We are at Day 4 into the 10-day wait. Everyday seems like 3 days here even though we are sleeping 12 hours per night.

On Saturday, we left Pskov for our mini-adventure to St. Petersburg. It was snowing a bit when we left and it really picked up as we hit the "highway". The road was not any better than the road from Velikiye Luki to Pskov. So we spent 4.25 hours with our teeth clenched and our feet ready to hit the imaginary gas pedal. (Not the brake or we would slide into the ditch or into oncoming traffic.)


But we made it here fine and checked into our hotel which is conveniently located to all of the sights and the big shopping street, Nevsky Prospect. We bee-lined to the nearest coffee shop and set-up camp for a couple of hours. I have to say, for two people who are used to being on a laptop 18 hours a day, with multiple windows open, it's really really hard to share one laptop and one hour of online time. (Yes, we should just spend the $25 per day at the hotel but ...)


We went back to the hotel early and were asleep by 7PM. Yesterday (Sunday), we spent the day looking at churches, window shopping and having coffee along Nevsky Prospect. It's really really cold here - well 32F - so probably not so bad yet add the wind, more snow and dirt from the streets & buildings it was a tough six hours walking around town. We got back to the hotel around 5PM and for the first time in four nights... left the hotel and had a proper dinner at a neat cafe called "Zoom". We didn't get back to the hotel until 10PM!

We stayed up late enough to see if any of the TV stations were going to cover the Superbowl... alas it was not meant to be for us to see "the greatest football game of all time" (how it is being portrayed in the media this morning). Today we decided to spend the day at the hotel, and somehow found a free wireless connection that we've been using all day.

Tomorrow is the Hermitage, and dinner with the infamous Kate! We are very much looking forward to meeting her.