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11th-15th July Saint Petersburg
First job get the bike to the Harley shop, leave it there although it is quite safe at the hotel and then wander around. We found our way to the shop, not far at all, they said we will do the service now, only take a couple of hours. We sat and chatted to Sukova and Eugene both working at the shop, we explained our trip, Eugene wanted us to stay for the Rally in a month, he also offered to lend us his sat nav to get us home and to take us out for a ride to Peterhof. They were all so kind, then the HOG rep for the region came in and we chatted to him. He gave us advice and then introduced us to other people, like the regional manager from Coca-cola and the dealer owner and some other people all wanted to know about our trip and how to get others to Russia. After about 4 hours the bike was finished, I paid and left with great thanks to the welcome we were given, and the service they provided us with. We declined the sat nav and wanted to do Peterhof ourselves. Back for lunch and a wander around, then decided we would visit the Hermitage museum and take a river trip to Peterhof as advised by the Harley Rep.
So the next couple of days we have been playing the tourist, visiting the sites in this amazing city. There are no signs of communism, they seem to have been erased completely, only reminders of the aristocrats. Their legacy is the tourist draw, there plenty of high end shops and signs of the nouveau riche, Ferraris, Bently's and of course big 4x4's. The women are all dressed up, but the men do not seem to bother!! You can also see the tourists amongst them in their sandals and sun hats and there are lots of them around, as they seem to go everywhere in groups with a leader holding up a flower, umbrella or just a name plate. It is funny to watch them being led like little ducklings with their audio guides round their necks, taking pictures and trying to keep up with thier leader. They dominate the sites, the guides push individuals out of the way to get their group through, still you either give in or get in their way, it depends on the mood, if you know what I mean!!
We have seen some wonderful sites, works of art by many of the masters, the palaces are absolutly lavish, and the architecture varied. We have chatted to different people and generally worn ourselves out each day doing the tourist thing.
As I sit here I have just cleaned the bike again and Jack has worked out the route home as we leave tomorrow. We are going out on the bike for a ride around the nearby city, but no sure of the route, as they dug Nevesky Prospect up Friday night and are now re-laying it. A massive team is working on it, shows you what they can do when there is money available!
We have had our ride and as it is so hot, we went and had tea in an exclusive tea house and chated to a couple from Tasmania sharing experiences. They are rushing off to Sweden this afternoon. We went and sat in a park near Michaels Castle. There are many parks, not much in the way of flowers, but plenty of tree covered walkways, (you are not allowed to walk on the grass in any of them), still a very controlling regime, but the people do not appear to mind, they just comply. It has to be said everything is clean and tidy, no rubbish or grafitti here as in some of the other cities we have visted in Europe. Novesky prospect is almost complete and the pedestrians and cyclists have taken it over, until tomorrow, where I suspect it will be ready for the working week.
Tomorrow we make our way to Tartu in Estonia we are following a route suggeted to us by the guys in the Harley shop, apparently the roads are good and the border is only a short distance away, we did not fancy those bumpy roads through Russia and Latvia again.
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