, a lot of it is pretty horrible stuff):
http://www.kunstkamera.ru/kunst-catalogue/index.seam?c=RUYSH

In the evening, we had a meal at an excellent Russian restaurant, Sadko, all very ornately decorated with roses. Then a few drinks afterwards at the hotel since four people were leaving this part of the tour, but not too late since we had an early 9am luxury coach the next morning to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.