St Petersburg, Russia - Part 4

Primary objective for Sunday was to visit the Hermitage. Ah - the best of good intentions are oft thwarted by the minutiae of reality! Being Sunday we didn't get going until mid-morning and then it was a stroll down Nevsky Pr (how we got to know and love that street in just a few days). Actually, to relieve the tedium of the walk we cut down through the back streets and it was infinitely more interesting than 'high street'. We came across a group of serendipitous lions hanging around in one street. We also came across a photo shoot for a wedding taking place outside the Large Hermitage.

Arriving at the Hermitage we were initially directed to the entrance on the embankment - along with a lot of other confused people - only to find that the proper entrance iis on the other side of the building in Dvortsovaya Place - ho hum. So backtracking we eventually reached the proper entrance (these buildings are BIG - see photo) and went through the gates to join the queue. Well the queue was longish but not too dismaying so we joined onto the end of it and waited. And waited. And waited. We were there for perhaps 45 minutes and there had been no movement at all. Here is a photo of the queue looking toward the entrance inside the courtyard.


Eventually we decided that we would probably be better off trying to visit the Hermitage on Wednesday morning when we had some free time before our departure from St Petersburg, so we headed off to see some more sights.