We boarded the Cruise ship, The Princess Anersasier named after the daughter of the last Zara of Russia for the overnight sailing. This ship is the only way into Russia without a visa and gave us 2 full days in the city with one night in a hotel. The weather was quite cold 12 to 16 degrees but was mainly dry. We packed a lot into a short time with visits to cathedrals, a riverboat trip and a lot of time in the Hermitage museum/ winter palace.
The buildings are so incredibly lavish, when you see how much was spent on them, it's no wonder the Russian Revolution happened. The big cathedral took almost 40 years to build by 400,000 workers but unbelievably 100,000 workers died while building it.
The Hermitage museum must be one of the largest in the world, it contains row after row of paintings by the worlds best known artists, there are sculptures from Michel Angelo