We then took a taxi back to Vladimir in time to catch the overnight train to St Petersburg. We booked soft class or first class which is a 2 person coupe. This was very comfortable (though we were forced to pay an extra amount for bedding – this is not included in your ticket price). There was an eating coach that looked like a tacky Hawaiian bar which we avoided, and chay (tea) and kofye (coffee) were freely available in our coupe for a nominal amount. The journey was fairly bumpy for most of the journey and our coupe rattled and squeaked throughout – I constantly thought we were being attacked by Tartar invaders, despite the locks and extra piece of string we’d put around the handle of our door. The toilet facility was adequate (about 5 coupes to one toilet). An added extra is that at about 8am you are woken up by softly piped Russian pop music (nice change from the loud Western pop music that greets you in most restaurants/breakfast rooms!).

The station in St Petersburg is much lighter and friendlier than the Moscow station and one is immediately struck by the English writing on many of the signs. We walked down the Nevsky Propect to the gigantic concrete mass of the Moskva Hotel which was swarming with tour coaches and tour parties. Strangely enough, although we saw many tour groups at the main attractions in Moscow, we only saw Russian tourists in Suzdal and heard virtually no foreign accents on the metros/streets of Moscow. St Petersburg was more obviously geared up for tourists, with many more people speaking English and a lot more queues which we’d not encountered prior to arriving there. At first it did not seem as Russian, though should you wander off the main tourist drag you’re once more very much back in Russia.

St Petersburg is definitely the grand dame of Russia. Its faded elegance and regalness can’t fail to charm you. The only shame were the amounts of scaffolding and road works in preparation for next year’s tri-centennial celebrations which did affect our ability to appreciate St Petersburg’s grandeur. Highlights include the Hermitage (beyond your wildest dreams in splendour and works of art), the Russian Museum (which houses a fascinating collection of Russian art) and Peterhof palace. We caught the hydrofoil to Peterhof (or Petrovarets) which runs regularly during the summer (until about 6pm) and the fountains were absolutely magnificent. The queues for the palace were formidable though. Also we were luckly enough to see the Kirov opera at the Mariinsky Theatre in a production of Eugene Onegin. It was superb with an outstanding French design and excellent cast. The theatre itself is also not to be missed. We sat in the third balcony and could see everything perfectly. Of course we were forced to buy our tickets on the black market – there is a ticket shop on the corner of Mikhailovsky ulitsa and Nevsky Prospect outside of which we met someone selling Mariinsky tickets for triple the price. The tickets were not too badly priced in our equivalent pounds (approx £14 each which is much cheaper than opera tickets in London!), though Russians can go to the Kirov for hardly anything at all. Make sure you get a yellow foreigner ticket otherwise you’ll have to pay an extra amount to exchange your blue Russian ticket when you get to the theatre. The ticket tout, Vladimir, agreed to go to the theatre on our behalf to exchange the tickets so I guess it wasn’t too bad a deal (the prices at the ticket agency in the Hotel Moskva started at about $35.00). Anyway it was one of the most memorable evenings of our life – an experience no-one should miss.