Welcome to St Petersburg, Russia, it was the capital of Russia for two centuries until the revolution of 1917 and then the Bolsheviks moved their Capital to Moscow but in 1926 following the death of Lenin the city was named Leningrad it’s famous for its Hermitage Museum its Monument The Winter Palace and its amazing Cathedrals let’s go and see St Petersburg it’s cold outside already we just get a feel for the Grandeur and the Elegance of the city just walking towards This Magnificent Cathedral we’re going to see that tomorrow properly look at that passing all the tourist stalls look at that that is amazing it’s from the second world war during the siege of Leningrad this was turned into a morg for all the people who who’d starve to death look how good it is inside so after the revolution of 1917 the church is completely ransacked and looted and damaged and it eventually closed in the 1930s it was used as a storehouse for vegetables imagine carrots and potatoes and turnips piled up in here and it’s now one of the Prime tourist sites of St Petersburg see why there’s loads of little touristy knickknacks I coms to a magnet St Petersburg so we’re in Palace square and wait for this at the Winter Palace it’s amazing well the Winter Palace was the home of the Zar for 200 years and here are some interesting facts about it inside there are almost 2,000 doors 1,500 rooms when the Bolsheviks TI to power they stormed The Winter Palace and they ripped picture frames from the Walls Crockery was smashed and they even managed to get into the wine cellar they’re inside the grounds look at this strange sculpture what is it feet but no body look at this this is just splendor but what you prefer Soviet Lenin or the Majesty of imperialistic Russia Winter Palace was originally housing Katherine the gret’s massive art collection M Donal and child Leonardo da Vinci quied in 1914 there’s even an Egyptian section with a mummy so in 1905 this Square I’m standing in right now was the scene of the Sunday bloody massacre when thousands of peasants congregated here to deliver a petition to the Zar demanding better rights for themselves but unfortunately troops fired upon them killing hundreds of innocent civilians and just over here across the water just looks like pure Russia so this here is a statue of Peter the Great and that stone is called the thunderstorm and it’s the biggest single piece of rock moved by humans and This Magnificent building is St Isaac’s Cathedral Lally magnificent.
Keep on saying it about St Petersburg Splendid views Splendid columns love it so now we’re heading down there to that admiralty building which is or was the former headquarters of the Imperial Navy and in the park up we reckon these Gees running up and down are the naval Cadets he’s leading the charge so now we’re on the main shopping street of St Petersburg NY Avenue so this is Kazan Cathedral named after our lady of Kazan and during Soviet times they turned it into the Museum of History religion and Atheism so just come to this place which we think is called elv which is famous for it Food Hall girls there you go or of course Rich caviar or the LCA vodka but we’re heading right up the street to one of the main city squares so this is obelisk to one of the 12 cities Russian hero cities awarded after the second world war this city got it from during the siege of Leningrad and the Germans have blockaded the whole city for nearly 900 days a mill million inhabitants died either starv to death or froze to death look at this I think this is the train perfect timing so this is what we have come for look at that Lenin and that magnificent building behind it so this is The House of the Soviets originally built to house the might of the Soviet government the second world war broke out and that put an end to that so then it became the military headquarters of the Soviet Army here Feast your eyes so in 1881 possibly along that side or this side of the canal Zar was going along in his Carriage when somebody chucked a grenade hit him but didn’t kill him but it made him really angry and he got out to shake the person who threw it someone else threw another grenade and that got him and he managed to get went Palace but he died a few hours later so it’s the next morning and the weather is taking a to I’m going to try to walk to something ironically called The Summer Palace so here is the Summer House of Peter the Great and it was the first of the Palaces to be built by the Russian Emperors in this city so back at the hotel after our sightseeing tour of St Petersburg.
