June 17th Catherine's Palace - St Petersburg

I had trouble sleeping last night so took the opportunity to take some ‘white night’ photos – one at 2.00am street lights still on but a clear blue sky brighter than parts of the day and by 2.30am the street lights were off and the day had arrived.  It takes a lot of getting used to.

Anyway an 8am early departure this morning to try and beat the crowds to Catherine’s Palace.  More cruise ships are in so the city is very busy.  It is quite a distance from the boat, about an hour in the bus.  The palace is located in Pushkin Town named after Alexander Pushkin.

It is enormous – this was their party palace – it’s only purpose was to show off their wealth and power.  It is an amazing building.  As well as being called Catherine’s Palace it is also known as Tsarskoye Selo – the Tsar’s Village.

Once again I’ll let the photos do the talking.

From there we went out to walk around the gardens.  These were quite special, we even saw a squirrel, very red/brown and small and much too quick for me to photograph.  We walked to the lake house to hear a male group of 5 sing the Volga Boat Song.  Wow what a sensational feeling – both Den and I had had that song as part of our singing with the radio at school, and it had been a favorite – never thinking that one day we would be in Russia hearing it.

We walked on to where the bus was parked and it was time to head off to have an authentic Russian lunch.  Pickled vegetables, pork cold cuts, a garlic dip with diced meat in it – that was entree.  Then Borscht soup followed by a bowl of creamed chopped mushrooms – then the main course – rice and a chicken pattie.  There was red Russian wine, vodka and water on the table.  I had some of each.  The vodka cleared my sinuses really well and I think I know why the Russians speak the way they do.  The red wine was excellent – the water – yep just normal.  We were entertained with some Russian folk songs.  They were having a very happy jovial time.  They handed out great noise makers and we all had a great, very noisy lunch.  Sweets was like a pancake folded over Linden berries and ice cream.  This was followed by the strongest cup of black coffee I have ever had.

Then back to the buses – those that wanted could go back to the boat and we chose to go back to town so Den could see the Church on the Spilt Blood.  It was lovely to have some sunshine and the photos of this church look much better than the other day when it was raining.

We then found a delightful café and had a treat – very yummy.  There was a book shop just down the street that had been the ‘Singer’ – as in sewing machine – factory but was now a huge book shop.

Back to the bus – another huge day – there is a trip to the Ballet tonight but we have decided not to attend and just have a quiet evening.