Spent 7 hours at the Hermitage museum. The building used to be the winter palace for the Tsars, and it is huge and lavishly decorated. Many rooms had numerous chandliers, stone columns, marquetry furniture and floors, and ornate woodwork. Saw paintings by Rembrandt, da Vinci and other painters.

Also visited Church on Spilled Blood. The roof has 9 onion shaped domes, some gold and some in mosaics. Inside is completely decorated in mosaics.

Steven did some shopping for items he planned to buy when he left home.

Hope to visit gold room at Hermitage tomorrow, before boarding the train for Helsinki.