Join the birthday bash

Dwarfed by grandiose architecture and flanked by speeding cars, I made my way up the most enigmatic street in the world. St Petersburg's Nevskiy Prospekt is its heart and soul. This four-kilometre boulevard forms a link between the glories of its past and the vagaries of its present.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon at Ploshchad Vosstaniya (Uprising Square), whose golden obelisk lines up perfectly with the gold-domed spire of the Admiralty Building at the other end, crowds thronged the square and the nearby Moscow Station, where in the waiting room a trompe l'oeil painting of triumphant revolutionaries stared down from Bolshevik heaven.

Where Nevskiy Prospekt crosses the River Fontanka and enters the old city, the grand public buildings begin: Beloselskiy-Belozerskiy Palace is a rococo masterpiece, whose pink facade is reflected in the waters below. On the left, Ostrovskovo Square, with its statue of Catherine the Great.

Then 200 metres of columned arcades at the Gostiniy Dvor market, the red and white tower of the Duma (municipal government); and, finally, the semi-circular cream arches of Kazan Cathedral, which seem to embrace visitors like outstretched arms.

There were other, smaller things to see. Ancient Ladas racing through the streets; battered trolley buses disgorging black-clad babushkas in head scarves. Skinny men in cheap leather coats; teenaged conscripts in peaked caps walking arm-in-arm with beer bottles, or lounging on the banks of the Kanal Griboedova.

At Yeliseyev's food store, in Soviet days the preserve of party highrollers, fairy lights and mirrors illuminated the ranks of imported wine, cold cuts and fresh vegetables. Some people bought; most looked on in wonder.

At the Metro station a man with a bear cub on a chain was passing round a hat. Old ladies sold kittens, or wheezed out folk songs for spare change. Two slashed-skirted women gave me emphatic looks. In its combined beauty, squalor and confusion, Nevskiy Prospekt is the face of modern Russia. Over the River Moyka I stopped for a beer in the Literaturnoe Cafe where Pushkin spent his last evening before dying in a duel. Outside, an old sign on a 1930s building, read, "Citizens! In the event of artillery fire, this side of the street is the most dangerous!" The siege of Leningrad (as the city was then called) lasted from 1941-44, and left 670,000 dead.

Finally, the Prospekt dog-legged to the right, ducking under the golden arch of the General Staff building and out into dazzling Palace Square, with the famous Hermitage off to one side and, ahead, the glorious facade of the Tsars' Winter Palace and the River Neva.

Paul Mansfield flew to St Petersburg with British Airways (0845 7733377); current returns from £199, departing five times a week. A three-night package costs from £549, including B&B at the five-star Hotel Astoria and direct flights with British Airways. Call Norvista Travel (0207 409 7334; www.norvista.co.uk). Prices based on autumn fares.