St Petersburg

Yet again, St. Petersburg was a place that we had visited before, and re-visiting it was the main reason for us taking this specific itinerary.

Due to the Russian visa regulations, the easiest way to visit is to book with a local agent and use their group visa.  This time we used Alla Tours, booking their 2-day "Grand Tour", with an evening extension of a visit to the Faberge museum.  We visited all of the major tourist sites - the Peterhof fountain gardens, Catherine's Palace, the Hermitage, various other palaces and cathedrals.  We also took a trip on the Metro (and didn't get mugged this time!), and a canal cruise. 

However, the highlight for us was probably the evening visit to the Faberge Museum.  This museum concentrates on the works of the imperial jeweller, and includes a number of his famous Eggs, as well as other high quality jewellery and decorative art.  It is absolutely stunning, and shouldn't be missed.  In the evening when we went, the museum was relatively un-crowded which meant that there was time to actually enjoy the art.  The ships tour of this museum was ridiculously expensive (around $300 each), but adding it as an extra to our 2 day package was only around $45 each, plus we got to spend some time wandering around on Nevsky Prospect.

Overall, an excellent two days, and we really can't recommend Alla Tours too highly.

By the way, the pictures are in no particular order ...