We did a Holland America tour on our second day in St. Petersburg. Our first stop was Oranienbaum, one of the royal residences on the Gulf of Finland not far from the city. It was built by Peter the Great’s right-hand man, Aleksandr Menshikov from 1710 to 1727. While not nearly as grand and imposing as Catherine’s palace or Peterhof, it was still a beautiful house with a wonderful garden. We had a Russian speaking guide in the house translated by our tour guide. It was interesting, albeit a bit tedious.
In one of the rooms there was a unique and interesting parquet floor which make the floor like it was not flat. That would be a cool effect to have in a dining room or a living room. The picture on the left is taken at a 45 degree angle to the floor; the one on the right is looking straight down.
After a lunch in a hotel in Pushkin, we went to Peter the Great’s summer palace called Peterhof (which means Peter’s home). Calling it a home seems to be an understatement. Peterhof is famous for the house and for the gardens with 60+ fountains. The fountains are all run by gravity. The water is stored in a water tank and using the pressure from the elevation difference, the fountains are run continuously for the entire day. The water from the fountains drains into the Gulf of Finland. Pictures were not allowed inside Peterhof. Suffice it to say it was even more incredible that Catherine’s palace. The palace was virtually destroyed in WWII by the Germans and its present day form is the result of decades of painstaking restoration. Peterhof is a huge complex built to rival Versailles near Paris. We saw the Grand Palace and the gardens and fountains. Also on the grounds a bicycle museum, a playing card museum, a fountain operations museum, Aviaries, a small house where the monarchs had private dinners, and many more museums and place of interest. Here are some pictures from the garden.
The main fountain with a canal directly to the Gulf of Finland so the monarch could arrive at the steps of the Grand Palace.
There were fountains everywhere in the midst of beautiful gardens.
We toured the grounds for an hour or so before our entrance time into the Palace. On our way back to the palace the sky begin to look ominous. Within a minute of two after we were inside, the skies opened up and it rained and blew hard. We were really lucky.
We took a hover craft back to St Petersburg. It was about a 30 minute boat ride.