St Petersburg, Russia

Breakfast in the hotel was followed by a one-hour drive to the Peterhof Palace. Commissioned by Peter the Great, who was a tsar who lived in Moscow but wanted to be elsewhere, so commissioned the city of St. Petersburg to be built.

This is the palace that he stayed in during the summer and was absolutely huge. I had mixed feelings about being here. On one hand, here I was seeing this most magnificent building, smothered in gold leaf, on over 250 acres, surrounded by dazzling fountains. Yet the excess felt a little too much in a country struggling to come to terms with capitalism. The amount of money spent in upkeep of place, not to mention re-building it after it was bombed in World War II, seems such a waste when the infrastructure of the city is in decay and so many other buildings, although not half as nice, could well use the money for maintenance.

Peterhof Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia

Peterhof Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia

Peterhof Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia

Peterhof Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia

Peterhof Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia

After lunch in the palace gardens, we went back to the city to see the Winter Palace, in which is Russia’s largest museum – The Hermitage. The Hermitage consists of five buildings – The Winter Palace, The Small Hermitage, The Old Hermitage, The Hermitage Theatre and The New Hermitage. The buildings house 2.8 million pieces of art, a collection started in 1764 by Catherine the Great with a mere 225 paintings. It is said that if you spend 1 minute in front of every piece of work in the museum, it would take you 30 years to see everything. Unfortunately, we raced through in an hour and a half, and it’s closed tomorrow so we can’t come back. I spent my whole time wandering around in awe and missed most of the commentary from our local tour guide, Anna, but soaked in enough art and culture to last a lifetime. It was amazing to think that in one day, under one roof, I saw artwork by Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Monet, yet in the same circumstance missed works of Van Gogh, Renoir, Picasso, and ancient Egyptian treasures, to name a few. But I also think about it the same way I do about the Summer Palace. Exquisite, but excessive! Though I would love to come back one time just to spend a week here in the Hermitage. Such a shame that it’s closed on Mondays!

Back at the hotel, we took the opportunity to confirm our booking in Paris, as well as me buying two Russian soccer shirts, CSKA Moscow and St. Petersburg, for US$10 each – one for me and one for dad. Dinner was at the De Konnick Restaurant. We had beef stroganoff at the restaurant and it was delicious.

Afterwards, some of the tour, Roberta included, went to the Metro nightclub for a taste of Russian nightlife. I, however, opted for an early (midnight) night to catch up on washing and my diary.