It is now Tuesday night at 11PM St. Petersburg time, the end of another looooong day. Last I left off, we were in Denmark and had spent the day at Helsingor and Louisiana.

Yesterday, we had a GREAT day at Legoland. It took a long time to get there (3 hours each way), but it was just perfect for the girls. The rides weren't too scary, the lines weren't long, and the weather held, except for a brief moment of rain at one point. The place is very fun.

First we explored a lot of Lego reproductions of famous places:

 
Then we went on a bunch of rides.

The girls did a Traffic School course where they got to drive cars for 30 minutes. We heard this a few times: "#23 from America – you have to learn to give way to other drivers!" or "#33 from America – you must obey the stop signs!" I think it was a little stressful for them, but they enjoyed it.

We took a bus and train back to Copenhagen and had yet another late night back at the hotel.

Today, we woke up early and went to the airport, which is a lovely, lovely place. Daddy sweet-talked us into the business lounge at SAS, which was heavenly. We had a nice breakfast and free wi-fi, and stocked up on snacks and water to bring on the plane. I was sad to leave the lounge.

The flight to St. Petersburg was short and easy. We arrived to a partly cloudy day and the warmest temperature of the week. We had a driver pick us up from the hotel, and he drove us here with all of our stuff. We checked in and unpacked, and then set off on a Soviet death march walking tour for the afternoon. We got some blini, which the girls decidedly didn't like, and then walked down the Nevsky Prospect all the way to the Hermitage. We hung out outside the Hermitage for a while, reading the tour book, and then walked to the bank of the Neva.

Then, because we weren't tired enough, we climbed to the top of a nearby church – St. Isaac's – for panoramic views of the city…

… and then walked to a kid-friendly Italian restaurant not too far away…

after which after-dinner-silliness ensued…

Finally headed back to the Nevsky Prospect and our bus home:

The girls seem relatively unfazed by Russia so far. Daddy has given them some history lessons and tried to explain different governments, but they are a bit too young for it. They keep wondering why people got killed so much here.

But they've been real troupers – getting up early, not eating that often, and walking a ton. Not that much complaining.

The best news of all is that we found out yesterday that the girls each got a good teacher for 2nd grade. Out of 5 teachers, we got the two best. And each one has a few pals in her class, though A doesn't have any of her good friends from last year. They were both very happy with their class assignments, as were we. I exchanged emails with a few unhappy parents of other 2nd graders, and felt very lucky.

Ok, this tourist is tired. Hopefully more this week, as the St. Petersburg Radisson gives its guests free wifi.

Good night!