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| Katherine's palace |
Our second day in St Petersburg began early and with us oversleeping! We were supposed to join
the group at 0700 but did not wake
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| reception room in Katherine's palace |
up until 0630. It was rush but we made it with me
unshaven. We had booked to view two more
palaces today which were situated outside St Petersburg along the gulf of
Finland. It took us about an hour to get
to Katherine’s palace. She was the wife
of Peter
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| palace dining room |
the Great and when he died (fairly young) it was agreed that she would
ascend to the throne. She was very
capable and everyone acclaimed the way carried out her duties – how’s that
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| looking through doors to several rooms |
for
girl power! She then had to decide on a
new palace and built another grand palace coloured blue and white. I did not go to this palace in 1971 and it
was very impressive to see the way it had been restored after suffering so much
in WW2. We saw plenty of gold leaf both
inside and outside and the whole setup was certainly not to be missed. It was
Christine’s favourite palace of the three.
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| fountains at the Peterhof |
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| domes on the Peterhof |
It was now about 1100 and we motored towards our next
destination the Peterhof palace. It took
about an hour and towards 1200 we stopped for lunch at a restaurant. The meal was tasty including caviar, vodka
and chicken. Again we had some local
folk style singers who entertained us well.
It was soon time to proceed to the Peterhof but by this time
it was beginning to drizzle. As it was
Monday the palace was closed for the general public and the two coaches from
the cruise ship were the only ones inside which made life a lot more
comfortable. We went through the rooms
but were not allowed to take any internal photos. The rooms were the usual opulent style with
lots of gold leaf, paintings and tapestries. It took less time to visit here
but the overall impression was highly favourable with so much attention to detail. By the time we had to go outside
it was raining steadily
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| a view of the gardens |
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| another of the many fountains |
and we had left our waterproof jackets and trousers in
the coach which we could not reach! The
gardens were beautiful with hundreds of fountains cascading to the sea, there
were even some trick ones which soaked you if trod on the wrong part of the
cobbles. We went across one but did not
get drenched. After a tour of the
gardens it was time to board the coach and make our way back to the cruise
boat. An exceptional day which everyone
round the dinner table enjoyed.
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