Day 6 - St. Petersburg and Red Arrow to Moscow

After sleeping in a bit, I got out and started walking through St. Petersburg in the hope of seeing all the sights in one day. I had enough time seeing as my train to Moscow only left at 23:55.

Since I am big into walking everywhere I decided that this is the best option to see everything.
From my walk yesterday I knew that the distances are quite far and you get easy 3-4km just walking to the Hermitage Museum from my hotel. Not sure how many km I walked but it feels like a lot, the good thing is that I can safely say that I have seen everything I wanted and more.

St. Petersburg has some great architecture and very colourful buildings but for me, it will be remembered as the 'city of overhead cables and wires'. Much of the architecture is spoiled by stupid cables over the street for the electric buses but also attached to buildings for street signs, electric cables an so on. Can only imagine how much nicer the city could be without having these constant cables everywhere.

Aside from that it is a very nice city and well worth a visit, it is also an expensive city though.

Having somewhat neglected the GXR A12-M in the beginning, I have used it with the Jupiter-8 for most photos today. It felt more 'at home' in some ways and the different perspective was nice although sometimes limiting and this is where the GR and Heliar 15mm came in handy.

Before heading to the station to catch my train, I had dinner at the Zoom Cafe. Yes, I got this from Tripadvisor where it's number 1 on St. Petersburg so it's not really a secret tip but a great tip. The
food, service, décor and even value were great so I can recommend it.

I had a bit of time to kill before the 'Krasnaya Strela' (Red Arrow) pulled into the station so have been taking some photos around the station. The train itself is very comfortable, clean and luxurious even whe travelling 2nd class. You get free tea and breakfast included in the price.
While there are cheaper trains, I would recommend taking this one for your journey. I did enjoy my journey in the train but ended up sharing my compartment with some rather quiet Russians.

I will get to Moscow in the morning and will have until the day after to walk around and explore the city. More on this in the coming days, for now enjoy the pictures from St. Petersburg.

Day 5 - Morning in Helsinki, Evening in St. Petersburg

After getting a few hours of sleep, I decided to go on deck and take some pictures until the ferry arrived in Helsinki. It was again a nice, sunny morning and a calm sea. It provided a nice scene for photography.

Arrving in Helsinki, I went for a walk to take in as many sights as possible before my train to St. Petersburg would depart at 15:00. Before taking in the sights, I stopped off at Cafe Engel to get brunch and am very happy I did.
I can only recommend you go there when in Helsinki and order a 'Bacon and Eggs' breakfast, you'll get lots of bacon, scrambled eggs, fruit, orange juice and coffee. It is in front of the Helsinki Cathedral so you are bound to be in the area.

Wandering around Helsinki was very nice and relaxing and I happened upon the rail station quicker than I thought so decided to take some pictures there. Since I felt like I have been neglecting the GXR and to get different types of photos, I decided to use the GXR with Jupiter-8 lens. After using the GR so much, it felt strange not having AF anymore and using a less than perfect lens but it did give me some nice people shots.

The Allegro train to St. Petersburg is very modern and comfortable with free wifi, enough leg room, plugs to charge devices and it's clean. It's the nicest train I took so far and think it will remain for a while, at least till I get to China.

Arriving in St. Petersburg it was a bit overcast and grey so it did not look very welcoming, especially with the Soviet grey architecture around Finlyandskiy station.
I took my camera out anyway and set out for my almost 4km walk to the hotel. After taking a few photos with the GR, I decided it is more fitting to take the  GXR A12-M with the Jupiter-8 lens.

After checking into the hotel, I went out for a stroll along Nevsky Prospect and to get in some of the sights nearby. At first it was not overly impressive but this quickly changed once the lights were turned on.

Tomorrow, I will have more time to explore the city before taking the night train from St. Petersburg to Moscow.