Trip 2, Day 12: The Road to St. Petersburg

August 1st:

Finally, the day had arrived to leave for St. Petersburg. We were anxious to get going, as we had many exciting adventures planned there. Also, our confinement to two small rooms for 5 days had left us stir crazy. After one final round of souvenir shopping (Alan found a set of Minnesota Vikings nesting dolls), it was off to the train station.

A Brief History of the St. Petersburg Trip
When Alan was in high school, he took a Russian History class in his junior year. He was fascinated by the Romanov family, and especially the history of St. Petersburg. During that year, history was being made as the Berlin Wall was torn down, the Russians revolted against the Soviet Regime, and World Communism took a major blow. Alan swore that if he ever had the chance, he would visit St. Petersburg. Fast forward 19 years, it was time to cross off a bucket list item.

At the train station, we wondered what the train to St. Petersburg would be like. Our experience with the Kirov train was mostly negative, so we were hopeful this trip would be better. To maximize our time in the city, we had chosen to ride the "fast train". We were leaving Moscow at 1pm, and arriving at 5:45. The slow train left at midnight and took 8 hours to arrive.

Once we boarded the train, we were very happy. The seats are very comfortable, and there is plenty of space between you and the seat ahead. All announcements were made in both Russian and English, and there was a digital readout at the front of the train, telling us how fast we were going. Although we never hit the max speed of 250km/h (155 mph), we did stay around 200 most of the trip.

We both enjoyed that the trip was during the day. Much of our Kirov journey was overnight, so we didn't get to see the Russian countryside for very long. We made 4 stops on the way, with people boarding and exiting the train at each stop. We also had an excellent meal while aboard the train. The service was very friendly and efficient, and we both felt that the US airlines could learn a few things from them!

As the clock hit 5:45, our train arrived in St. Petersburg. We were a bit nervous, as the parts of the city we had seen coming in by train were not very impressive. Our driver met us outside the gates, and soon we were making our way to our apartment on Nevsky Prospekt (the main street in the city).


Getting to our apartment was an interesting process. Each "building" was typically the size of a city block, with an interior courtyard for parking. There was a gated entry off the main street, with a guard posted during the day. Inside the courtyard, there were many different businesses, some of which stayed open late. We believe that one of our apartment windows shared an alleyway with a nightclub. Lucky us!

Once we were settled in to the apartment, we decided to go exploring the city. We had tours scheduled each of the next 3 days, but had left ourselves the first night to explore on our own. We left the apartment with a map and a generic plan, and we hit lots of interesting sites.

Our first stop was one of the many canals that run through the city. We noticed that there were lots of canal boat tours, including some that were for English speaking visitors. We decided that if we had time, we would go on one of these tours during our visit.





As we walked along the canal, we came across a very unique doorway.
















Here is the Circus building, much fancier than any big top traveling circus that we are used to.







Soon we arrived at the Engineer's Castle. Emperor Paul I had this castle built, because he was paranoid that there was a conspiracy to kill him and take the throne. 41 days after he moved in, he was assassinated. Guess he had the right idea, but the wrong implementation.


On our way back to the apartment, we decided to try a Georgian restaurant that Kathy noticed. Unfortunately, we couldn't read the sign posted on the door that said "Closed, Private Party". So we walked in on a birthday party, "oops!", and quickly made our way back out.

After returning to the apartment, we decided to go to a nearby traditional Russian restaurant that our driver had suggested. It was very, very good. Alan had lamb skewers that were incredibly tasty, Kathy had Stewed Beef that was also very good. The best part of the restaurant was that they served Baltika beer by the liter - pitchers of beer are typically not available. So Kathy was very happy (both before and after we drank 2L of beer).

We were eager to do some more exploring the next day, including our first tour, City Tour (with Peter & Paul Fortress). See you tomorrow!