We arrived in Russia by sea and were met by a massive queue at border control. The guards seemed very intimidating as they scrutinised our documents but with a final gruff "Da" we were through. The smiling, super friendly Scandinavians with their perfect English were replaced by harsh sounding Russians who spoke their mother tongue and all the signs were in Cyrillic script (fair enough really) but things had just got a whole lot tougher for us.

The city itself was a tourists dream, exquisite buildings, colourful domed churches, huge Museums and an intricate canal system - "The Venice of the North". Also just outside the city is Peterhof, which appears to be the Russian equivalent of Versailles and is a very extravagant collection of palaces, gardens and fountains.

We stood atop of St Isaac's cathedral, the city's highest point to watch the sunset followed by all the lights throughout the city being switched on - very theatrical and spectacular. As we walked into the city nightlife it was mayhem, a six lane main street with cars travelling at high speed giving no consideration to their pedestrian surroundings, roller bladers weaving deftly through buzzing crowds on the sidewalks. In one bar a man resembling a Russian ballet dancer pirouetted between us and tried to take Heather's drink - Big mistake, it was like watching someone trying to steal a bone from a Rottweiler - The dancer was removed and Heather awarded a free drink.

Today was the last full day and for the first time it poured so 4 hours in a museum - A major culture overdose washed down with Guinness and tomorrow we move to Moscow to meet Kim and the two Carols …. Not much danger of a culture overload.