Our next day in St. Petersburg was one of the highest points of the trip. My dad, being the detail-minded planner that he is, booked a very expensive private tour of Peterhof, the Versailles-modeled palace and gardens just outside of the city. The rest of us were initially skeptical (I believe the words "rip off" were uttered by yours truly), but, as tends to happen, my dad was right; the tour was worth every kopek.
Our guide, an energetic woman named Irina, met us at our hotel in the morning, and we drove out to Peterhof as she narrated about the history of the city we were rolling though. We then got a line-jumping private tour of the palace and the sprawling, fountain-rich grounds. I had already been on a tour of Peterhof, but I got so much more out of this more-focused tour.
I think we spent about five hours at Peterhof. On the way back, our tour guide showed us the monolithic monument to the Soviet victory in WWII and then dropped us off at St. Issac's cathedral. We climbed up to the observation deck of the cathedral and took in the view of the city. We then stopped by the Museum of Printing, which was a rather poorly done museum with a good gift shop in a building that formerly housed the publication staff for the newspaper Pravda. After getting dinner (I decided to indulge my under-indulged American and got a hamburger at a restaurant along Nevsky Prospekt), we walked to a nice park. In typical Russian fashion, though, the park closed shortly after we arrived: There was an announcement (only in Russian) about how the park was closing and everyone needed to leave, but when we reached one of the exit gates, the surly guard told us that he absolutely would not let us leave from that gate and that we needed to walk all the way back to the main gate, thus prolonging our time in the park that technically closed 15 minutes before. Keeping it illogical, Russia--good job.
Here are some pictures:
Our guide, an energetic woman named Irina, met us at our hotel in the morning, and we drove out to Peterhof as she narrated about the history of the city we were rolling though. We then got a line-jumping private tour of the palace and the sprawling, fountain-rich grounds. I had already been on a tour of Peterhof, but I got so much more out of this more-focused tour.
I think we spent about five hours at Peterhof. On the way back, our tour guide showed us the monolithic monument to the Soviet victory in WWII and then dropped us off at St. Issac's cathedral. We climbed up to the observation deck of the cathedral and took in the view of the city. We then stopped by the Museum of Printing, which was a rather poorly done museum with a good gift shop in a building that formerly housed the publication staff for the newspaper Pravda. After getting dinner (I decided to indulge my under-indulged American and got a hamburger at a restaurant along Nevsky Prospekt), we walked to a nice park. In typical Russian fashion, though, the park closed shortly after we arrived: There was an announcement (only in Russian) about how the park was closing and everyone needed to leave, but when we reached one of the exit gates, the surly guard told us that he absolutely would not let us leave from that gate and that we needed to walk all the way back to the main gate, thus prolonging our time in the park that technically closed 15 minutes before. Keeping it illogical, Russia--good job.
Here are some pictures:
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