The palace was built by Peter the Great for his wife - thus named after Catherine I. Their daughter, Elizabeth had the palace expanded and kept her mother's name on it. Her expansion of the home is clearly evident by the gold guilded rooms that look like an illusion of mirrors as you look down the hall of doorways.
We all had to wear special coverings on our shoes - clearly not designed for Stacy's size 13 feet. He was forced to put the little paper bags over the front 1/2 of his shoes because that's all that could be covered. Wish I had a picture of that!
The rooms were very small considering the large size of the palace. And we could only find one women's bathroom - go figure.
But there were a few rooms of very special note:
The Great Hall could seat 700 people. The decorations were all made of carved wood painted in gold filigree. It had 300 mirrors and 700 candles (now electric). In it's day, it took an entire staff to watch the candles to keep them lit and ensure they didn't catch the wood carvings afire! And this was no small task as the dinners could often last for 7 hours. The other cool feature of this room was that the ceiling was flat but the painting on it gave the illusion of it being curved.
In the Amber Room there were no photos allowed. Amber is an organic material and one cannot tell what color it will be as it ages. This room alone took over 33 years to complete - the work finished in 2003. Many scientists worked on the restoration project bringing in 6 tons of amber (yielding 5 tons of waste).
At the end of the tour, there was an exhibit which showed us how the original palace looked before and after the war in which it was destroyed. Another demonstration of mankind's relentless quest for dominance. This truly brought to heart the words of Eccl 8:9 "man has dominated man to his harm." Also made me appreciate all the effort it took to restore this treasure - as we look forward to the enjoyable work of restoring the entire earth to Paradise.
After the palace tour, we got to enjoy a little reflection time in the beautiful surrounding park. One section was like one of those maze types with perfectly manicured rows of tall bushes lining the paths. And, of course, beautiful floral arrangements!
Lunch Break
As I've mentioned in a prior post, the food venues have been spectacular! And today's lunch certainly held up to that high standard. We enjoyed a traditional Russian family style meal of borsch (beet soup) and Stuffed Cabbage followed by pancakes (crepes) with berries and ice cream. And, of course, VODKA and wine. The friends even got to take the left over vodka - cute bottles/souvenirs.
Nap time. Why do we like to take pictures of each other while we are sleeping. I must be having a good dream here - may have been the wine. Or vodka. Probably both!
Peterhof Gardens Tour
The fountains are spring fed and run using gravity. Thus, there is no way to know when the fountains will come on. Or when the rain will stop! We got SOAKED on this portion of the trip. Even with umbrellas and ponchos it was hard to really enjoy the beautiful scenery. So Samone and I found a little cafe, had a spot of tea and shared some treats with some friends. Even met a sweet little sister who invited me to visit her in Albuquerque to enjoy the Ballon Festival! Road Trip!
April was the trouper in the group. Stacy, Anthony and Kaitlyn went to the bus. Samone and I went for tea (as mentioned above) but April stuck with the main group and went to see the fountains. It would have been a perfect day to take a picture in the fountain (since we were wet anyway), but given the historical significance, April opted for the occasional selfie instead.
These last few pictures are of the Great Cascade - one of the biggest fountain ensembles in the world. It includes more than 60 fountains, more than 250 statues and reliefs. The center statue is of Samson slaying the lion and the water jet of this fountain is the highest in Peterhof (21m or almost 70 ft high)!
I know this is late but have to comment in any case. So funny Stacy couldn't find a shoe cover to fit. The ceiling did truly appear curved not flat. I did not know that about amber, interesting. If I was Catherine I would tell Peter if he intends to remain great then in my next palace I best have an abundance of women's bathrooms, haha.
ReplyDeleteI have been looking up at my ceilings of late thinking "we need to put some art up there, so much empty space, haha. Palace is beautiful but also love the relaxed warmth of the quaint little cabin. Or maybe it was the red wine and vodka, no no, although that vodka bottle was cute.