The canal tour that never happened

Previous page - Watching the bridges open

 

Breakfast at the St Petersburg hostel

Neither of us slept well. We were so cold when we went to bed. We probably should have gone and had a hot shower when we returned at 2:30 a.m.

I fully expected Ian to wake up feeling much worse than he was last night but he was much the same.

We thought we would try the hostel breakfast this morning. Breakfast at the hostel is supposed to be on from 9 a.m. but we were waiting by ourselves at a locked door and it was long past 9 a.m. Eventually after prompting reception an elderly man came along and opened the door. For breakfast we could have cornflakes (very sweet compared to the ones we have back in Australia), cheese, hard-boiled eggs, dry bread, butter, jam plus tea or coffee.

 

 

Added later:

Only once in Russia did we have bread that wasn't stale. It was bought at a supermarket in Irkutsk and it was called "American" bread.

 

Canal tours in St Petersburg

We began the walk back down Nevsky Prospekt to the Anickhov Bridge on the Fontanka River where some of the canal tours begin from. It was the same place we were at last night. It is a lovely bridge with four huge horse statues on it. It dates back about 170 years. We have walked so far on this trip that we must surely have lost many kilos in weight. My feet are somewhat sore with the annoying blisters. But you can't give up walking in such a beautiful city just because your feet are sore.

Having bought our tickets for the canal tour (500 roubles each) we were expecting to go along 5 canals and under 5 bridges. It never happened that way. Due to some sort of misunderstanding we managed to be on a tour that covered the exact same ground as last night except there was no hovering around waiting for bridges to rise up. I was most annoyed but then we did get to see lots of places in a better light than we did the night before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whilst out on the water the skies became greyer and we even had a few spots of rain fall on us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Church Of Our Saviour On Spilled Blood

Back on land we wandered along Nevsky Prospekt. We headed down by a little canal and realized we had the Church Of Our Saviour On Spilled Blood in front of us. It is a beautiful church built on the spot where Alexander II was assassinated back in 1881 when revolutionaries bombed his royal carriage. The Church is built right on the edge of the canal which, if you are looking for it, is called Naberezhnaia Kanala Griboedova.

In the same little street you will find Frikadelki a big restaurant where we had an excellent lunch. This is what we had: borsch with meatballs, fish cakes, Ian had a large chicken nugget with some sort of greenery inside, we both had a tuna salad, finished off with a red cordial-style drink (revolting) and a chocolate eclair each. Apart from the drink it was great but I don't know how we weren't sick after eating so much. There are reasonably clean toilets in Frikadelki too.

From there we decided to walk to the Hermitage. I should say that Ian walked and I hobbled. By that stage I had blisters on top of blisters underneath one of my big toes. My foot was exceedingly painful.

 

Next page - The Hermitage

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