Sugerencias-or things you might want to do in St Petersburg

1) Find a warm hotel: Alexander House (seen here) was a fantastic bolt hole with charming staff, a bar and restaurant in the basement, lovely rooms and, perhaps above all, an incredibly efficient central heating system. The underfloor heating in the bathroom was especially appreciated. It was about 30 minutes walk from the main shopping street called Nevsky Prospekt, on one of St Petersburg's many canals, and near the Mariinskiy theatre.

2) Become acquainted with St Petersburg's amazing underground: Especially important if, like us, you are staying out of the centre and it is snowing. For the first 24 hours, we thought that there were no people in the city. Then we discovered them underground in what is the deepest underground system in the world (it has to be as the city is built on 42 islands connected by canals and the River Neva and so the underground has to go underneath the water) It was built in the 1950s as a monument to the Soviet system. It's not as spectacular as the underground in Moscow, (apparently), but still amazing, with chandeliers, domed ceilings and wooden escalators that purr rather than clunk as in London. It is incredibly clean and, above all, amazingly cheap. Museums and theatres have differential pricing-foreigners pay more-but the underground has one price system so you can travel around for a few roubles (the equivalent of about 20 pence per journey).

3) Go on an orientation tour: This is what we did on the first morning with a guide and a driver, both of whom spoke excellent English. The City seems quite complicated at first, but when you have your bearings, the canal system makes it possible to follow a route more easily. Lots of people speak a little English and some speak very good English indeed. It's their second language (and Spanish has now overtaken German as their third.)

4) Take warm clothes if you go in the winter: It was at least minus ten at night, but the city floods in spring and has a problem with mosquitos in the summer (all those canals!) so this many be the best time to go. The museums are empty too and wonderfully warm. Be warned though, you have to leave your coats in cloakrooms and, in most museums, wear funny plastic shoes, provided at the entrance.

5) Eat pancakes and caviar and drink Russian champagne: Apparently in thanks for their contribution to WWII, the French allowed the Russians to use the 'champagne' marque for 50 years. I guess time is now up on that, but they still seem to use it and it is very good (and cheap). As is the caviar (good but NOT cheap!). The Russians have a whole week of pancake days running up to Lent and, fortunately, we were there for at least 4 of them. Each day has a special name and is associated with a particular activity-"evenings with the mother in law" is Friday, for example. However, the activity appears to be optional. Drink vodka too.

6) Visit a summer palace: Peterhof is meant to be good but the fountains are turned off in the winter, so we went to Catherine's Palace at Pushkin (See above). As you can see.

7) Go to Church: We found a church that had a sung Russian Orthodox service at 10.00. Lots of activity as people (lots of young people there) wandered around kissing icons, going to confession, lighting candles but we just stood still, tried to be inconspicuous and listened.

8) Visit the Mariinskiy theatre: The ballet isn't particularly good, or at least not the one we saw, but it is thrilling to see where Pavlova, Fokine, Nijinsky et al danced and the theatre is very beautiful. During the interval a folk group played in the great hall and there was much clapping of hands and dancing around by small children.

9)Visit museums: There are lots but we visited, and would recommend a) the Hermitage (you can book on line) both for the art, the building (it was another palace-and, although that seems to be the case with most buildings in the centre of the city, this one is spectacular), and the great views from the windows. (See examples) b) The political museum-the history of 20th century Russia through diaries, photos, newspapers, newsreels, installations etc. Fascinating. c) The Russian Museum for the history of Russian art. We didn't have enough time to do it justice but the rooms of folkart and early 20th century art are fascinating. the latter in particular, which contain work yet to be accounted for in the history of art.

10) Reflect on the history of this fascinating city and the changes of the last few years: We saw both the Aurora (from which the shot that signalled the beginning of the Revolution was fired) and a small demonstration by the Communist Party, waving their red flags outside a subway station. Sometime soon, our guide said, the city will play host to the G8 Summit (it's Putin's birth place, so gets special treatment and, according to our guide, is known by locals as Putinsburg). It's a city that makes sense of the 20th Centry and, we think, will be important in the 21st.