"This is the castle of emperor Paul the Ist, he was so anxious about assassination plots that he was the first Romanov to build himself a castle rather than a palace so that he could be better protected. Forty nights after he moved into his new castle he was assassinated by his own court." 

That seems to be the underlying theme for this city - kill who you need to in order to gain power, just build a church to ensure St Peter still lets you in. The result is a city with so many houses of God that the older ones have to be recast for other purposes once the glut of new ones floods the flock. Every store turns on the untimely death of someone. They even called one the church of spilled blood just so you don't miss the theme.

You can't get into Russia without a visa, not realising that the $200/head process takes two weeks until one week before we were leaving Sydney our only option was to book ourselves on to structured tours so we could bypass the visa need. Our first tour was a shopping one, meaning we were dropped in the square and free to do what we liked for a few hours. We strolled and scratched our heads, like Greece the foreign alphabet ensures we can't make much of the street signage - Pushkin was no fan of English.

As soon as our bus leaves the terminal the landscape reminds me of China. With the 2018 FIFA world cup on the way there is new development everywhere, but for everything being built there are a hundred things in decay. Lots of the architecture is lock down drab central government peeling facades, or new gordy things with stuck on faux opulence.

But then you hit the old city, the buildings from two or three centuries ago, back when it was ok to bring in the Italian and Spanish architects and the place is suddenly very impressive. We visited the Church of the Spilled Blood, strolled down Nevsky Prospect checking out just how much this street is designed for loose wallets, before reaching Eliseyev Emporium an 18th century deli - this is what DJs food hall hopes to grow up to one day. That was about all we achieved in our first two hours, there's just so much to take in.

We spent the afternoon back on board, before heading back into the city for an evening canal tour. If it's all magnificent from the street, its only the more so from the water. But first we take in St Issac's - spooky to see the big chunk out of one of the columns from the Nazi bombing campaigns. Apparently Hitler was so convinced he would take St Petersburg he booked the nearby Hotel Astoria for his celebratory dinner, chose the menu, sent the invites everything - just days later he'd ended himself and the idea of the 1000 year Third Reich, he forgot the cancel his booking though. 

The Sun is perfectly framed by the Winter Palace and the Russian Bridge of Sighs connecting it to the next building in the Hermitage. Out on the Neva we can see the Winter Palace in full for the first time - even more magnificent bathed in the golden setting sun. We're along to the other end and then heading back past Peter & Paul before turning on the Fontanka. Along here are the Law school where Tchaikovsky studied before his change of heart. Further along is the Castle of Emperor Paul I, since he didn't need it for very long it was eventually turned into an Engineering School, the one where Dovstoyeski read engineering before his own career change. Past the Stroganov house where Baron Stroganov had his namesake dish invented so he could still consume beef long after his teeth failed him. A turn and we're in front of the house where Rasputin met his fate. 

So many tales of fallen Romanov and Romanov ringins, I had no chance of keeping the tales straight in my head. Even without the excesses of the house I think I'd have supported the revolution just to stop the spiral of instability.

Far too much for us to take in during our short visit today, thankfully we have a whole day tomorrow to take even more in.