We also took a one stop ride on the metro. It was quite an engineering feat to build the metro because St Petersburg is built on marshland. The subway tunnel goes down 350'! Imagine if the escalator breaks (we're told it does happen)! Yikes that's a lot of stairs! It goes underneath the Neva River. It is the deepest subway in the world. The first line with just 7 stations was opened in 1955. There was also the thought that the metro tunnels could be bomb shelters.
I wish I could remember and accurately recount, the complicated Russian history with all the political intrigue resulting in multiple assassinations over the years! I think I would need a university course in Russian political history!
We drove about thirty miles outside of town to visit the Summer Palace of Catherine the 1st, Peter the Great's first wife. What, you may or may not ask yourself, denotes a palace. The answer is the number of rooms. Thirty rooms would be a house and anything over that is considered a palace. Catherine's Summer Palace is certainly clearly established as a palace with over 400 rooms. It was added onto for the next 100 years after the initial palace was finished. It is considered today to be one of the finest examples of baroque palace architecture from the 1700's.
We arrived early enough to beat the hordes of people that come in at noon. Before that time, it is limited early admission and they control the flow of the number of people entering each room. It was very interesting to note that the Chinese tours that came in as we were finishing our tour, are directed an opposite path through the Palace. The Chinese are quite aggressive in these tours and to maintain peace, Europeans take a different route. Worked quite well! The pictures below speak well of the grandeur. The last time we were here. They were still restoring much of the Palace back then. The Nazi's destroyed the palace and looted most of the treasures during WWII. The curators had packed up one example of each the items that they could and plan Ed on evacuating with the examples so it could be reconstructed later. They were waiting for the order to evacuate that never came.. The famous Amber Room has been totally restored at a cost of $11,000,000. It is not original, but they had images of what it looked like before it was stolen. Where all the amber panels went is one of the great mysteries of WWII. I'm sorry, but no photos are allowed in the Amber room. If tourists stopped to take photos it would take hours to get people into and out of the room. You'll just have to google it if you want to see what it looks like today, our come for a visit!
After the Summer Palace, we were off to see Peterhof, the palace Peter the Great had built for his summer residence. We did not see the interior of Peterhof but it is really known for its seven gardens and, most of all, it's 174 fountains, all of which are working. The fountains are fed from an underground spring a few miles away. It all works on gravity, there are NO pumps. The water dumps into the Baltic.
After walking the gardens, we made our way to the Hydrofoil departure point and took a hydrofoil back to the city. It takes about 30 minutes by hydrofoil to go from Peterhof in the country to the city center.
After disembarking, I checked my iPhone and realized I had walked 5 miles today with a lot of stairs. After such a short night's sleep, I was done. We made one more stop at the beautiful church of St Isaacs, but fear not, I sent Bill with the camera!
The beginning of the 350' descent.
St. Isaacs Church is behind us.
Reflecting pool at Peterhof Palace.
The dining room in Catherine's summer palace. Catherine the Great's son Paul, used to have the servants change the TABLE , yes the TABLE not the dishes, after each course. There were about 16 courses. Can you imagine?! He didn't last long as a Czar. 😬
Magnificently gaudy, isn't it? But beautiful and amazing to see.
Progressing through each room toward the Amber Room.
Grounds on Peterhof.
Beautiful gardens..
View from palace window.
Pretty devastating. They began reconstruction in 1946! A long and tedious and precise process!
Lovely gardens...
What a nice looking group! Lol!
Oak and brass doors at the entrance of St Isaacs weighing in at ten tons!
Fountains Peterhof.
A glimpse into the Amber Room taken from the room before entering. Amber panel is on the left side .
The Summer Palace.
Closer view of Amber panel.
Gives you an idea of the scope and size of the summer palace of Catherine.
Imagine cleaning and heating those rooms!
State hall in Catherine's summer palace.
Note the beautiful wood floors.
Water from Peterhof fountains returning to the Baltic.
They loved their gold!
The Chess Fountain at Peterhof.
Lovely...
Riding back to St Petersburg on the hydrofoil!
That's all for today folks! Hoping you tune in tomorrow for day 3 in St Petersburg.
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