Day 2 St. Petersburg.

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On our second day in this incredible city we had an early start and we were picked up at 07:00 our first destination was to have a short tour on the underground system. The St Petersburg metro is quite unlike that of London New York or Paris. The underground system is very ornate with some stations decked out in Marble and chandeliers. History. An alternative means of getting around the increasingly congested city was first muted in 1820 but the idea was dismissed by the Tsar Nicholas I who paid the engineer 200 roubles to go away and never make such a suggestion again. Since that time several more engineers came up with similar ideas but they never materialised. The metro finally came into fruition in 1955 and is the deepest underground system in the world at up to 86 meters below the city. It is a very efficient system with a train coming along very frequently and you have to be ready to get on and off within a very short time. If you miss getting on or off there is no need to worry because it will only be few minutes before another one comes along. The Station we entered had a sports theme called Sportivnaya. The walls of this station were covered in Sporting mosaics. There was no graffiti anywhere in sight. Standing at the top of the escalator looking down deep into the tunnel was quite spooky. It seemed to go on for ever. Down and down and down. We waited a minute for our train and jumped on. We only went to the next station Admiralteiskaya and got off quickly. Despite it being during the rush hour the line we took was not that busy. The station was right near Palace square where we got on a boat to have a quick tour of the canals. I believe the metro in Moscow is even more ornate. The photo is of the deep escalators going down to the trains.