Night location: Saint Petersburg, Russia

We have had another action-packed day in Russia! As is our custom, we research the night before about planned activities for the following day so that we are ready to go after breakfast. On this trip, as Edith is put to sleep in her travel cot after dinner, our 'team meetings' have typically been conducted via Messenger across our two rooms.

Our original plan for today was to visit the Hermitage Museum however during the research stage last night, David discovered on a special notice published by the museum that it was going to be shut today for no apparent reason. We therefore decided to swap our plans for tomorrow and visit Catherine Palace instead, which is approximately 25km out of the city. Getting to and from the palace via public transport seemed a bit challenging! David had been looking into solving this riddle for some time and had found a brilliantly written blog by a female solo traveller who had tried to get to the palace by navigating the rural trains and the small Marashrutky buses. Her experience persuaded us to opt for a taxi which was only going to cost 25AUD each way.

At breakfast, Amber mentioned that she had also read about a political history museum that looked excellent so after weighing up our options, we agreed that we would do both but be aware of the time as David, Amber and Gemma had a booked piano recital for 7pm. It was unclear how long we would have to queue at the palace but we decided that if it looked too busy, we would be happy to just see the exterior and the park. Confident in our plan, we set off to the museum via the metro!

The Museum of Political History of Russia, is as the name suggests it will be, complex and fascinating. If you are planning to come to Saint Petersburg, prioritise this museum. We all could have easily spent twice as long in this museum reading the English booklets about items in each display case, but we feel that we learned so much by only spending 1.5 hours here. The museum is housed in the 20th century Kshesinskaya Mansion which was used by the Bolsheviks in 1917, so the building itself has an interesting history as Lenin himself frequented these halls and delivered speeches from one of the balconies. What was also interesting was that the curators of the museum had intentionally collected and displayed items that presented contradictory opinions from the participants or contemporaries of the various events. The visitor was therefore encouraged to form their own opinion based on the evidence presented. Aside from some Russian school groups (both primary and high), we were basically the only people in the museum which meant that we could read the displays without feeling 'jostled'. This also enhanced our experience greatly!

An added bonus was that the museum administrator, upon being asked by Amber about advice regarding finding a taxi, offered to ring one on our behalf. She organised an uber (that only cost us 14AUD) and really went above and beyond anything that we were expecting from her.

The drive to the palace was really good for us to see as there seemed to be a clear change in architecture as we drove out of the historic centre of the city. We saw some monumental Soviet buildings as well as many large communist-era apartment complexes before the landscape changed to clear grasslands with wooded areas.

Catherine Palace was built in a number of stages across the 16th century and has become particularly famous for its prized 'Amber Room'. In 1941 the nazis plundered the palace and by 1944 it was just a shell of a building. The restoration of the palace started in 1957 and it wasn't until 2003 that the Amber Room was revived after almost 25 years of research and craftsmanship.

In contrast to the museum, the palace was a hive of tour group activity. We were in the significant minority of travellers who were not a part of some form of guided tour and therefore at times felt like a herd of cattle being pushed and prodded through the yards. In spite of this, the interiors were absolutely worth seeing and the Amber Room was exquisite. Due to the variations seen in amber, artisans used this precious resin as inlay on all four walls in such a way as to create beautiful patterns and also as a frame for mirrors and artworks.

Emerging from the chaos of inconsiderate tour groups, we breathed the tranquil air of the parklands. Autumnal colours, manicured hedging, water features and other interesting restored 16th century buildings all made for some stunning vistas.

We didn't really know how to arrange a taxi back to the city as we don't have data roaming in Russia and are therefore unable to use apps like uber. Setting off towards what appeared on the map to be the main bus stop we hoped to find some taxis lurking around. After a while we came across a large four wheel drive 'taxi' with a 'vacant' sign in the window so Amber proceeded to negotiate the fare. After walking away, much to David's dismay, she was able to settle on a price of 40AUD, which given our circumstances, particularly with time pressures, we were all very happy to pay for the almost one hour drive back to our hotel.

Before going to dinner at our hotel restaurant, we asked the concierge to approximate how long it would take for us to reach the Mariinsky Concert Hall. She advised 15 minutes, so we allowed 40. Sadly, even this was not enough time for us to arrive before our piano recital began. We have subsequently learned that President Putin was at The Hermitage today (hence why it was closed), opening an exhibition with Austria's Federal Chancellor called 'Imperial Capitals: Saint Petersburg-Vienna'. Unfortunately, this caused traffic chaos so our hotel-arranged uber driver could not get us to the concert on time, in spite of a number of brazen manoeuvres. That being said, we arrived just as applause for Denis Matsuev was broadcasted through the building so we didn't really miss any of the musical performance. The concert included pieces by Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev as well as three encores all of which were thoroughly enjoyable.

An attempt was made to catch a 'pirate taxi' home, but none of our options seemed very trustworthy or inviting, so we walked to the nearest metro (which was not that near) instead. We arrived safely back to our hotel and plan to look into some other transport options before we return to the Mariinsky Theatre for the Russian Ballet performance tomorrow!