A one hour drive through St Petersburg to Catherines Palace – very exciting to be able to see a little taste of Russia, eventhough St Petersburg is not the ‘real ‘Russia, as it is a very ‘western’ city,  However the architecture is spectactular and everything is huge, although the buildings as not opulent as many in Europe.

Catherines Palace is beautiful with enormous windows to let in the natural light.  They have so little daylight that they have tried to capture every bit they can.  With the white paintwork and the natural light the building interiors have a beautiful soft glow.

After lunch (which included Borscht, which tasted infinitely better than I expected)) we visited St Peter and Paul Fortress which is the first and oldest landmark in St Petersburg, built between 1712 and 1733.  The Greek Orthodox Cathedral is very impressive and contains the tombs of most of the Russian Tsars and Empresses.