The Grand Canal at Peterhof
We had an early morning start at 8 am; however clearing passport control and getting off the ship was very easy. There were no long lines at this time of day, and we walked out with almost no wait.
Fountain at Peterhof
Albina and our driver arrived just before 8 and we told them that we didn’t have any interest in touring the subway. So instead we went straight to Peterhof Palace, where our early arrival (because we’d skipped the subway) meant that there were few people around and so we go to see the gardens and fountains of the lower garden (the ones operating this early in the day) without a lot of people crowding around.
Fountain at Peterhof
The church at Peterhof
At about 10:30 we got in line to get into the palace. Our guide held our place in line for a while as we looked around the upper gardens. Both here and at Catherine Palace later in the day you must wear shoe coverings to protect the wooden parquet floors. You aren’t allowed to photograph inside the Peterhof palace, but Enid’s phrase as we entered every room, “Oh my goodness!” aptly describes the incredibly beautiful rooms and their furnishings. There is so much opulence that without pictures to recall it has all become a blur of gold and beautiful architecture.
After lunch in a Russian fast-food restaurant (Enid and I each had a bowl of borscht, I had beef stroganoff, and Enid had a puff pastry filled with cheese), we went for a drive of about an hour through the countryside to Tsarskoye Selo, or Pushkin. We toured Catherine’s Palace, along with the thousands of others in groups surging through the halls. Albina our guide was very good at sneaking in to lines on the outside edges, and since there was only the two of us, she could get away with it, so we avoided some of the bigger traffic tieups.
Inside Catherine Palace
What you see in the palace is not much of the original building or its furnishings. Since the palace was almost totally levelled in the seige of Leningrad, it has been almost entirely reconstructed. The reconstruction is an amazing work though, as where some of the original decoration existed it was hard to distinguish it from the new work. Not all of the artifacts survived the Second World War, since some were broken and others lost or presumed stolen; however many of them were taken from the palace by the Russians and stored safely away, so that some of the original dishes, porcelain, and furnishings are on display. Only that it was a bit duller and the gold not so shiny distinquished the old from the new. Many of the halls and ballrooms are enormous, as big as a large gymnasium, and the walls covered with ornate gilt work, mirrors, and candlelabras. Over 1000 candles lighted the original ball room.
Inside Catherine Palace
The restored exterior of Catherine Palace
Exiting the palace we walked through the gardens. The “gardens” are not what North Americans think of as a garden. Really they are a manicured forest, with many highly trimmed trees, and gravel paths. There are ponds, and fountains, but almost no flowers.
Because of early start today, and that we were such a small group that we could avoid many of the heavy crowds, we were actually done early and got back to the ship by 4 pm. It was a tiring day, as we did a great deal of walking and climbed many steps in the palaces.