Our visit to St. Petersburg wouldn't have been complete without visiting the Imperial Palaces of Peterhof and Puskin. We decided to approach Peterhof by hydrofoil (speed boat), which seemed to be the quickest way of travel with its 30-minute- cruising time. When arriving to Peterhof, our first glance at the palace and gardens was already impressive from the sea-side and it got even better and better the closer we walked to the famous fountains.
We wandered in the direction of the palace through the Lower Park, which lies between the Grand Palace and the seashore and boasts the world's largest system of fountains (150 fountains and 4 cascades in total). The most impressive is the Grand Cascade, located directly below the Grand Palace and featuring a golden statue of Samson grasping the jaws of the lion.
Peterhof is often referred to as the 'Russian Versailles'... but the scale and granduer of the gardens of Peterhof even overcomes that of Versailles. As we walked up the stair to the Grand Palace, the view was just stunning... there is nothing to describe it better than this panorama:
After visiting the Grand Palace, which is also pretty impressive and well worthwhile seeing (see pictures in our Album), we walked around to enjoy the numerous fountains, statues, and pavilions within the Lower Park. Afterwards, we entered the Upper Garden, located on the other side of the Grand Palace, which is a typical French-style formal garden with five fountains including the one below, depicting Neptune, the God of the Sea:
Later in the afternoon, looking for a taxi to take us to Pushkin, we were lucky enough to find a nice lady at a fruit stall who arranged a cheap cab for us (1000 RUB - apx 25 EUR for a nearly one-hour-drive)... Cathrine's Palace, painted in light blue with its reach white and gold gilt decoration appeared magnificently in the middle of the park.
We arrived at the castle just in time to enter with one of the last visitor groups. At least that's what we thought... It turned out however that it was already 5 p.m., one hour later than on our watches since we mistakenly only changed it by one hour. So our visit inside the Cathrine's Palace will have to wait until our next trip to St. Petersburg, but at least we did not oversleep and miss our flight back to Zurich as well ;-))
Visit our entire photo album on Peterhof and Pushkin here.
 |
| From EUROPE - RUSSIA - Peterhof & Pushkin |
We wandered in the direction of the palace through the Lower Park, which lies between the Grand Palace and the seashore and boasts the world's largest system of fountains (150 fountains and 4 cascades in total). The most impressive is the Grand Cascade, located directly below the Grand Palace and featuring a golden statue of Samson grasping the jaws of the lion.
 |
| From EUROPE - RUSSIA - Peterhof & Pushkin |
Peterhof is often referred to as the 'Russian Versailles'... but the scale and granduer of the gardens of Peterhof even overcomes that of Versailles. As we walked up the stair to the Grand Palace, the view was just stunning... there is nothing to describe it better than this panorama:
 |
| From EUROPE - RUSSIA - Peterhof & Pushkin |
After visiting the Grand Palace, which is also pretty impressive and well worthwhile seeing (see pictures in our Album), we walked around to enjoy the numerous fountains, statues, and pavilions within the Lower Park. Afterwards, we entered the Upper Garden, located on the other side of the Grand Palace, which is a typical French-style formal garden with five fountains including the one below, depicting Neptune, the God of the Sea:
 |
| From EUROPE - RUSSIA - Peterhof & Pushkin |
Later in the afternoon, looking for a taxi to take us to Pushkin, we were lucky enough to find a nice lady at a fruit stall who arranged a cheap cab for us (1000 RUB - apx 25 EUR for a nearly one-hour-drive)... Cathrine's Palace, painted in light blue with its reach white and gold gilt decoration appeared magnificently in the middle of the park.
 |
| From EUROPE - RUSSIA - Peterhof & Pushkin |
We arrived at the castle just in time to enter with one of the last visitor groups. At least that's what we thought... It turned out however that it was already 5 p.m., one hour later than on our watches since we mistakenly only changed it by one hour. So our visit inside the Cathrine's Palace will have to wait until our next trip to St. Petersburg, but at least we did not oversleep and miss our flight back to Zurich as well ;-))
Visit our entire photo album on Peterhof and Pushkin here.
 |
| EUROPE - RUSSIA - Peterhof & Pushkin |
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