Our 4th Day in St Petersburg
Today was our second last day in St Petersburg, whilst the day started well weather wise, it turned nasty later in the day with heavy rain falling after 3.30 pm. Have I shared with you that St Petersburg is also known as the “Venice of the North”, it shares this name with six other cities: Amsterdam, Bruges, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Manchester and Stockholm. All these cities are in Northern Europe and like Venice have a network of canals, hence “The Venice of the North”. It shares its values of culture and the arts similar with the Italian city.
This morning we decided once again to use public transport to travel some 30 kms away from the centre of St Petersburg, to visit the magnificent Peterhof Palace on the shore of the gulf of Finland.
We first took the metro using a number of connections- we are becoming very adept at using this mode of transport- and then caught a ini bus to take us to the palace. I have to say that communication by hand signals was the order of the day – whilst caching the bus.
This palace was commissioned by Catherine I in 1717 and it then became the summer residence of the Russian Tsars. The Peterhof Palace is frequently called “Russian Versailles”, due to the many similarities of this palace to its French counterpart, as a result of its extensive gardens and water features. This palace as well as the original gardens were badly damaged by the Germans during WWII, and have been restored since then.
We had a great time visiting this place.
We ended the visit to this place by exploring the maze in the garden. I have to say that it was easy to find the exit out of the maze as there were many exits, as opposed to the usual maze where there is one entry and one exit, with many labyrinths.
A great place to visit.
We then decided to visit the Museum of Political History. The building which houses the museum is an attractive art nouveau mansion which was originally built for Mathilda Kshesinskaya, the prima ballerina at the Mariinskiy before the Revolution, and Nicholas II\’s mistress before he became Emperor. In 1917, the building was seized by the Bolsheviks and turned into their headquarters in the city. It became the centre of their revolutionary activities, and Lenin made a historic speech from the balcony after his arrival in the city.
At the beginning of the 1990\’s, the museum’s focus was changed, and its displays were radically reworked to reveal much of the secret history of the Soviet Union, with a new ethos aimed at dispassionately telling the truth about even the most recent history. The museum\’s collection embraces a broad time spectrum, from the reign of Catherine the Great (the second half of the 18th century) to the political climate in contemporary Russia. Among nearly 500,000 exhibits on display here, there is a rich collection of original documents including a signed decree from Napoleon and the correspondence of Mikhail Gorbachev.
It was fascinating to see the office where Vladimir Lenin worked for some months in 1917, -and where he wrote some 400 pieces of work, lectures in 5 months. His original table and his secretary’s desk are still there.
Another worthwhile place to visit.
We finished today’s activities by having dinner at a local French restaurant. Nice place, good food and excellent company.
Please see more photos of today’s journey here
Another great day in Russia.
