Day Four: L'Hermitage

Once we made it downtown after our unfortunate immigration incident, we decided we deserved a treat. Julia and Thomas had been talking about these doughnuts since we arrived, and it seemed that this was going to be the moment to taste them.

They were delicious. Warm, sugary, light and greasy, we all left with smiles on our faces.


Full of energy, we hit the main cultural attraction of the city: the Hermitage

Unfortunately there was a bit of a line, and a lot of sun. Fortunately we have stoic husbands who volunteered to stand in line while us delicate ladies found some shade.

Once inside, we were rewarded with room after room of rich, elaborate, opulent art and design. The only drawbacks were the fact that half of the museum was unairconditioned, and that we had just stood in line for over an hour, so by the time we got inside, we were already tired and thirsty.

The inlaid wood floors were unbelieavable. Different in every room, and incredibly intricate.

I liked this hallway completely covered in frescoes

This was in the airconditioned side, where it turns out all the tour groups were. Here we saw Michealangelo's Madonna and Child, presented in a way similar to the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. Picture a large group of people crowed around a tiny painting, all trying to take a photo.

The exit from the galleries was this stairway lined with massive columns and stone statues.

When we left the gallery around 3:00 we had our first taste of truly hot temperatures. There was a hot wind, and the sun was baking, it must have easily been 40 degrees. Since we were hungry and thirsty, we headed to the Pushkin Cafe, a swanky refuge that served beer and food, and most importantly was air conditioned.

There were live musicians playing while we were there.

Julia had blinis with fish roe

We stayed as long as we could justify, and sufficiently cooled, set off again for the Peter and Paul cathedral across the river on one of the islands.

This church was inside a huge fortress right on the water. We visited an old prison, and walked around the grounds before going inside this beautiful church. There was a service going on at the time, and the chanting and peacefulness inside made it a magical place.

We headed back to our neighbourhood, stopping at a huge supermarket to stock up for dinner and our picnic lunch the next day. It was fun to see the aisles of smoke fish, smoke meat, vodka, and frozen pilminy. We ate dinner that night at the apartment, snacking on cold meats and herbs, and then cooking the fresh crayfish that we had picked up.