Leningrad - the city of the Tzars

We meet up with Anastasia and Rustom in the car.
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Today we not only had Anastasia, but Rustom joined us as well as our driver. We met them out front of the Petro Palace Hotel at 9am. St. Petersburg is pretty spread out so the car made sense if you want to see much of the city in a day. Which we did. First we drove out to Catherine’s Palace, the Summer home of the Tzars, named for Catherine the Great. This one was badly damaged in WWII. St. Petersburg was under siege from the Germans for 18 months, cutting off the city entirely. Although the Germans never entered the city the surrounding countryside was under their control. They lived in and looted the palace, and towards the end of the war they bombed it. Lucky for us, the Russians took most of the pieces out of the palace (flooring, wall coverings, anything they could disassemble) before the occupation (this was not considered a looting) and were able to restore much of the palace with its original effects. Anastasia was a great tour guide – she started talking the minute we started and didn’t stop unless prodded. She even loosened up at the end of the day and started to joke with us. She probably didn’t understand our sense of humor. Hell, YOU probably don’t understand our sense of humor.

Catherine's Palace
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Then we drove to the Peterhoff, the second Summer Palace and Peter the Great’s attempt to outdo Versailles. The property is huge with over 200 gilded statues and 110 fountains, some of which were enormous. The best part (for us geeks) was how the fountains were supplied with water. No pumps, all gravity fed with reservoired spring water. Some of the jetted water reached 75 feet. The water drained out into the Gulf of Finland that surrounded the property on three sides. The fountains were fun. Peter the Great had a sense of humor too and many of the fountains had trick mechanisms that would soak unsuspecting passers-by. For example, we were told that when guests were served within one of the biggest fountains (it had a large deck within its center) and they grabbed the salt it triggered certain fountains to erupt and end the meal. We counted at least ten “trick” fountains and there were probably many more. Remember that these were all done mechanically as there was no electricity at the time, then again – Peter was not known for tolerance. If he wanted something, it was done or lives were lost. I can’t imagine being a noble invited to a meal with the man. You’re dressed in your very best and sitting for tea when you’re suddenly soaked to the skin and all you can do is smile politely as he laughs his ass off. It would be fun to be him though. It’s good to be the king. Or Tzar.

Just like the foyer of Jon's house. Not Alex's.
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On the way to our tour of the city we passed a castle like building (Constantine’s Palace, locals call it Putin’s Palace) which serves as Putin’s “residence” in St. Petersburg, housing dignitaries, Putin’s office, and events like the G8 summit. The tour included enough new churches that we finally said to Anastasia, as she was purchasing our tickets, “Nah – we’ve seen enough.” We’re just soooo religious. We climbed to the top surround of the third largest church dome in the world, St. Isaac’s Cathedral, which was pretty fun and we got “pointing tour” of the city. We had seen the city, as pronounced by our lovely guide, and we headed home. The city is truly beautiful with canals, bridges, and parks. Still second to us because Moscow was such a rush – but a close second.

Just like the foyer of Alex's house. We had to wear booties to go into most of the sites.
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Tomorrow we head off to Helsinki, Finland and leave Russia. Although sad about that, we’re more concerned about getting back on those bikes. The damn things are filthy. We tried to bribe someone in the hotel to wash them but they somehow lost any ability to understand English. We’ll try again after we get to Sweden.