2019 Russia #14

July 8, 2019 – St. Petersburg Downtown

We have officially completed the Trans-Siberian portion of our journey, as Moscow is the end of the Railway. Our new train to St. Petersburg is called Sapsan, which is Russian for falcon. It’s a modern train, with comfy seats for the 3.5-hour journey at 210 kph, much faster than the average 70 km/h of the Trans-Siberian. The train leaves the Leningrad Station in Moscow, so be careful, as there are multiple train stations!

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The St. Petersburg train station.

C’mon Yandex. C’mon c’mon… Yes!

St. Petersburg is an awesome experience. A comprehensive look at this city would take a couple of weeks, and a month would be better. We had four days! But we made the best of it, and I’ll try to give you the best of the best in this and the three following posts.

Oooh. Canals. Is this Russia?

Cool building on the edge of a canal, made to look like a ship.

Our apartment is in an excellent location, on Gorokhovaya Street, just a half-block from Griboyedov Channel, one of the numerous city canals. It’s within easy walking distance of the Admiralty, the Hermitage, Khazan and St. Isaac’s Cathedrals, and many more city landmarks. More about those later.

The first challenge – getting through the gate at the street entrance.

A very inviting building entrance.

One of these buttons may make the elevator go somewhere… I think I’ll take the stairs.

Or maybe not?

Standard KGB door.

Only to reveal a very nice apartment!

With all the mod cons.

I may have to go back to school to learn how to run this thing…

Once settled into our apartment, we went in search of a place to eat our evening meal, and we stumbled onto – The Hoppy Bus! We love these things as they give us a great look at the city highlights, which we can visit at our leisure later. So, screw lunch, we’re off on our first adventure!

St. Isaac’s Cathedral.

The General Staff Building, which shares Palace Square with the Hermitage.

A closer look at the main entrance.

Crossing a bridge over the main harbor. Note the exquisitely detailed wrought-iron railings.

Kahzan Cathedral.

There IS a modern city that has grown up around the historic core.

Peter and Paul Fortress, which is on an island adjacent to the main harbor.

Blagovat, a 19th-century frigate that now serves as a banquet hall.

Downtown St. Petersburg includes two large islands, and the bewildering canal system creates what are technically another half-dozen islands. There’s water and boats wherever you turn! We’re going on a boat tour tomorrow, so hopefully we’ll get a good look at them.