Blogs from Russia, Europe - page 27

Last day in St P'sburg we spent in the Peterhof gardens. Travelled there by metro and then marshrutka...The latter was a bit of a competitive rush. A hundred or so of us all wanting to get on to small minibuses, people getting on and bagging half the places for their friends and relations who didn't materialise, hot muggy day.... But we got there. And it was worth it. Peterhof palace was a holiday home for the Romanovs. We had seen many pictures of the interior on Recent tv programme. We needed a rest from gilded palace decor so spent the time wandering round acres of beautiful immaculate palace grounds with gorgeous fountains and miles of alleyways of pleached limes, bordering on the wide river estuary. It seems to be the place where all of St P'sburg ... read more

Our last day in St Petersburg: Petershof The sun is up the sky is blue, I'm off to Peterhof, how 'bout you? After reading advice on t'internet we took a metro to Avtovo (a beautiful station), then crossed the road to catch a 424. The bus cost 70 rubles: about 85p. It probably took us under an hour in total. Some nervousness about when to get off, but 90% of the customers were Peterhof bound, so there was no need to fear missing the stop. We spotted lots of high rise living on the way punctuated by lots of green space and a few old timber houses from the past. Petrol spotted at a garage on the way, was 39.5 rubles a litre, about 48pence a litre! We entered the estate by an open gate into ... read more

Our second day in the State Hermitage. One of our favourite outings, back home in the North East of England, is a trip to Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, Co Durham. There is a stunning automaton silver swan on the ground floor........It still swims daily on a sea of silver. James Cox collaborated with John Joseph Merlin in 1773 to create the machine. Here in the Hermitage, Catherine ll's golden peacock was commissioned in 1777 and shares the same maker! James Cox worked this time with German Friedrich Juryman to convert a smaller automaton made for the Dublin Lottery(!) into the very popular display now still on show on the first floor. A video shows the peacock working, putting on a tail feather display for a somewhat under impressed owl, who taps his foot. From a ... read more

I'm intrigued by the over-specified gauge of tube for the St Petersburg down pipes, or as we like to call them: 'spoots'. I haven't measured them, but I reckon they must be 250mm in diameter, standard, on pretty much every building in the centre of town. They're made of light galvanised tin. Many are characteristically 'bashed in' on the bottom two metres...... I suppose their substantial size makes them a pleasing target for a kick from a drunken Doc Martin wearer...... Our current theory for the design brief is that when snow melts in the spring there'll be need for a quick evacuation of excess water to stop leaks through tin roofs. Or perhaps there's been a very successful gutter salesperson maintaining a market for big pipes 'cos there's more profit in them for the manufacturer? ... read more

Geo: 59.939, 30.3158As with Tallinn, our return to St. Petersburg (Leningrad, when we first visited) was under far better conditions. We awoke to find ourselves already pulled up to the very large cruise terminal complex. The skies were gray but it was not raining, and the forecast rain held off all day. The cruise area was huge, with berths for at least 10 ships visible from our single mooring. There were, however, only three ships in port this day, including our own. Many other sailings that include St. Petersburg include two days in port, allowing far more time to see the city. We, alas, only had one day -- though we were in port from 7:00am to 6:30pm. Peculiarities with my work prevented me from staying in Russia for more than one day, so we had ... read more