I think I might have seen too many Len Deighton spy films. As we approached the border between Finland and Russia I felt a small tremor. Will they let me in? Will the perfunctory Russian apparatchik march out, seize my passport and frogmarch me to an office behind a wall never to be seen again? Such Walter Mitty daydreams did not occur.

At the border we left our bus to lineup at immigration. I didn't use the chance to take a photo, thinking that my Walter Mitty dreams might come to fruition. But I'll provide a word picture instead. There where about four bus groups scheduled one after the other and only one open counter, of the four available. The room looked exactly like the ones your see in cold war movies flimsily made formica cabinets with an officer behind glass who looked down at my passport photo, gave a grimace and let me through.

Back on the bus and another couple of hours later we arrived in Saint Petersburg where we were met by Lena, our guide for the next three days. Lena was a refreshing change from our previous guide, she spoke excellent English and a had a degree in Linguistics and Art History.

Saint Petersburg, what a place, it's so beautiful. The city is covered with palaces, canals and bridges. The buildings have a colour palette of cream/white, green/white, yellow/white, blue/white and dark grey. The maximum height in the old city was mandated at three stories, which gives a coherent design, especially along the river front.

Our guide was very proud to tell us that Russians know the exact day that the city was founded by Peter the Great on 27 May 1703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd and in 1924 to Leningrad. In 1991 the named reverted back to Saint Petersburg. Between 1713 to 1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the central government bodies moved to Moscow.

The city was the hub of the 1917 revolution. In November the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, stormed the Winter Palace in an event known thereafter as the October Revolution, which led to the end of the post-Tsarist provisional government and the transfer of all political power to the Soviets. The communist government seized all the property of the aristocrats and nationalised their assets. Ok, before you say oh poor aristocrats just remember Russia was an absolute monarchy prior to the revolution. The Tzar was an absolute nationalist, an autocrat and anti-semitic. Under the last Tzar, Nicholas, Jewish pogroms were encouraged, opposition repressed, dissident minorities bloodily subjugated, they weren't nice people. When you see the opulent lifestyle they lived and understand that the vast majority of the people in Russia where living in poverty, I can understand that people were a wee bit peeved. In spite of my rant, against this ruling class, I must say that the lifestyle of a small rich minority lead to a most beautiful city.

Saint Petersburg (Leningrad) was under siege for nearly 900 days in World War Two. It was one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history, and possibly the costliest in terms of casualties with over 1.5 million deaths. Our guide put a human face to this by sharing with us that her grandmother starved to death and her mother was evacuated to the Ural's, luckily her grandfather survived and she was reunited with him. Other children weren't as lucky as they were very young and did not have identification so did not know who their parents were. In the post war era it was common for people to advertise in local papers with of their childhood memories in the hope of reconnecting with their families.

Anyway here is a brief itinerary of our stay

The Peter and Paul Fort the original citadel of St. Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great. The church in the fortress is where all the Russian monarchs, since Peter the Great are buried. Cats seem to run all over the place and there is one cat in particular that has her owns chair in the cathedral on which she sits on regally, but don't pat her!

The House of Yusopov, which was owned by an immensely wealthy family of Russian nobles, known for their and art collections. In the cellar of the house Rasputin was murdered. After Yusopov murdered Rasputin the family were exiled and left the city for Paris taking only two Rembrandts and the family jewels. They all escaped the revolution.

The Summer Palace which was badly destroyed by the Nazi's in the war but has since been mostly restored. The gardens are magnificent but with fountains based on those at Versailles.

The Hermitage Museum - there isn't enough space to tell you how vast this museum is. The one thing that I did find odd is that there is no air conditioning in the museum; windows are simply left open on a hot day to let the breeze in. I can't see that happening at the Art Gallery of NSW. The museum has the second largest collections of Rembrandts in the world.

Its was interesting staying in this old city, one thing that I think stands out is that are many historic dilapidated buildings that are only now being renovated. The city is full of tourists from all over the world, the cruise ships create up to 60 busses per ship and we were told that there were half a dozen in town. I'd love to see this place in winter when its less crowded. We are heading south to Moscow tonight by fast train.