What a day!  The weather was atrocious!  Rain, wind, cold but we can’t complain because we have had really good weather over the rest of the trip. We’re really pleased to be in port at the moment as the boat is moving quite a bit even in harbour.

However, it is not the best when we’re out & about!

Yesterday morning we went on a “Highlights of St Petersburg” tour. There are 5 million people living here & up to 2 million tourists (5 ships are in port) & they were all on the road yesterday. I thought Brisbane traffic was bad but we have nothing to worry about.

That aside, the tour was interesting. We drove past numerous palaces owned by different noble families back before 1918. We stopped for a picture of St Isaac’s cathedral with its gold dome (about 80 kg of gold).  (Sorry, my pictures didn’t turn out).

We visited Peter and Paul Cathedral which has a gold spire & sits within a fortress across the main river here, the Neva River. We had to queue for about 20 minutes in the wind& rain which was not pleasant. The fortress was the first part of St P to be constructed in 1703  when Peter the Great decided to build a new city.

Inside there are the tombs of the Romanov monarchs including this one on the right here which is that of Peter the Great himself.

Like all cathedrals there are many very splendid rooms filled with gold & chandeliers:

I can’t help wondering about the poor peasants who were freezing & starving while all this grandeur is being built & maintained!