Sept 23(Photo 1 at the Gulf Of Finland, Baltic Sea. Photo 2 Peterhof Palace view from garden)
Packed up and checked out to board our ship today. On the way to the ship, we visited Peterhof, now a town but originally the site of the palace of peter the Great built on the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea. There are numerous other palaces that were subsequently built in the same area for members of peter’s family. The designer of the garden at Versailles designed the garden at Peterhof also. Peter had a thing for fountains and there are somewhere near a zillion fountains around the palace and garden. They are impressive in design , size and sheer number and all of them are fed solely by an extensive and elegant gravity system constructed with canals and holding ponds. The grounds were spectacular as was the palace. Much of the palace was destroyed during WWII and required extensive renovations which still are in progress. Of course, as soon as we finished the palace visit to go into the garden it began raining in an impressive deluge. Undaunted, we went out anyway and stood for a while under a pavilion until the rain slowed enough to see where we were going. We walked through the gorgeous gardens to the edge of the Gulf of Finland which, though quite narrow, didn’t allow us to see Finland. (Nor, just incidentally, could we see Sarah Palin’s house.) However, I can now say I say the Baltic Sea.
After leaving Peterhof we went to the port to board our ship and managed to put everything away in our tiny little cabin. Actually, cozy and comfortable enough but definitely not the great room we had at the Radisson. We sailed out of St. Petersburg under the only suspension bridge across the Neva River. At somewhere around 3AM we crossed part of Lake Ladoga the largest lake in Europe. The Neva is the only outflow of the lake though MANY rivers flow into the lake. This outflow combined with some high winds gave us some terrific rock and roll that let us know we were really on a ship. By morning we were back on flat water and soon entered another smooth river.
Packed up and checked out to board our ship today. On the way to the ship, we visited Peterhof, now a town but originally the site of the palace of peter the Great built on the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea. There are numerous other palaces that were subsequently built in the same area for members of peter’s family. The designer of the garden at Versailles designed the garden at Peterhof also. Peter had a thing for fountains and there are somewhere near a zillion fountains around the palace and garden. They are impressive in design , size and sheer number and all of them are fed solely by an extensive and elegant gravity system constructed with canals and holding ponds. The grounds were spectacular as was the palace. Much of the palace was destroyed during WWII and required extensive renovations which still are in progress. Of course, as soon as we finished the palace visit to go into the garden it began raining in an impressive deluge. Undaunted, we went out anyway and stood for a while under a pavilion until the rain slowed enough to see where we were going. We walked through the gorgeous gardens to the edge of the Gulf of Finland which, though quite narrow, didn’t allow us to see Finland. (Nor, just incidentally, could we see Sarah Palin’s house.) However, I can now say I say the Baltic Sea.
After leaving Peterhof we went to the port to board our ship and managed to put everything away in our tiny little cabin. Actually, cozy and comfortable enough but definitely not the great room we had at the Radisson. We sailed out of St. Petersburg under the only suspension bridge across the Neva River. At somewhere around 3AM we crossed part of Lake Ladoga the largest lake in Europe. The Neva is the only outflow of the lake though MANY rivers flow into the lake. This outflow combined with some high winds gave us some terrific rock and roll that let us know we were really on a ship. By morning we were back on flat water and soon entered another smooth river.
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