Further along was St Isaac Cathedral which is very large ornate building. Most of it is given over to a museum but you can also pay separately to go up to the collonade which goes around the building below the dome. Since you aren't allowed to photograph up there (officially anyway) it dulls the allure of the climb.
The building is so large and tall that it is difficult to get a decent perspective of it from the ground. Just behind the Cathedral is a quite impressive statue but I can't remember who it was commemorating.
The building behind to the right is the Mariinsky Palace.
Wandering through the backstreets we strayed well away from Nevsky Pr following Gorkhovaya Ulitsa but it was quite interesting getting somewhat off the beaten track. Eventually we ended up back on Nevsky Pr (OK we cheated and followed a sign that pointed in that direction) and then it was a simple walk back to the hotel.
Another interesting visit on the Sunday was to the Kuznechy market just off Vladimirsky Pr (the Radison Hotel is on the corner of this and Nevsky). The map showing the market wasn't great but was enough to get us within 100 metres. Attempts to question local pedestrians were met by shoulder shrugs but eventually by using the Russian word for market a local girl was able to point it out to us - just down the street that we were on actually! The market was quite interesting having a wide variety of fresh goods - meat, fish, fruit and vegetables - as well as other produce like delicatessen products, dairy products, and honey. I've never seen such a collection of Basturma in a deli before - they must have had six varieties while we are hard-pressed to find one. I tried several varieties of honey and bought some (more on this later).
This day is not yet finished but I'll follow up with more later...
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