We moved into our new room at midday. It is very acceptable for 6,000 Rub/day which is cheap by St Petersburg standards given its position on (almost) Nevskii Prospekt. We then decided to walk to the Hermitage (formerly the Tsar’s Winter Palace, 2.75 miles down Nevskii Prospekt. It took us longer than expected because Jennifer wanted to go into all the shops and talk to all the dogs we met. We stopped for a coffee at one of the numerous coffee houses near Ploshchad Bosstaniye (Uprising Square) where the Bosheviks gathered before the storming of the Winter Palace and overthrow of Kerensky’s Provisional Government. There is now a huge obelisk to mark the end of WW2. We then, quite by accident, found Yeliseyev’s shop which was built in 1902 and was the principal high-class food store before the Revolution. And it still is, with lots of exotic produce at sky-high prices. There is a piano which plays itself; it was playing “We are the champions” when we were there. There is a story that, when the shop was bombed to the ground during the Siege, the piano continued playing. By the time we got to the General Staff building it was a bit late, so we walked back to the hotel. On the way we stopped at another classic pre-Revolution institution, the Abrikosov restaurant where we had a delicious meal of authentic Russian cuisine. Jennifer had Russian dumplings while I had boiled pork medallions cooked in some kind of exotic sauce. I had a raspberry flan and Jennifer had almond cake. The food was brilliant, the helpings large and the bill very reasonable, We will go again!!!
Boat trips on the Fontanka Canal
One of the Klodt horses on the Anichkov bridge where Nevskii Prospekt runs over the Fontanka canal.
Outside Yeliseyev’s food shop
A palm tree in the shop which survived the siege
Exotic foods, including hedgehog salami
The famous self-playing piano
One of a series of gigantic billboards outside the Winter Palace to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of WW2, Tis shows the storming of the Reichstag.
Russian, British, French and American troops in Berlin meeting Marshal Zhukov
Russian tank in Slovakia, May 1945
Our meals at the restaurant
Restaurant menu