72 Hours in St Petersburg: Part II

Our second day in St Petersburg was a gloriously sun drenched one, and we enjoyed every minute of it.  Being great little tourists we embarked on a free tour, led by the loveliest girl, and it was absolutely worth every minute of it.  Details of the tour can be found here.  Having visited The Hermitage the day before, we embarked on a veritable feast of sights today including one of my favourites - the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, as well as the Palace Square, Peter and Paul Fortress, and the Nevsky Prospect just to name a few.  The list is endless and there are hundreds of things to see in St Petes.

So without further ado here are the photos!

Above is our lovely tour guide! And below follow six photos of the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, I went a bit snap happy because it was one of the most incredible churches I've ever seen hands down.

And below I'll leave you with the entrance to our lovely hostel (details here). Looking very Soviet, and not exactly welcoming. I for one accidentally walked past this door on several occasions whilst trying to make it home.

A 10km Walk Through Berlin

Being a tourist in your own country is strange.  I'm German originally, and still speak the language, but haven't lived there since I was 6.  Suddenly finding myself surrounded by a city where everyone speaks German was a bizarre feeling.  Anyway, I digress.  We arrived to a sun filled Berlin, put on our walking shoes and walked and walked and walked.  Personally, I prefer walking around cities to catching public transport everywhere as it gives you a much better impression of a place (as well as a lovely bit of exercise!), and I ended up doing a lot of walking during my 5 nights in Berlin.  Thank you for playing along weather.

On my suggestion we did quite a few of the big landmarks on our first day, such as the Brandburger Tor, the Reichstag, Alexander Platz, Tiergarten, Museums Insel, you name it and we saw it that day. 

 

I highly recommend these enormous juice boxes you can find in every shop in Berlin.  I've never seen a juice box with a 500ml capacity, and there were just ace.  Tasty and cheap too.  Good way to start the day!

Posing at the Alexander Platz.  Shortly after this I had an incredibly wet bottom from sitting on the side of the fountain.  Oh well, all in the name of a good blog entry.

The Tiergarten is a massive park in the centre of Berlin and you can spend hours walking through it.  We walked up the Strasse des 17 Juni, towards the Grosser Stern, which itself was over a 1.5km walk.  Well worth it though (as long as it isn't raining).  On the way back towards Berlin Mitte, we meandered through the park itself.  It was just a shame we didn't have any food or drinks for a picnic with us as it would have been a perfect setting.  So there's a tip - if it's nice weather bring something with you to consume in the vast Tiergarten!

After a lot of walking we both had quite sore feet, and stopped off at the first cafe we came across.  Luckily for Chewy they had the mother of all brownies there, and I indulged in an ice cream.  Bandy Brooks is the place, and it can be found right next to the Museums Insel.  The last photo is Chewy being very happy with himself after demolishing the brownie, with cream!

 

These last 3 pictures were taken at the Gendarmenmarkt in central Berlin, which is home to the Konzerthaus.  The lady playing the violin in the centre of the Gendarmenmarkt was incredibly talented, and added the loveliest touch to the whole place.  

At the end of the day we counted, and worked out that we'd walked roughly 10km that day.  A well deserved dinner followed! (But more on that in a later post because the restaurant was so great that it deserves it').

A Lovely & Sunny Day in Zagreb, Croatia

To be honest, I didn't know much about Zagreb at all before I visited.  Thankfully, the Croatian tourism board really has their act together and provides you with a great map of the city and a set walking tour so you can see all the sites.  So after walking for a solid 45 minutes to the city center from our hostel, the first stop off was some food and drink.  A much harder find than you would think, given it was a Sunday and everything was shut.  That made for some great sightseeing though, as there were also hardly any people around.

Zagreb was a beautiful city, and really surprised me with some great architecture, lovely parks, and great dining (drinking) opportunities.

 

What a healthy and nutritious lunch we had.  I'm pretty sure they don't sell curly fries in Perth, so the novelty factor that these had made them all the more exciting.  Don't judge.

 

Of course we stopped off for some ciders and beer (in Chewy's case) along the way, in this town square.  It was sunny, with a gentle breeze, and we were surrounded by beautiful, old churches and lots of plantlife.  A great time was had by all, and we ended up staying here for a couple of hours.

 

Colourful bins anyone?

 

This amazing looking church was high on our list of things to see as soon as we saw the spire from a distance.  Unfortunately I was 'inappropriately' dressed to enter it, and so this picture from the outside will do.  Upon trying to get in, an old gentleman at the door promptly stopped me and shooed me outside.  And I was wearing this.

 

And why not end this post with a giant, human sized egg?