Elbrus Day 2 – Tuesday July 10, 2012

Greetings everyone, we have a team name and we are the Mountain Czars. After a nice breakfast buffet at our hotel this morning, we set out touring this beautiful and lively city with a wonderfully well informed Russian guide who shared his encyclopedic knowledge of Russian history and art. We first started with the famous “Hermitage” Museum and its extensive collection of art objects and paintings.

Team Mountain Czars outside the Hermitage Museum.

We then headed to the wonderful 22.13 restaurant for a late light lunch of Russian soup and grilled meat kabobs with vegetables.

Afterwards, we continued our tour by visiting several cathedrals including the first and oldest landmark “Peter and Paul Cathedral”. The cathedral houses the remains of almost all the Russian Emperors and Empresses from Peter the Great to Nicholas II and his family.

Peter and Paul Cathedral, the first and oldest landmark in St. Petersburg.

We had an early 6:00 PM dinner at a restaurant that looked like hunting lodge with various animal trophies such as bears, mountain lions, rams and wolves. The dinner was yet another tasty local meal called “Cottletta” which is basically a russian version of chicken cordon bleu made with a creamy mushroom sauce and mashed potatos.

Picturesque St. Petersburg river and buildings.

Tomorrow, we get up to a very early 3:30 AM departure as we leave the city of St. Petersburg to fly to Mineralnye Vody by way of Moscow before we start our real adventure and actual trek into the Baksan Valley to the base of Mt. Elbrus.

Ta-da for now and check back tomorrow for further updates of our adventure.