Along St. Petersburg

Take a ride

Along St. Petersburg
Two days in the northern capital
Two days in St. Petersburg is barely enough just to outline the key points and then return here again and again. And for the first acquaintance, it is better to turn to the services of one of the many travel agencies selling Northern Palmyra. She will organize travel, accommodation, and food for you. And most importantly - the minimum of excursions that is necessary to form a general impression.
For example, the Neva company offers the following option. Thursday, 22.30 - accommodation in a compartment of a fast train following the route of dissident Radishchev. At 6.30 the next day - Moskovsky station in St. Petersburg, transfer from train to bus, which will take the group to a cafe like Katti Sark. Breakfast will be served here. Eat more, as the other two breakfasts will not be so aristocratic - something like a buffet at the Sovetskaya Hotel. By the way, this hotel is a very good accommodation option (you can also stay in the Moscow Hotel). The so-called Lermontovsky building of the “Soviet” building stands right on the Fontanka embankment, which allows the guest to stand in a Pushkin pose at the windowsill and indulge in reflection, looking at the muddy waves of the small river.
The time until late lunch in one of the city cafes (16.00) will be occupied by a sightseeing tour. Standard set for a Muscovite: Nevsky Prospekt, Russian Museum, Spit of Vasilyevsky Island, cruiser Aurora, sights of the Petrograd side and St. Isaac's Cathedral. The view from its observation deck will impress even a teacher of architectural history. But physics teachers will be very upset by the absence of the famous pendulum inside the cathedral, which until the early 90s convincingly proved to tourists that the earth does indeed rotate. Now, instead of a pendulum, an artificial dove was hung under the dome.
The next day will be dedicated to the Hermitage. Four hours in the halls of one of the world's best repositories of beauty, even with a guide, is nothing. The Dutch alone may be enough for the inspection. Therefore, decide on your artistic preferences and do not rush between the pharaoh’s mummy and chairs “from the palace”. Lunch on Saturday is early, around 13.00. There are many options to kill your free time until the evening. You can indulge in epicureanism in one of the basement cafes, which, unlike the capital, are plentiful here, and the pricing policy is desperate dumping. Or you can rush to Vitebsk (formerly Tsarskoselsky) station and take the train to Pavlovsk or Pushkin. The beauty here is indescribable at any time of the year, and the museums are luxurious. You can walk for hours and sigh, they say, people lived! However, it would be wise to buy for 50 rubles without leaving Palace Square. bus tour of the city. St. Petersburg excursions are not Moscow's Lenin Hills - Luzhniki - Red Square with a visit to GUM. St. Petersburg excursions are highly specialized and intellectual. The question torments me: “Am I a trembling creature or do I have the right?” — take the bus "Dostoevsky's Petersburg". If you're afraid of losing your own nose, Gogol's Petersburg is at your service. If you love Pushkin, get two hours of a fascinating story with juicy details from the poet’s life. Not even every St. Petersburg resident, for example, knows about the existence of the “fatal” intersection at the intersection of Gorokhovaya and Morskaya, where Pushkin first met Dantes in the premises of the current grocery store. At the same intersection stands the house of the Queen of Spades, opposite which are the windows of the apartment where Tchaikovsky died. In a word, everything is very compact.
Sunday will be devoted to visiting Petrodvorets. The place is no worse than the Louvre, despite the fact that the famous fountains are not yet flowing, and the amber room has not yet been found. The only inconvenience is that you will have to take things from the hotel with you, since the rooms are paid only until noon. On Monday morning you are in Moscow.
"Neva", 6th Monetchikovsky lane, 19, 2323122.
SERGEY GOLUBTSOV

Magazine “Kommersant Weekend” No. 62 dated 04/07/2001, p. 16

Take a ride – Weekend – Kommersant