Walking through Palace Square
Once out in the Palace Square we were once again in the baking heat of the day.
We walked across the square passing the tents and compounds of the finish of the St Petersburg marathon.
We were heading towards the arch of the General Staff Building that lead to a pedestrian precinct ( Bol’shaya Morskaya Ulitsa) that would take us to the Nevsky Prospect.
Then we crossed Nevsky Prospect – no shopping here today.
Admiralty Underground station in St Petersburg
We followed Svetlana along the roads until we reached Admiralty station (Admiralteyskaya Station). This is so-called because across the way is the building that houses the headquarters of the Russian Navy.
One of our friends was persuaded to go up to the kiosk and buy the six tokens needed to catch the train. Standing next to us was an Australian couple who had managed to buy the tokens but now were uncertain of what to do next. We suggested that they follow us to the barriers. Once there we put the tokens in then we all had our first look at the escalators.
This is one of the longest escalators in the world. I had had the same feelings of vertigo (as I had has previously) as after the few yards or so the escalator passed out from under the roof and started down proper. Then the full height that we were that was visible.
At the bottom the small security kiosk was occupied by a very serious looking lady in the uniform.
The line is so deep at Admiralty that we had to get another shorter escalator to go down to the platforms proper. We all boarded the next train.
We left the train at Zvenigorodskaya Station.
Valeri was parked outside the station waiting for us.
Russian and Scandinavia: Second afternoon in St. Petersburg, Russia