Sun19Jun16: Hop-on, Hop-off Tour Bus

Getting up is a bit easier each morning, but the breakfast is just the same stuff - this might get monotonous in a while, but at least there are several selections.  Skies are starting to cloud over as the morning progresses and its getting cooler as we walk down to the Petrogradskaya Metro station.  Up the escalators at Nevskiy Prospekt, liberate 5,000p (CDN$100) from an ATM, then purchase two tickets on the City Tours double-decker hop-on hop-off bus for 700p each.

  Logic suggests that a tour bus will be faster in light Sunday traffic, but what actually happens is that the driver gets to each stop faster and stays there longer in order to keep on his regular schedule.   Eastward to the round-about at Moskovskiy Railway Station, then westward across town, bridges across Vasilevskiy Island and the Neva River and Petrogradskaya Island, the hopped off at Hare Island for lunch and a pit stop.,

That Burger King was full of young trainees so service was friendly and fast, but most important the toilets were clean.  The clouds now began spitting, which turned into light rain and the wind picked up to make it quite cool and damp all afternoon.

 On the return circuit we stopped at the Rostral Columns on the spit, and then into the Zoological Museum for the collection of taxidermy wildlife which included several mammoth skeletons.

 Across the Neva again and we hopped off at the statue of Nicholas I, to visit the cavernous St. Isaacs`s Cathedral, and then the open-air Bronze Horseman statue dedicated to Peter I ( a.k.a. Peter the Great) and Catherine II (a.k.a. Kathryn the Great).  Our Kathy snapped pictures of a wedding party drinking champagne after their photo event, and two actors in 17th century period costume.

 

  Amazing how time flies when you`re on a slow bus and checking out so many sights, but it`s already 6pm and time for supper.  Kathy buys the drinking water, Dave takes care of liberating the Mariposa Malbec 2014 on our walk home from the Metro.  Another supper at our hotel restaurant, cheap and filling, but the food is so bland that table-top pepper just isn`t near enough seasoning.  Another late evening of writing the blog, editing photos, and watch a Euro2016 football match on television.