The Immigration officials faces were seriously dead. They don't like their job and it's our fault they have to do it. After a full 10 minutes of computerised activities, and with no changes in her facial expression, I was getting uneasy. Maybe her computer is telling her to check my face to see if I resemble Elvis. He used my name as one of his hotel aliases so it may be on one of those suspicious name lists. Should I attempt to run back to the ship before the KGB arrive? Would they pursue me? My leg is still not good, they'd probably get me within the first five or six stumbling steps. No, I'll have to tough it out. Then she smashed my passport with a heavy stamp and told me to get out of her way. I could go through. Tricia got through in 2 minutes.
We had organised a private drive and guide for the day. It was the only way to maximise time in the Hermitage. Would the guide speak good English? Would it be a KGB agent licensed to kill? No, it was the stereotypical sweet young Russian woman. She is a teacher and makes extra cash in summer as a tour guide. Her English was good. All now seems safe. Even with a bad back and leg, I could beat her in a fight if it comes to that (Provided Tricia helps me).
She then told us she had to find her driver, Sergei. OMG, what might Sergei be?!
We approached the car, looked modern and clean, very nice, except it was standard issue, spook black. I was limping a bit. Tricia was prevented from jumping into the front passenger seat and forced into the back behind the driver. I limped to the other side. I checked the door had an inside handle and unlock mechanism. Yes, OK I'll risk it. The guide got the front passenger seat.
The Hermitage was not open till 10:30 so we had 1.5 hours to kill. I hoped she didn't mean us. No. All was good, we'd see a few silly churches and other historic junk first.
Every time Sergei stopped the car to let us out he would open Tricia's door and assist. I'm the one limping and falling on my face on the curb in agony each time I try to get out of the car, not her! Sexist bastard.
Then we went to the impressionist building of the Hermitage to rack up our first miles.
Then a canal trip because Tricia wanted to. It turns out to be a lot like Venice, but more serious. Lots and lots of canals and old buildings. Sometimes the Baltic ocean gets blown east so it bulges into 4 metre higher water at St Petersberg. They eventually got sick of their city being catastrophically flooded and built something resembling Port Philip Bay, except they can seal "The Heads" if necessary.
In front of the main Hermitage building, there was some form of Fireman's Olympic games going on. We ignored that to get our Art Gallery miles up. Lunch inside involved a cardboard sandwich and some water. I cracked and had the triple chocolate cake which was devastatingly good compared to my recent diet. Our guide had tea. The most impressive thing in the Hermitage was the sheer scale of it and the decorations. I gather some of the works of Art were good also. The "Gold" room was full of items made of gold. Er, OK.
The day was fantastic and we love our driver and guide.
No comments:
Post a Comment