Daily Archives: July 9, 2014

Wednesday, 9th July, 2014

Country: Russia
Distance travelled:
Weather: Sunny

We had been asked what time we required breakfast, and having chosen 8.30am, were up and showered and in the breakfast room on time. Our table had been set with an attractive selection of breakfast items including yoghurt and juice and and after we were seated the receptionist served us two frankfurts with a cute sun drawn in tomato sauce, making us both smile.

Frankfurt Sunrise

Yesterday during our wanderings we had spotted the hydrofoil terminal and today we headed directly there as we planned to go to Peterhof Palace. We bought two tickets from the not-very-friendly woman behind the counter for the boat leaving in five minutes and went to stand in the queue forming beside two boats tied together. The time for our boat departure came and the line began to progress until when we reached the front, we found that in fact our boat had departed and the queue was for the next boat departing in half an hour. Apparently we should have pushed past everyone to the front of the line to board as soon as we had our ticket, not behaviour we are inclined to indulge in unfortunately.

We went back to the office, not the ticket booth, and found that one of the people there spoke English well enough for us to explain our mistake and for her to kindly issue us with tickets for the next available boat leaving at 11am instead. We went immediately back and were in line to board as soon as we could. The trip from central St Petersburg took about three quarters of an hour and we spent the time watching the other hydrofoils and ferries out on the water with us.

At Peterhof, the great service from ticket booth operators continued, maybe that renowned Russian service isn’t a myth after all or maybe I’ve just become too used to everyone speaking English around me and have become complacent. We wandered around the gardens of Peterhof, enjoying the shady trees and the fountains but I wasn’t feeling the best and the unaccustomed heat was getting us both down so much of surroundings was lost on us. We weren’t alone in being bothered by the heat, at one point we noticed a gathering together of people and watched curiously until the sprinkler pipes along both sides of the path showered forth water. Everyone squealed and laughed but I noticed not too many moved away from the spray.

Random fountain in gardens

Fountain and trees

Another curiosity I noticed was that all of the food and drinks stalls were of an identical style with the same few products. I had noticed many similar street stalls in the centre of St Petersburg so I assume there is some form of licensing or government run system. If I had been a more chatty type, I suppose I could have asked but it wasn’t so important that I needed to know.

Eventually we ran out of gardens to explore and found ourselves at the Grand Palace, a snowy white building with golden roofs and statues. And with long queues at the entry doors. Luckily we didn’t plan to go in to view the displays, instead heading down past the most opulent fountain I have ever seen with many gilded statues which I’m sure are no longer actually encased in gold.

What do you think, a little over the top?

From Wikipedia:
The Grand Cascade is modelled on one constructed for Louis XIV at his Château de Marly, which is likewise memorialised in one of the park’s outbuildings…..The fountains of the Grand Cascade are located below the grotto and on either side of it. Their waters flow into a semicircular pool, the terminus of the fountain-lined Sea Channel. In the 1730s, the large Samson Fountain was placed in this pool. It depicts the moment when Samson tears open the jaws of a lion, representing Russia’s victory over Sweden in the Great Northern War, and is doubly symbolic. The lion is an element of the Swedish coat of arms, and one of the great victories of the war was won on St Samson’s Day. From the lion’s mouth shoots a 20-metre-high vertical jet of water, the highest in all of Peterhof. This masterpiece by Mikhail Kozlovsky was looted by the invading Germans during the Second World War. A replica of the statue was installed in 1947. Perhaps the greatest technological achievement of Peterhof is that all of the fountains operate without the use of pumps. Water is supplied from natural springs and collects in reservoirs in the Upper Gardens. The elevation difference creates the pressure that drives most of the fountains of the Lower Gardens, including the Grand Cascade. The Samson Fountain is supplied by a special aqueduct, over four km in length, drawing water and pressure from a high-elevation source.

Eventually we made our way back out to the wharf where we boarded the hydrofoil once again for our return trip to central St Petersburg. We walked around some more heading generally toward the Hotel Coulomb although making our way via streets we hadn’t walked yesterday. On our way down one street running alongside the Griboedov Canal, we came across the Bank Bridge with two large statues of griffons at either end and quite a crowd of tourists getting their photos taken while posing between them.

Just up the road from our motel, we passed an otherwise nondescript door but as I glanced in, I spotted pastries! We hadn’t had lunch so plunged in hoping to buy something via the point and nod method. The two ladies behind the counter, with about as many English words between them as we had Russian, were really friendly and helpful and we came away with a slice of pizza as well as four or five ‘pies’ which were a sort of baked pocket stuffed with various fillings and a sweet baked custard based item. I popped into the convenience store we had found yesterday to buy a few bottles of water and coke and we headed back to our room with our bounty.

After we had eaten Mark opted for a nap and I headed back out having promised to buy some souvenirs for friends back home. My first stop was at a military disposal store where I bought an army hat and a badge to go on it, then off to another store where I bought a mock FabergĂ© egg trinket and then off to hunt down two more hats more suited to women. I don’t know how I’ll get these back to the recipients but I’ll work something out.

We spent a few hours in the early evening using the hotel wifi and then decided, at about 11pm, to head out and take a few photos of St Petersburg attractions under their evening illumination. We were just a few days out of the ‘normal’ period for the White Nights but the sky still was never dark throughout the night. St Petersburg is the worlds most northern city with a population over one million people, it is roughly the same latitude as Oslo in Norway. Needless to say the many hours of twilight make for a great time photographing.

As we wandered around, we noticed a woman riding a horse and charging people for the opportunity to pat the animal or have their photo taken beside it. Either horses are more unusual around here than I realised or people are affected oddly while on holiday, I thought it was a strange thing to pay for. We made our way back to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood and were busy taking a few photos when two gents walked by and decided to investigate what we were up to.

They were happily inebriated and we discovered, with the exchange of a few words in English and some puzzling over thick accents, that they were from Siberia. Enthusiastically Siberian, telling us and the neighborhood repeatedly and very chuffed with themselves over having worked out we were Australian, sharing that information with all and sundry at top volume too. We found them around the other side of the church later, having somehow talked the horse woman into letting one sit upon her animal. I’m not sure how he managed to mount while so drunk.

Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

Our route took us though Palace Square again and then down to the river bank where we found an unbelievable number of people lined up along the riverside balustrade. It was nearly 1am by now and Mark remembered reading something about the bridge raising that happens every night to allow water vessels to pass. Out on the river was a vast number of boats, many obviously working vessels but there were quite a few tourist vessels as well all lined up ready to pass between the bridge piers once it had been raised. At 1am, the centre part of the Palace Bridge near where we were standing rose and the many boats streamed forward, it was as fascinating to watch the tourists lined up on the river bank as the show out on the water.

Palace Square

Leaving the river bank and the crowds, we headed home though Senate Square (formerly known as Decembrists’ Square between 1925 and 2008, and Peter’s Square before 1925 – how do they keep track?) and past a huge statue, the Bronze Horseman, past St Isaac’s Cathedral and back to Hotel Coulomb where we inadvertently woke the receptionist who was dozing on a couch when we came in. We apologized for waking her and quickly made our way to our room, finally collapsing into bed at 2am.

St Isaac's Cathedral