A Day at the Summer Palace of Peter the Great
For elegance and old world feel, St. Petersburg is by far the
best Russian city. If you go, a visit to Peterhof, the summer
palace of Peter the Great is a must.
Peterhof
As Tanya and I left St. Petersburg for Peterhof, I was in a foul
mood. A pickpocket had cut through the bottom of my backpack and
swiped my camera. The ferry taking us was packed and the
adorable child on my right had just spilled his ice cream down
my leg. Why, I oughta'. My mood was soon to change.
Apparently, sensing my volatile mood, Tanya hadn't said a word
on the 20 minute ferry ride. As we exited onto a long pier at
Peterhof, she grabbed my hand and more or less tugged me down to
what looked like an ancient French road. This was, in fact, the
Grand Canal leading to Peterhof.
The Grand Canal is a water way with two paths cutting up the
side of it towards Peterhof. The canal cuts through a forested
area with trees nearly forming a roof over the canal. The
atmosphere is very serene, particularly since I noticed the ice
cream tike on the opposite path of the canal. Walking no more
than a mile, one comes upon Peterhof and the Great Cascade.
The Great Cascade is aptly named. It is a collection of
fountains and statutes sitting on tiered marble levels rising to
the front of the palace. After living in Russia for eight
months, I was use to seeing drab, grey five story buildings. The
burst of gold, white and black colors was amazing and made me
wonder what Russia must have looked like before communism.
After gaping at the Great Cascade for nearly an hour, it was
time to take the tourist tour of the palace. We dutifully stood
in line and made small talk with two German couples behind us.
Compared to the general state of decay in most of Russia, we
couldn't get over the fact the palace seemed to be in such good
shape.
As the tour got underway, I kept getting the feeling there was
something "off" about the palace. For a place built in 1715,
Peter the Great sure seemed to know a lot about electricity. In
particular, he seemed to have planned well ahead by creating
some type of internal piping structure for the future electrical
wires. Well, he was Great and perhaps the powers that be had
done a little remodeling over the years.
Alas, one of our German friends was puzzling over the same
thing. As we stood on the second floor of the palace, Jan asked
our guide about the anomaly. He asked it in front of our group
of about 20 people or which 75 percent were Russian. He asked in
a heavy German accent.
Our guide dutifully replied the Germans had bombed Peterhof
during World War II. Peterhof had been completely destroyed. The
palace had subsequently been rebuilt, which explained its modern
feel.
There was one of those pregnant pauses, which occur in such
situations. Jan turned completely red. Taking pity on him, the
tour guide immediately launched into an aggressive discussion of
a particular picture on the wall while we dutifully paid
attention and asked inane questions.
Oddly, the fact Peterhof is a modern structure doesn't really
detract from the experience. The palace and surrounding
structures simply feel like a real palace. With many palaces
through Europe, you get the feeling Disney was somehow involved
in the construction.
At Peterhof, there is a definite feeling of elegance, but
elegance mixed with a practicality required by day-to-day
living. In short, you can definitely image Peter the Great
living there in the summer.