Russia was a revelation!
Excellent tour guides in both Moscow and St. Petersburg. Schedule was a bit light for my taste. In St. Petersburg, both Peterhof and Catherine's Palace were both beautiful, however, I would have liked to have visited additional art museums, and historic homes of writers rather that seeing two gold encrusted palaces. I knew that St. Petersburg would be crowded in August, but was just overwhelmed by the number of tourists. Impossible to really "see" art in the Hermitage -- we were rushed thru so quickly (by the museum guards) to accomopdate the 35,000 daily visitors. Other museums, especially The Russian State Museum, were exceptional. I visited it on my own, not part of the tour.