Last night we ventured out again to visit the magnificent Hermitage. There were only 3 bus loads from the Marina there. We had the place to ourselves. Wonderful. When we drove past it in the morning the queue was so very long. But we went straight in!  We had a tour of some parts of the museum. They have 3 million items in their collection. Unfortunately for us, we didn’t see the Impressionists but we did see the Madonna & Child by Leonardo da Vinci

And The Crouching Boy by Michelangelo

I really liked this sculpture

We entered through Catherine’s Winter Palace which,of course, was magnificent.

At the end of our tour we were treated to an hour long concert by a symphony orchestra in the large Italian Skylight Room. They played a number of short pieces by Rossine, Mizart, A piece from Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky & others but my favourite was Radetzkys March by Johann Strauss.

We had booked another tour to the Hermitage this morning (Wednesday) but we cancelled when we got back last night deciding, wisely, the queueing in the rain for a long time & then sharing the experience with thousands of tourists (20,000 per day) would only taint the pleasant experience we had last night. So we’re quietly resting in the magnificent library until we brave the weather this afternoon to go to the Faberge Museum.