St. Petersburg

We were dropped off at the Moscow train station at around 7:00PM. We checked our bags in a holding compartment and ventured to the metro station, journeyed to the city center to locate a Pizza restaurant we had checked out earlier in the week. We were not disappointed. It has been like The movie, Groundhog Day, as every meal is exactly same, including breakfast and including a whole lot of dill. Our overnight train trip was very entertaining as we were in a four bunk compartment and our luggage took up half of our compartment. Our new guide in St. Petersburg was Anya, an English teacher on a 3 year maternity leave. She spoke excellent English and was completely different from our other guides. She was frank and unfiltered with her opinions, mostly humorless but a very intelligent and responsible guide, worried that we were happy at all times. Wow is all I can say about seeing Palace Square with the Winter Palace and Hermitage Museums. St. Petersburg was totally destroyed during the Nazi's 900 day siege during WWII. Millions of died from the years of bombing and starvation. But, as then, the people are resilient. They have restored the city to its former beauty and there are few signs that 60 years ago it was a pile of rubble. This city is very westernized, where anything that can be bought in London or Paris can be bought here. Cruise ships line the port and tourist are everywhere. Our guide confided that Asians were not liked because they are too pushy. I asked if Americans were pushy and she said not at all. I made a point not to change her mind. We toured resorted palaces Peterhof and Catherine's Palace, both decimated by Hitler's army. We were told Hitler's thoughts were that to win a country you had to first destroy its past. I don't see how anyone could destroy such beauty. We are nearly finished with our adventure. I'll wrap up next time.