We disembarked after a lengthy wait to get through passport control to be met by Olga our guide and Roman our driver for the 2 days we were in St Petersburg. We had already told Alex where we wanted to visit and so we had a couple of very full days. We went to Pavlovski Palace (Paul Palace to us) part of which was designed by Cameron who was responsible for designing the Catherine Palace.

For lunch that day Olga took us to a St Petersburg eatery-a Pie Shop! As you can see it was very different to our idea of a pie shop you picked which pie and how big a piece you wanted and then they cut you a slice. We had Russian tea with it and watched the workers coming in for their lunches, we felt we were seeing real St Petersburg.

We visited the gardens of Peterhof which has been likened to Versailles but there are more of everything! Peter the Great appears to have been a Tzar with a serious sense of humour look for the weeping trees and the fountains which appear and disappear, sit on one seat at your peril. The gardens of Mon Plaisir are worth looking for and a walk down to the Baltic could provide sight of a red squirrel.

A sightseeing tour of St Petersburg with a trip on the Metro for Ian and Olga, Anne stayed in the car with Roman she doesn't like the Underground in London! She does like the churches so we saw a few.

Ian wanted to visit the Museum of the Siege of Lenigrad and although Olga found it very upsetting she still went with us. It was a very moving experience to see another side of the war-go if you have the chance.

And so unfortunately it was time for the last photos-thank you Ro-man for getting us out of traffic jams, thank you Olga for being a fantastic guide the best we've had. And thank you Alex.

Anne & Ian, London, UK
mummybear13@hotmail.com