As in Moscow, our stay in St. Petersburg was very busy, and even with that, we haven't seen more than a fraction of what there is to be seen. We were here for two days only and that is nowhere near enough to do justice to this place. The Hermitage by itself is a place that would take years to get to know reasonable well.

Anyway, on our first day we visited Peterhof, Peter the Great's palace along the Gulf of Finland, just outside of St. Peterburg. Then, in the afternoon the bus took us to Pushkin where Catherine the Great's palace is located. After dinner, an evening in the tsars Hermitage Theatre had been arranged, where we were to see Adolphe Adam's GISELLE.

Unfortunately not everything unfolded quite as it was supposed to. But, just to make it absolutely clear, none of the problems had anything to do with the performance itself. It easily lived up to the reputation the Hermitage ballet had established for itself.