On Friday we decided to go to Peterhof, which is about half an hour by hydrofoil from St Petersburg. Peterhof is basically a complex of palaces and gardens, started by Peter the Great. Others added to the complex to make it as awesome as it is today.
There are at least half a dozen hydrofoil companies that are docked behind the Hermitage and they usually leave every 30 minutes, so it's not very difficult to rock on up to a boat and get going. It cost us about $40 return. This may seem expensive but the alternative was to catch the bus which would have taken 90 minutes each way. I'd rather spend $40 than waste a good part of my day on the bus.
A day out at Peterhof can end up being quite expensive if you want to go into all of the palaces and buildings, as each one has an entry fee on top of the 450 rubles you have to pay to enter the gardens to begin with. I think we were both getting a case of museum fatigue so didn't really mind missing most of the smaller buildings, but made an exception for the Grand Palace which set us back 550 rubles.
The Grand Palace is pretty grand to be honest. It sits on a hill, so when you enter Peterhof from the pier and take the main path, there it is staring right at you and judging you because you don't have sparkly gold fountains.
Aside from the more "normal" Roman-inspired fountains, there's also a bizarre side they like to show off:
Animal fountains are also a big deal. The mechanical ducks even quack.
At the end of a long day you can sit down, cool off, and admire the view:
For now I will leave you with photos of people running through fountains:
There are at least half a dozen hydrofoil companies that are docked behind the Hermitage and they usually leave every 30 minutes, so it's not very difficult to rock on up to a boat and get going. It cost us about $40 return. This may seem expensive but the alternative was to catch the bus which would have taken 90 minutes each way. I'd rather spend $40 than waste a good part of my day on the bus.
A day out at Peterhof can end up being quite expensive if you want to go into all of the palaces and buildings, as each one has an entry fee on top of the 450 rubles you have to pay to enter the gardens to begin with. I think we were both getting a case of museum fatigue so didn't really mind missing most of the smaller buildings, but made an exception for the Grand Palace which set us back 550 rubles.
The Grand Palace is pretty grand to be honest. It sits on a hill, so when you enter Peterhof from the pier and take the main path, there it is staring right at you and judging you because you don't have sparkly gold fountains.
The entry to the Grand Palace is through the doors right in the middle, but the sneaky thing is that individual visitors need to buy their tickets from an unmarked ticket office just out of view of this picture, to the right. Well, pretty much unmarked - because the sign next to the ticket office said "buy your tickets inside the museum" as opposed to just inside this door.
It's as fancy on the inside as it is on the outside. The rooms are adorned with gold and sparkly things, but you have to contend with thousands of other people who also adore shiny things.
The fountains in the lower garden are really something and it's easy enough to spend the whole day just wandering around.
Aside from the more "normal" Roman-inspired fountains, there's also a bizarre side they like to show off:
Sometimes they like to keep things simple and make fountains out of regular rocks:
But sometimes the regular rocks are only used to make bigger and better fountains, like this cascading chessboard one. If that isn't enough, there are also colourful sculptures of dragons at the top of it.
Not only do they rule at making fountains, their gardening skills aren't too shabby either:
Animal fountains are also a big deal. The mechanical ducks even quack.
If that's not enough, Peterhof even has an assortment of real animals like squirrels and ducklings!
For now I will leave you with photos of people running through fountains:
P.S. Finally got to use my umbrella:
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