St. Petersburg, Russia: Outside the Burg

Today, I took myself out of the city by metro and then bus to the impressively regal Peterhof.  This complex, initially designed and built by Peter the Great as a palatial complex outside of St. Petersburg, was begun in 1714, inhabitable a few years later, and added to by subsequent emperors and empresses until the revolution in 1917.  After WWII, it was restored, and is now a giant group of museums and gardens.  It was raining when I took this picture in front of the Grand Palace in the Upper Garden in the morning, but by the afternoon the rain cleared and it was beautiful!

This is a view of the Grand Palace and fountains from the Lower Garden.

The Lower Garden is littered with grandiose fountains of all styles and inspirations, as you can see from the Chessboard Cascade in the background of the picture above.  They are close enough to walk to, but far enough apart to not clash, and I spent a delightful afternoon walking the wooded paths and coming upon these fountains.

This is a view of the fountains in front the Grand Palace from the terrace.  I went inside the Palace, which was incredibly opulent and had a very interesting history (which I learned about because I discreetly tagged along with an English tour group), but unfortunately, you were not allowed to take photos, so I can not include any.  However, the channel coming from these fountains empties into the bay of Finland, and I walked down there...and I saw Finland!  Just kidding, it was St. Petersburg, but I thought it was Finland until the hostel receptionist told me otherwise, and I was really excited for a couple of hours.

For all of you non-Anastasia fans, this is the Winter Palace of the tsars, in front of which is the Alexander II monument.  It now houses a museum of Western European art.  For all of you Anastasia fan out there, this is it--the palace the Anastasia finds Dmitri in in the movie :-)