Night location: Saint Petersburg, Russia

Today has been our coldest day of the trip so far with a top of only 6 degrees. Fortunately there was no rain however so we were still able to get out and about without a problem. We caught the metro to Admiralty which was by far the nicest station that we have seen in Saint Petersburg with beautiful mosaics depicting scenes of the navy. From 1711 to 1917 Admiralty was the headquarters of the Russian navy and is currently a military naval college. We walked past its gilded spire, and through the Alexander Garden into a sharp breeze coming off the water. One of Gemma's favourite novels 'The Bronze Horseman' is set in Leningrad during WWII so she was really excited to see this iconic statue. Peter the Great is shown riding his horse who is rearing above the snake of treason. Immortalised in an epic poem by Alexander Pushkin this statue has become one of the symbols of the city.

From here we walked to Saint Isaac's Cathedral, which is really only used for religious services at Christmas and Easter. We left Gareth to climb to the colonnade around the drum of the central dome and took refuge from the cold inside a lovely cafe that specialised in apple strudel. Edith also enjoyed some respite from the cold wind and loved being free from the carrier!

Our luck regarding a visit to The Hermitage was definitely not in for this trip. Not only was it closed yesterday when we were originally planning to visit, but today was also the first Thursday of the new month which is 'free' day! Add to this the general interest in the new wing that was opened yesterday by Putin, and you have thousands of European tourists and half of China in a line that seemed to queue forever. We decided that we would press on and that Gemma and Gareth would return later in the afternoon to see if the line was reduced.

Built on the site of the assassination of Alexander II (1881), The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood is the most elaborate church in Saint Petersburg. We hadn't actually been inside this monumental building so we purchased tickets and went straight in. Unlike Saint Basil's in Moscow, the interior was open and beautifully decorated with 7000 sq metres of almost modern looking mosaics. There were three iconostasis', each skilfully crafted from materials including marble, pink rhodonite and jasper. A shrine like canopy marked the spot of the assassination making the church feel just as much an historic monument as a place of worship.

After leaving the church we walked back to our hotel via the Summer Garden. Founded in 1704 as the summer residence of Peter the Great, this park is the oldest in Saint Petersburg. We are visiting Russia at a beautiful time of the year as the trees are just starting to change colour, however the bite in the wind today was pretty fierce. It seemed a bit incongruous for us to be visiting a 'summer' garden but never mind!

Due to Amber and David being booked to see a ballet performance, we split up in the mid afternoon. After resting at the hotel Gareth and Gemma returned to The Hermitage to find the line had reduced to a seemingly more manageable level compared to what we had seen earlier. However this is Russia and it seemed that half of Saint Petersburg had a special pass to skip the queue. Edith was not impressed waiting in the cold. They finally entered the entrance hall and met the other half of Saint Petersburg trying to cloak their coats. Fortunately it became immediately obvious that the wait was worth it. Gareth had very high expectations and the spectacular rooms lived up to their reputation. Due to the size of the magnificent State Rooms, the crowds were dwarfed due to their scale. Gareth had to use his orienteering skills to navigate this Venice-like museum. Stand outs of three million plus pieces included the gilt Peacock clock in the multi-levelled Pavillion Hall, Michelangelo's Crouching Boy sculpture and the personal gothic timber library of Nicholas II (the last Tsar of Russia). Since art is not their forte, Gareth and Gemma were overwhelmed by the collection of pieces by Da Vinci, Raphael, Rembrandt and Renoir to name a few. The mazes of corridors were too much for their tired legs and they had to retreat to their hotel room for bedtime stories with Edith.

Meanwhile, across town, Amber and David enjoyed a lovely meal at an Italian restaurant (surprise surprise) that was suspiciously called Romeo's, but was actually number 17 on TripAdvisor. To conclude their Russian holiday they had booked tickets to Swan Lake at the Mariinsky Theatre. The theatre was built in 1859 and remains one of Russia's most loved cultural institutions. The ballet of Swan Lake premiered in Moscow in 1877 and is performed to the incredible orchestral music of Tchaikovsky so they definitely finished with a Russian cultural highlight! Having left enough time to find their seats they witnessed some more Russian theatre chaos but after asking randoms to get out of their seats they both thoroughly enjoyed the performance. Importantly, they also had a plan to get home by using a bus and two metros. It has only taken four days for us to feel as though we're nailing the somewhat confusing public transport system. We navigated the streets of the city without making any mistakes! A true triumph!