On the 26th, we drove over 300 miles to Novgorod and, after getting lost because it was dark and I failed to notice that we had crossed the river, finally found the Intourist hotel. Too late for a meal but they made some delicious soup. The next day we visited Novgorod Kremlin which was covered in beautiful frescoes and then drove to St Petersburg, finding the hotel without too much difficulty. It was actually an apartment with no-one there but, eventually, a girl came running up the five flights of stairs and told us the room wasn’t ready. With admirable efficiency she put clean beddingdown and our little room, costing £6 a night each, was perfect. Clean, comfortable, warm, excellent shower, kettle, microwave. It was in the centre of the city and it was rather sad to think that people probably froze/starved to death in that room during the 1941-1944 siege in which 1.6 million people died. We found a fantastic little Georgian/Azerbaijani restaurant near the hotel and had a delicious meal of Shashlyk and Khachapuri,
The next day we walked the 2 miles to the Hermitage and spent all day there. The pics speak for themselves. We also crossed Palace Square to the General Staff building to see a huge number of pics by Impressionists and post-Impressionists; Picasso, van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Cezanne, Gaugan, Lautrec, Seurat, Kandinsky etc.
