Day 2 in St. Petersburg, Russia

It was another early day. This time as we all knew our bus, we were told to head directly to the bus instead of meeting at the Princess Theater. So we got up, had breakfast and headed to clear immigration before meeting our tour guide outside. We were at the bus before 7am!!

We were the first group to arrive for the river cruise along the Neva River. It was rather cold (and yet we were served chilled white wine) so most of us sat inside the boat. Daddy and Ko-ko spent most of the ride outside. 

We headed out for a while before it got too cold. 

We went past many buildings which Martha pointed out to us:

Daddy and Ko-ko spotted this young man who was running on the road and chasing our boat. He'd reach the bridge ahead of us and give us a wave before running to the next bridge.

We're not sure if he had wanted some money, but when we docked he was told off and chased away by (probably) the local tour manager who was at the dock, waiting to meet our tour guide. 

We hopped onto the bus to get to our next location: The Hermitage Museum. 

We were told that we had early access. As in our ticket enables us to enter the museum 30 minutes before it is officially opened to the rest of the visitors. And yet, by the time we arrived, there was a long queue (of other tours and cruises) which were already queuing to enter the museum). It was a cold day and at long last we finally made it in. First stop, toilets! 

As we entered there were statues and the first thing Mei-mei exclaimed when she say the statues was "Mummy.. I can see the down-down". Oops.. *laughing* Had to remind her not to be so loud and not to point. 

Martha brought us along the museum and pointed out the paintings/statues etc which were worth noting. It was a whirlwind tour and we got to see lots of paintings, but it would have been amazing to just be able to slowly walk along the museum. I think even one full day here would not be enough!

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt 

We were then brought to the Leonardo da Vinci room which was very crowded as many people wanted to look at his famous artworks:

Madonna and the Child (The Benois Madonna)

Madonna and the Child (The Litta Madonna) 

 We also got to see this beautifully intricate clock: The Peacock Clock

Our next stop before lunch was The Church of the Spilled Blood. As it was heavy traffic heading to the church, we hopped off the bus for a short walk across a park to the church. Ah Ma was too tired, so she rested on the bus.

We tried to have a picture taken, but it was too dark. Then we realised that the group had started walking towards the bus. Luckily daddy ran ahead (so that we didn't need to walk the wrong way) and found our group

And finally it was lunchtime. We were brought to a place where many other tours were also there to enjoy the Russian food:

Appetizer

Beef Stroganoff

Dessert

Then we were given some free time to wander around and do another round of gift shopping. We stopped at one of the two shows recommended with the intention of buying a Matryoshka doll. But we felt it was too expensive. Instead, a beautiful Faberge egg caught daddy's eye. And so we ended up buying that beautiful egg as our souvenir from Russia.
The final stop for the day was St. Isaac's Cathedral. Again, Ah Ma rested on the bus as she was too tired to walk:

 Dinner that night was back at Allegro. Tonight you picked the cheongsam to wear to dinner. Many other dinner patrons were amused at your pretty dress.

My two precious