St Petersburg

7 August- enjoyable dinner last night. Tried different restaurant called Jerome. Looked fairly new and   menu was vaguely English- enough to work out dishes. We had delicious meals. I had a ravioli dish with proper beef inside the ravioli and SA had veal cheeks with some mash- lovely slow cooked veal. We then went to this cute coffee shop for vodka and dessert. We had a shot of Russian vodka each - Stolychnaya with too much dessert. Too much dessert because the waitress spoke little English and our Russian is pathetic. Somehow ended up with 2 scoops of ice cream and 2 large meringues. Have found some younger people- around Will's age are more likely to speak English. I refuse to laugh at their English translations on menus as I can just imagine how I'd go translating food into Russian.

Also had a great afternoon yesterday- went to the Impessionist gallery at the Hermitage- located in the old General Staff building. Some I don't know 10 rooms of paintings- all the usual suspects- Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Renoir. We're told the collection belonged to some Russian industrialists and the collection was taken over by the State. Huge number. Spent some 2 hours there.
K
Ok- today we went to the Tsars Village- some 20kms south of St Petersburg to see the Summer Palace- built after the one we saw yesterday which became the 'backup summer palace'. OK I made the back up part up. It is stunning. Built by Elizabeth in the Russian baroque style and added to by Catherine the Second who preferred the more modest Classical style. There are buildings designed by this Scottish architect- Cameron who lived in Russia for some 20 years . Bizarre. Beautiful gardens- French manicured style and English and various pavilions dotted around- smaller buildings where the family would go to eg have breakfast each day or to entertain guests. There is one room totally decorated in Amber. The Germans trashed  the place in WW 2 so a lot has been reconstructed.

We had our guide and driver again. On the way there we saw a very impressive monument regarding the siege of Leningrad. It was amazing- huge statues. Can't describe it so as to give it justice. Also saw some impressive apartment blocks built in the time of Stalin that were actually very modern looking and stylish. Who'd have thought. Looked actually like something you'd see in New York.
Lots of little satellite suburbs in effect on the way to the Palace.

Have to record a story told by Vladmir so don't forget- SA asked where the Stroganov Palace  was ( he saw it on Maps me). Vladimir pointed it out- near our hotel. The story is that Prince Strogonov loved his meat but had very bad teeth and ended up with them all pulled out and having wooden teeth. He could not chew well so his staff came up with the idea of chopping the meat into small strips- hence the invention of beef Strogonov. Also the hotel next to ours is the Hotel Astoria. Vladimir told us that during the siege, Hitler made a booking there for essentially a party to celebrate Germany entering St Petersburg. Of course he never got to confirm the booking. Our guide's mother and step brother escaped to Georgia just before the siege and is obviously a topic close to his heart.

Said goodbye to guide and driver today. They were excellent. Should also mention that Russians drive like maniacs- like Italians. Was interesting at times watching our driver weaving across the various roads. Vladimir did tell us that Russians are crazy drivers- he does not drive.