Still feeling rotten, asked the girl at reception to write down in Russian “flu medicine” so I could go to a pharmacy later.
Had a decent breakfast, then on the bus to the Hermitage museum. When we arrived in the main square the military band was still going from yesterday.
Queued up for about 20 minutes, then in.
It’s impossible to do the place justice here, it’s huge. We skipped the Egyptian and Greek antiquities since we’d been to Athens, and went straight for the European art. Took in some Rembrandt, Monet, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Pissaro, Signac. The rooms themselves were works of art – huge chandeliers, decorated walls and ceilings, gold everywhere. There were beautiful green and blue malachite vases and tables.
The place was very busy but we managed to see the main things – including the 2 Da Vinci paintings.
The place was a maze, and we found ourselves back tracking a few times, then headed upstairs to more impressionists and other European art. There was hardly anyone on this floor, but there were paintings by Gauguin, Matisse and Picasso. At one stage Song and I had the Picasso gallery to ourselves. I was still not well, took most of the opportunities to sit down. I ached, had a headache and my nose couldn’t decide whether to be blocked or running.
The upper level started to fill up with Japanese tour groups playing “my camera is bigger than yours” so we went downstairs.
Decided to have a whiz through the Egyptian area because the book said that the rooms were worth seeing.
Had a peep at the vases and other artifacts, found a tablet with hieroglyphics that I managed to translate a bit of :
“Day 7 – Cairo
Woke up at the 6th bell, down to breakfast of goat’s cheese and camel meat… ”
Decided we’d been on the go for a while, we went in at 10:50 and it was now 16:30, time to leave.
They don’t allow food and drink inside so our first stop was to get something to eat. We didn’t want to go somewhere too close to the museum so headed down the main street and saw a place that was pretty busy and right next to the bus stop so tried it.
I had beef stroganoff, Song had a fish salad to start and salmon for main. Song said hers was very good, I couldn’t really taste mine.
They also had lots of cakes, but I couldn’t face one but I promised the chocolate one I’d come back for it tomorrow.
Bus was packed, got off and went to a pharmacy for some drugs. I handed the piece of paper to the most miserable female assistant who sighed and dug out some medicine. I said I only wanted one of the 2 things, but she rang up both anyway. Tried again and she got the message, sighed again and pointed to the display.
Back to the hotel for a well-earned rest.
Walked 7.69 Km according to fitbit, but I reckon it’s lying.
