Day 4 The Hermitage and a Wretched Exit

Our last few hours of our time in St. Petersburg were spent visiting a true highlight- The Hermitage Museum which is housed in the Winter Palace. The museum, founded in 1794 by Catherine the Great, is one of the oldest and largest museums in the world. Comprising of over three million items, it was originally Catherine's private collection, and is housed primarily in the Winter Palace, a former home of the czars, as well as five other historic buildings along the Palace Embankment.

Diana, our guide, had suggested that we tell her what was most important for us to see, as, although we had three hours, that would be nowhere enough time to see more than a portion of the portion of the collection that is only display at any one time.

One of our choices was the Malachite Room (thanks for the recommendation, Elisabeth) and Barry was very intrigued by the technique of using thin tiles of malachite to face all available surfaces- columns, table tops, fireplaces, urns, etc.

We also focused on the Dutch Masters and, in a separate building, the Impressionists.

Soon our three hours were up and it was time for us to head to the port to board the ferry back to Helsinki. We had bid a fond farewell to Diana and to Andrei, the driver of our extraordinary VW transport. 

We arrived in plenty of time, but it was a nightmare of line ups (that apparently the Russian passengers were not required to respect). There was a line up to get into the terminal, another one to get our boarding passes (and breakfast vouchers), another to go through passport control, and finally, one to actually board the ferry. Once on, we quickly found our teeny tiny cabin and settled in for another overnight trip.