Peterhof and beyond

---

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 families go to have fun on a sunny Sunday. People everywhere strolling, chatting, eating burgers and ice cream, kids running in and out if fountains, surprise fountains suddenly erupting and soaking the unwary, period costumes to dress up in, and much fun to be had on the beaches on the estuary shore.how tidy and clean it all was....no litter, no tab ends and no one smoking anywhere. In fact St P'sburg generally seems to be a rather tab and litter free zone. People use the many litter bins and there are frequent appearances of street cleaners And little graffiti.

Now we are in Veliky Novgorod. We got the train at 7.20 yesterday morn, having leapt out of bed at 5

---