This morning I left Todd snoring away like a freight train and went to find coffee in the hotel cafe. It was quiet at 7am and I managed to get some fresh blini (Russian pancakes) and relax until the others emerged. We waited around talking until our guide arrived to drive us to Catherine’s Palace our in Pushkin.
Catherine’s Palace was set up outside of St Petersburg but was originally started by the wife of Peter The Great, and was expanded upon through later rulers until it became the last residence in St Petersburg for Nicholas II and the remains Romanovs before being shipped off to Yekaterinburg. When we arrived in Pushkin (renamed for the Soviet poet) there was a Russian Army style band playing on the street. As we walked past they asked where we were from and when we replied, Australia, launched into a lively version of “Once a Jolly Swagman”. We were amazed that they all knew the tune well enough to play, and they did a good version of it. The Palace is a very gaudy affair, with lots of gilt and ornate decorations everywhere. We had to line up outside and the staff were only letting a certain number of people in as people left. When we finally got in we found out why. Everyone who wished to enter had to leave their jackets at the cloakroom, and there were only a few staff able to handle all of the hundreds of tourists handing over their jackets. Once disrobed we then had to put on little booties (like in a hospital) over our shoes so as not to damage the parquetry of the Palace. Again, as the photos show, this is an ostentatious place, and not one of my favourites. The Germans did partially destroy the palace when they lay siege to Leningrad back in WWII and it has been seriously renovated since that time. A lot of antiquities were taken east before the siege, some were sent to Leningrad and most of the statues were simply buried. One room in particular, The Amber Room has been completely gutted, and no one knew where the original amber ended up. The grounds were quite nice, and some of the smaller buildings much nicer than the main palace.
We were dropped back at the hotel for lunch, and found a nice little cafe where you could grab what you wanted at an extremely attractive price. A small bowl of soup, a slice of ham and cheese pie and a ham pastry for 182 Roubles, about $3.60. At this point John headed off to see the ‘Aurora’, a Russian cruiser which is the only surging Russian ship from the battle of Tsushima Straights; the naval battle of the Russo Japanese War. Fran and Charlie headed off to the Faberge museum and Ben and I went for a walk to explore the city. We had coffee in a stunning cafe with lots of elaborate carvings and a massive selection to eat, and then found ourselves in an unusual shopping complex. You had to walk THROUGH each of the shops to get to the next, rather than simply a mall allowing you access to various side shops. It was along here that we saw a small waxworks museum which we entered for the princely sum of 300 Roubles. It was ... interesting. There was a Last Supper staffed with Russian politicians, characters from Shek, Harry Potter, Star Wars and many others, virtually all with some form of quirk to them. An example would be the one of the Russian bodybuilder, all covered with muscles and anatomically correct, except that they hadn’t fitted his loincloth properly and parts of his, um, male anatomy were on sight for all to see!
On the recommendation of the hotel concierge we went to a rooftop restaurant for dinner and had a very enjoyable evening.