St. Petersburg Peterhof (July 10, 2019) #16

Another exciting day in St. Petersburg, as we're going to the Peterhof!  Often dubbed The Russian Versailles, it definitely deserves the title; in the early 18th century Peter the Great had built a small palace on the site (Monplaiser), but when he visited France and saw Versailles he yelled 'hold my beer!' and Peterhof is the result.  It has a square kilometer of Lower Gardens, a Sea Channel, a Grand Cascade, the main palace, a church, the upper gardens, and a number of secondary palaces.  It was mostly designed and built by the people who built Versailles, but altered somewhat to reflect Peter's tastes, so it has a unique Russian-European style called Peterine Baroque.  So.  We have personal guided tour for the day, and we're going to-and-from by high-speed catamaran so we don't have to waste time getting in and out of the city.

(pics of the boat trip)

(pics of the lower gardens, monplaiser, pulley table)

(pics of the grand cascade, sea channel, church)

(pics of the palace interior)

All in all, quite a day.  If you have a few days here, Peterhof is not to be missed!

Once back in the city we time for a quick cleanup at the apartment, followed by dinner at a sidewalk restaurant and then an evening canal boat tour!  The tour leaves the Admiralty dock, pootles along in front of the Winter Palace and the Hermitage, and then runs up the Fontanka River right through the heart of the old city.  Which is really cool unless the water is too high to get under the 200-year-old bridges, and the water is too high, but of course they don't tell you that until you're In The Boat.  Sigh.  But I think we would have gone anyway, as the trip goes up the Fontanka as far as the Faberge Museum and it was worthwhile even if a bit curtailed.

Once back on dry land it's time to wind our way back up Nevsky Prospekt to take a last look at some of our favorite sights, and then back to the apartment for a therapeutic glass of bubbly.  Because that's it.  It's been a whirlwind but extremely memorable three days, and a great way to end our month in Russia.  Tomorrow we're off to Helsinki via high-speed train!