ST PETERSBURG IN FOUR DAYS, DAY FOUR A VISIT TO CATHERINE PALACE

Hello dear friends,

This post brings us to our last day in St Petersburg.  If you missed my previous posts and want to know about how about this trip, you can read about it in the previous posts.  In the last three days we were running around this amazing city trying to see and do as much as was humanly possible and I must say that we did a lot.  Our days were filled with visits to museums, cathedrals, palaces and general sightseeing.  We even managed to secure tickets to Swan Lake at the world renowned Mariinski Theatre.  If you missed my previous posts and want to know about how about this trip, you can read about it in the previous posts.

One of the reasons that we could do so much was due to the White Nights phenomenon during which the sun does not set until late into the night and walking the city at 11 pm feels like it is still a midday.   This phenomenon occurs one a year from mid-May to mid-July and attracts a lot of tourists from all over the world.

During this period the visiting hours of the majority of public places are extended to coincide with the long periods of daylight to allow people to thoroughly enjoy this rare and short occasion to its fullest.  During our visit, there was not one day that we went to bed before midnight and that frantic activity started to take its toll.  Still, there was one more place we desperately wanted to see:  Catherine Palace, named after Catherine I, the wife of Peter the Great, situated about 30 km from St Petersburg in a place called Tsarskoe Selo, chosen by their daughter, Empress Elizabeth as her summer residence.

We got there by cab as it was the easiest way to get there and it dropped us very close to the tickets offices.  With tickets in hands, we walked through the gates and stepped into the beautifully appointed grounds.  There were a lot of similarities the way the parks and grounds were arranged, their symmetry reminded us of the grounds that we saw at Peterhof Palace, which I believe, was a traditional style common to that era and widely used across Europe.   Read a full story about it here.

When we approached the main palace, we both gasped in owe, that how beautiful it looked.  Painted in azure blue with snow white columns and gilded ornaments in the shapes of atlantes, caryatids, lion masks and other decorations, it was simply stunning.  It is said that around 100 kg of gold was used on the exteriors and interiors of the palace.   As we came closer, we saw a miles long queue to get inside and gasped again but for the totally different reason.

So far, wherever we went we wore lucky to avoid the long queues but on our last day in St Petersburg our luck had run out.  To make things worse, it was cold and it started to rain.   We had one umbrella between us and after about half an hour both of us were quite wet and cold.

Luckily, some guy with entrepreneur skills walked passed selling cheap rain ponchos that we purchased without hesitation.  In the end it took us over two hours until we finally reach the entrance door to Catherine Palace.  By that time we were able to explore the palace facade to its minor detail but it was so beautiful that we didn't grow tired of it.

Once inside, we were greeted by the same ornate, gilded, opulent and rich interiors as we saw at the Peterhof Palace.

The palace was packed with tourist groups and it was very difficult to look at things at your own pace.  Nevertheless, the interiors were magnificent in their luxury and craftsmanship and even though it was not the first time that we were inside a palace, we couldn't stop admiring the surroundings.

By the time we completed the tour, the rain had turned into a light drizzle and we went outside to look at the grounds and smaller palaces scattered around the perimeter.  Sadly, none of them was open to the public but judging by the elaborate ornaments and beauty of the facades, one can assume that the interior would match.

On our way back to the city we stopped at a small market selling traditional Russian nesting dolls, ushankas (hats with ear flaps) and other paraphernalia you expect to find around tourist attractions.

We felt pretty tired but by the time the taxi dropped at in the city centre, we were ready to do and see more.  I took my husband to the State Russian Museum that holds the world's largest collection of Russian art.  I wanted to show him the paintings of the great Russian artists such as Repin, Brullov, Venetsianov, Aivazovsky and many others that I new so well from my youth and share with him my admiration of their talent.

We toasted our four wonderful days that we spent in this magnificent city by having our very last dinner at the hip restaurant called Schengen named after the Schengen Area that "refers to the EU passport-free zone that covers most of the European countries and is the largest free travel area in the world".  

The dinner was superb, the staff was extremely friendly and helpful, the wine was a plenty - a perfect trifecta to add to our fond memories about St Petersburg.  We returned to our hotel to pack the bags and get ready for our next stop - my hometown of Odessa.  But all about it is in the next blog.

Until then,

Anna
xoxo