We got a slightly later start – thankfully. A dorm bed never felt so good.

First stop was a walk to ‘The church of the resurrection’ also known as ‘The church of the saviour on spilled blood’ and a dozen other variations. Our first encounter with whacky Russian churches with domes that look like flavoured soft-serves. Impressive outside, grand inside (typical).

I convinced V to give my feet a break and we got on the city tour (hop-on/hop-off) bus. We passed a few sights while listening to an audio-tour and jumped off at the Peter & Paul Fortress.

The main cathederal houses the remains of all but one the Russian Tsars from Peter the Great (who truly was) to the Romanov’s (the last ones). Morbid, but interesting. We spent hours walking around the fort and it’s museums (unfortunately not much info in English). My best part was the Space History exhibit. Very “Soviet”. Big rocket motors and the re-entry pod from the Soyuz-Apollo mission. Wicked Cool !!

We hopped back on the bus and did 1.5 loops of the tour. Just watching the city go by and trying not to doze off – museums are taking a lot out of us. Too tired to hunt for a good meal we chickened out and opted for a MacDonalds. Think we will need a full ‘off’ day soon.

The dorm had been overrun by a hoard of Russian school kids so we upgraded to the penthouse (well a double room across the hall) and sipped a scotch to celebrate my V’s impending birthday while enjoying another ep. of Dr Who.

– Posted from my iPhone