Hermitage & ballet, St Petersburg

We had a slow morning, did some banking and had an early lunch at our vegan, raw restaurant. Delicious warm lentil salad, fresh juices and a blueberry pie made with nut and honey base.

Vegan, raw restaurant

 We spent the afternoon at the Hermitage (museum) which is part of the winter Palace.

Roy enjoyed the art, and explained to me what was so special about the Rembrants we were looking at. There was a lot of work from famous artists, Monet,  Van Gogh, etc, etc.
Of course, the animals always appeal to me.

We had dinner in an Irish pub and then walked past St Isaacs cathedral to the Mariinsky theatre.

St Isaacs cathedral

Dad and Mom had bought us tickets to watch the Nutcracker. This being Tsikovskys city it was most appropriate. Thanks, it was great.

Mariinsky theatre

I struggled to find something smart enough in my backpack and ended up wearing my thermal longjohns as leggings,  but with my long jacket it seemed fine. Leaving my jacket on offended the staff at the theatre. They have quite a different way of doing things. We had to use a certain door depending on our ticket. I was told to hand in my jacket and when I refused she was furious. I was soon accosted again and told to remove my jacket. I gave it when we entered the actual stall and when I put my phone on before the show (to put it on silent mode), one of the dragon staff noticed and made a huge scene until I switched the screen off. What was amusing is that while photography is prohibited in the theatre, absolutely everyone was ignoring this. The man next me played on his phone the whole way through the show. I think I just had bad luck with bossy woman - it was getting a bit tiresome!

What was nice was that in my stall there were six people and I was on the back row, so could stand up to see the stage better.

The ballet was lovely and the music beautiful.  We walked home along the canals.

And for our last night's sleep in St Petersburg.