Breakfast is always an adventure, and today it was meatballs.  We checked out of our hotel in Saint Petersburg, leaving at 10 and heading south on the M10.  The music hadn’t improved.  We were aiming for Novgorod, but our first stop was Pushkin, and the Alexander palace.

Without wanting to sound ungrateful, it seemed like just another palace to me.  Sasha proudly announced that it was completely destroyed in world war two and has been restored.  Later googling suggests that this is untrue, and that whilst the Nazi’s did set a number of suburban palaces ablaze, the Alexander palace was spared.  Today the palace serves as an exhibition of historical costumes, weapons and art.

Paying the 300 rouble entry, we walked around the centre lake in Alexander Park.  It was a nice enough place to stop for a break.  Still no evidence of grass cutting though – Peterhof was the same.  Do Russians not own lawnmowers?

Part of the park was cordoned off for a film set.  A woman stood shouting into a mobile phone, no doubt saying something like “darling, it’s just awful”.  I had an early lunch in a cafe, ham toasties, then we resumed our journey southwards.

We arrived in Novgorod at 3.50 PM.  At lunch Rob orders a ham roll, but gets what can only be described as a roll of ham, with no bread in sight. Julia orders tea and gets coffee, prompting a prolonged argument between Sasha and the waitress. The coffee is eventually replaced but we seem to have lost favour with the waitress, who is clearly upset with us for expecting to receive exactly what we ordered.

We walked towards the river and found a market.  We crossed the river, walking past the local kremlin, and found a high street.  Crucially we discovered a hi Fi shop and were able to buy a selection of CDs, any of which would be an excellent replacement for Sasha and Dimitri’s music collection.  We also bought a copy of Harry Potter in Russian.  I’ll be impressed if JK Rowling gets any of the proceeds.

We get back to the hotel in time to meet for dinner.  The restaurant is by far the nicest we’ve seen in Russia.  Service is slow but friendly, and I get Sasha to take some photos of us.  After a big meal we all walk back to the hotel, a route that involves crossing the river again.  Sasha and Dimitri, having not proven just how Russian they are for at least 20 minutes, decide to swim the river rather than using the bridge.  The current is stronger than they realise and they overshoot the landing spot, clambering out of the river in the filthy reeds.

When we return to the hotel, the London kiwis and Sasha and Dimitri join Rob and I for some cards.  Sasha wants to carry on playing split, a game I taught him but which he is rapidly becoming better than me at.  Matt sits down on a chair Robert has fetched from our room.  Dealing cards is interrupted by a loud crack followed by a bang as Matt’s chair spontaneously falls apart leaving him sprawling on the floor.  Once everyone stops laughing, Rob fetches another chair, a particularly sturdy one, and Matt sits down gingerly on it.

Sasha wins easily, taking the overall score to 3-2 to Russia.  After I’ve gone to bed, Sasha bangs on my door – it seems we picked up each other’s keys.