Our journey today was to the Peterhof, a Romanov summer palace. We arrived at 945 after about a 45 minute drive thru the suburbs of St. Petersburg. This was long enough for our local guide, Irene, to finish her story of the murder of Rasputin that she had started yesterday. The classical story is that he was poisoned, then shot, then thrown in the river, and finally died by drowning. The new story is that he was shot once in the head by a British spy since he kept Czar Nicholas from joining WWI. As we now know, Rasputin was right, and failure to heed his advice led to bad stuff for the Czar and his family, plus most of Eastern Europe for the ensuing 75 years.
The palace was unfortunately behind German lines in WWII, so what is there now is a restoration repopulated with what furnishings were removed before it was overrun. Quite outstanding, reminiscent of Versailles. While not as grand as the latter, it was certainly opulent enough to deserve the wrath of the people against their rulers as happened in France. As with Runsdale last week, we were given plastic booties to wear to protect the floors. (Priscilla even had one wrapped around the bottom of her cane as we went in.) Again, our group had the opportunity to enter early and avoid the worst of the crowds.
The gardens with their fountains and statues are as notable as the palace itself. The blog cover photo is our group, taken there. Quite a nice, congenial bunch of folks, and always ready at the appointed time to be on the bus. The day has been cloudy, so my photos don't do the gardens justice. I also got a brief video of a marching band that serenaded us.
Back in St. Petersburg, the bus first stopped at the Church on the Spilled Blood. Most of the group stayed in Nevsky Prospeckt for lunch and a boat tour, but Priscilla and I took the bus back to the hotel for a beer and a nap. Her knee has been bothering her, and we didn't want to press our luck.
We have a farewell dinner at the hotel tonight. Odysseys booked us on the 11:25am train to Helsinki tomorrow, so we can sleep in a bit. Much later than the folks who are booked on the 6am flight to Franfort. So I will have time for my sauna this evening and a full night's sleep.