A depth of experience

Having emerged from a long, dark winter, is in the mood for a little celebration.

into Pulkovo Airport the watch said after midnight but was contradicted by the sun, still up way past its bedtime in the distance.

And five of the six days that followed were sun-soaked, with clear skies the colour of the immaculate uniforms worn by the passport control officers, temperatures touching 25 degrees, banishing memories of the heavy coat dumped in the corner of the hotel room on arrival from Manchester.

So a few travel notes. You can get to quite a few places direct from Saint Petersburg, which means you have decent options from the UK with one change. In and out from Manchester via Helsinki was favourite – until the people booking our conference trip cancelled it and sent us instead to Munich, and a wait of more than five hours.

Plenty of time to peruse some peculiar features none of us had seen at other airports we’d visited. Not least the “napcabs”, where you slot in your credit card, punch in the number and gain access to a petite, private box which provides perfect peace for sleeping or working. And smoking rooms, sponsored by the big tobacco brands.

Glass walls allow you to study the endangered species, observe the various smoking stances and styles, ponder whether you might be witnessing a control group in a medical experiment and conclude that the extractor fan must be pretty powerful or no one would see a thing after about five minutes.

No such mod-cons at Pulkovo, which provided early confirmation that for every historic and architectural treasure in Saint Petersburg there are several slabs of concrete, all straight lines and sharp angles, masquerading as apartment blocks, ferry terminals and the airport with its Costa Coffee and TGI Fridays.

Try as you might to take a fresh view, banish preconceptions and stereotypes, it’s impossible to escape the conclusion that here is a fantastic city which could be even better but which