After a very early start at 4.15 am we had a completely trouble-free journey to St Petersburg, via Stockholm. No delayed flights, no hanging around for luggage, straight through passport control. Probably the best ever flying experience!
Took a rather dilapidated yellow mini-bus from the airport (which we later found out are called Marshrutkas) to the nearest tube station and from there it was seven stops and a long walk with very heavy rucksacks to the hotel (we have definitely over-packed!)
The metro was an interesting experience – apart from the difficulty reading the Russian script on the metro map, none of the platforms display the station names and you have to rely on counting the number of stops or listening to the announcements on a very poor quality p.a. Further complicated because the announcements give the next stop as well as the current one! We are staying at the Hotel Vesta in a quiet, rather uncared for square just off Nevsky Prospekt, the main shopping street in the heart of St Petersburg. The position couldn’t be better.
The weather is much colder than we had expected. The guide books say it should be up to 24 degrees C in August but it is more like 11 , so quite chilly and we don’t have much in the way of warm clothes.