The last leg - Saint Petersburg

We took the Sapsan high speed train from Moscow to St Petersburg.

Sapsan in Russian means Peregrine falcon. These trains are superfast and made the 700+ km journey in 4 hours..  with 2 stops.

These trains have only chair cars and around 10 wagons.

Interestingly it seems that the high speed track is totally seperate from the freight tracks. 4 hours and not a single freight train passed (unlike one every ten minutes or so on the strand Siberian line)

We got into St Petersburg and checked into our hotel. After a bite, we went out to explore the city on our own.

As soon as stepped out of the hotel we saw this cat, but the OH was absolutely adamant that I didn't try to make friends with it.

As we walked along the Sadovaya Ulitsa, the OH was a little disappointed. We had heard so much about St Petersburg being a beautiful city. And what we saw had a patina of genteel shabbiness.

After we crossed a couple of intersections, we came upon the canals St Petersburg is famous for.

It was a lovely afternoon, and using Google maps we made our way towards the Neva River.

On the way we passed the Cathedral of St Isaac.

The statue of Tsar Nicholas I.

And then the famed Bronze horseman.

The riverside boulevard near the Admiralty looked very familiar.

Remember the tank scene from Goldeneye??

I was about to ask a cop where we could hire a self drive tank, and the OH decided a boat rider was safer and bundled me into a boat.

We first crossed the river toward the fortress of St Peter and Paul.

We could see the Cathedral of St Peter, which is the testing place of the rulers of the Romanovs dynasty.

The boat took us along the rivers and  canals of the main section of St Petersburg.

Towards the end of the River cruise I called it quits and moved from the open deck to the closed cabin. I was freezing!

We walked back to our hotel by a different route. 

Found a little dragon that St George missed 

And I got to play with Gattya, the cutest little Borzhoi puppy. Gattya's owner was rather surprised that I recognized a Borzhoi, a Russian Wolfhound.

Russians seem to love little dogs. Mostly chihuahuas. 

I really don't consider them dogs . Som of them look less like canines and more like industrial waste accidents.  Think Chernobyl.

We're off on a guided tomorrow..

Signing off for now.

from Russia.. with love