Monday, August 1

This morning we disembarked, found our shuttle bus and got delivered to the Palace Bridge hotel where we found our huge room and promptly went to sleep.

We have woken up and gone for a walk. We are passing what appears to be an art school although the lack of anything readable makes this at best a guess. Further on we will stop at a restaurant for sausages and escalope with local beer. We will then walk over Dvortsovy bridge and some of the way down Nevsky Prospekt, the main street.

It will start raining, and the rain will rapidly escalate into a constant downpour. It will approach monsoon intensity and wiill not stop for the rest of the day. We will find somewhere to buy umbrellas and then try to walk home. Irma’s shoes are leather sandals and she will soon take these off and walk barefooted through the city.

It will take us almost an hour to get home and we will both be soaked to the skin. Fortunately the shower will proved to be large, efficient and hot. Once we are dry again we will climb into bed and sleep.

The bed may be the largest I have ever slept in. I can hardly see Irma in the distance.