Duck!

We’d visited the fabulous fountains of Peterhof, the Czar’s Summer Palace. We returned to the city, having not eaten all day.

Searching for somewhere decent to eat, we stepped off St Petersburg’s Nevsky Prospect. Spying a fabulous canalside restaurant, we sat outside on the sunny side of the Moika. Eating stroganoff opposite the Stroganoff Palace, sipping our Russian champagne. Heaven.

Then two flashy cars raced up, stopped and besuited men leapt out, crowding round an older man and glamorous young woman. A gangster and his moll!

We paid up and left swiftly. (Wife ducking to prevent being caught in crossfire!)