On our last afternoon in St P we boarded a bus to go into the city centre to ride the metro & see their renowned stations. It was fun & a little bit testing since there were 30 in our group with a guide in the front, a young helper at the rear & a few very old, not very active passengers in our group. The 2 elevators at the station where we entered took us down 71 metres. It’s a very deep subway & for someone like me who has a fear of going down, especially on elevators, it was a challenge …. But I hung on tight to David & all was well – just as well I’d practised a few weeks ago on the London Underground.

It was worth it!  The mosaics in the stations were lovely:

The very tall man in the mosaics is Peter the Great. He was 201 cm about 61cm taller than other people at that time.

Our guide was very excited that she didn’t lose anyone.

Then she let us loose to wander & shop on our own which we enjoyed and we stocked up on a few presents.  Shopping arcades are shopping arcades anywhere.

When we returned to the ship we set sail for Finland.

We had dinner in the Grand Dining Room where the service is excellent, you can eat at any time & it is free seating. We were joined by an American couple from Orlando & an English couple from the Midlands. Everyone on this ship is so friendly it is really enjoyable. After dinner we went with our new friends for 30 mins of dancing & then to the ship’s nightly entertainment: an Iris magician/comedian. It was passable.

The crew are wonderful. One of the waiters in the Grand Dining Room is a real card. He even came & stirred David’s coffee at one meal.

So yes, we’re having a wonderful time. We reckon we will sail with Oceania again. Half of the passengers are American but there are 37 nationalities amongst the passengers & 49 amongst the crew!  So we are a multicultural lot!