St. Petersburg

Sunday, May 25, 2008
Saint Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
St. Petersburg. Today was our longest tour day besides Berlin. We were up at 5:30 AM for our 7:30 departure for the Pushkin/Peterhof tour. Had a quick breakfast at the Seaside Grill before leaving. Met our guide Yuri and headed out to the town of Pushkin where Catherine’s Palace is located. It was about an hour from the ship and we got a lot of local history and palace history from Yuri during the drive. The palace itself and the rooms we saw were magnificent. The famous Amber Room was fantastic. The palace was mostly destroyed during WWII but is being restored to its natural beauty. Yuri showed us the difference between the original building/items and the restored “plastic” items. We then toured the gardens but they were not real impressive compared to the palace rooms. Next we drove to Peterhof for a nice lunch (vodka, wine, caviar, etc.) prior to the 3 hour tour of Peter the Great’s Palace and Gardens. The fountains are all gravity fed and in our opinion the gardens are nicer than the ones at Versaille. This palace and gardens were built to rival Versaille. The rooms in the palace were small compared to Pushkin but were still extraordinary. Got back to the ship about 5 for our 6 PM departure. We hit the spa and pool, had our usual 2 hour dinner then saw a great comedian, Adrian Walsh.

Comments

2025-02-10

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank