Well, it's our second day in St Petersburg. Yesterday was a long,
hectic but very interesting day and after a good night's sleep on board the Sea
Princess we are ready for new ventures today. We had an early start and boarded
our coach at 7.30am because it was 90-120minute coach drive to The Peterhof
Summer Estate our first visit for the day. It was expected that we'd spend at
least 3 hours exploring the vast estate. This Summer Estate, built by Peter the
Great in the 18th century.
It's been extended by each of the tsars following after after
Peter the Great's rule and some buildings and parts of the grounds of the estate
had to be rebuilt due to the damage done during its bombardment by enemy
aircraft in WW11.
All restoration works have been faithfully carried out to preserve
the original appearance and layout of this magnificent estate
which is a complex of palaces, gardens, mountains and waterfalls.
The Peterhof Estate has been listed as
a UNESCO UNESCO world Heritage site and it is easy to see why this status has
been given. It is one of Russia's most famous tourist attractions with over 1
million visitors every year.
The architecture of the Palaces and the beautiful gardens very
closely resemble those we'd seen on our visit to Versailles, in France.
Originally, in 1709, when work began on the estate, Peter the Great built
Monplaisir Palace. It's design was based on a Dutch style and he intended it to
be his summer retreat where he could relax after the harsh winters of the city.
However, inspired by his visit to the French Royal Court in 1717,
Peter the Great commissioned his architects to continue extending the buildings
on the estate, in the sumptuous and majestic Baroque style so fashionable in
Russia and Europe at the time. He also commissioned two French garden designers
and landscapers who had been responsible for establishing Louis XIV's
extensive gardens surrounding the Palace of Versailles and his aim was to
'out-do' Louis'fabulously exotic palace in Versailles.
The massive park and forest area which
forms much of the estate has been divided into two parts. The Upper gardens
which are more formal with impressive fountains and a water garden and the
Lower gardens which has a collection of pools , fountains, small mountains,
fruit trees and a forest. I'll refer to more about the gardens later in
this blog.
We arrived early at the estate and it appeared that we were
the first there because from where we'd left the coach we had an
excellent view of the estate. Stretch before us were magnificent formal gardens
with wide avenues of red crushed-stone pathways beckoning us to enter. Best of
all there was not a tourist in sight so we had the garden to ourselves and we
able to take some beautiful photographs without hoards of tourists blocking our
view.
A series of ponds with statue-fountains (not yet spraying)
stretched ahead of us and in the distance a long pink palace building formed a
backdrop to the garden. This was indeed a complex stretch of palace buildings
connected together and enhanced by a golden pagoda at each end.
We walked towards the palace buildings, enjoying the crisp
early morning air and stopped to take a closer look at the bronze fountain
statues. The craftsmanship was superb, the design and figures 'spoke' of power,
success and pride.
Arriving at the palace entrance doors we were staggered to find
that already hundreds of people were lined up in long queues, awaiting entrance
into the palace buildings. We had left at 7:30 am and expected that at least we
will be in the first group to enter the palace but alas we had to wait at least
40 minutes before we were able to enter but boy it was worth waiting for!
Behind us streams of new tourist groups started arriving every minute that we
were waiting to get inside and were grateful that we had made the effort to
leave early because their wait was going to be a lot longer than ours. Such is
the popularity of the Peterhof Estate.
The Grand Palace is extremely grand and lavish from the entrance
hall through every other room and there are many. The Entrance hall reminded us
a little of the Entrance Hall into The Hermitage, in St Petersburg, except that
we think that the Entrance hall in the Peterhof Estate use of gold flourishes
on the walls and ceiling borders is much more extensive and intense. We climbed
the Ceremonial dual Staircase which is made of white marble and is flanked by a
series of superbly crafted gold statues standing on pedestals. These steps led
us directly into an even more glittering-gold encrusted room, the Ballroom. Its
huge glass windows, chandeliers and mirrors reflected light onto all the gold
encrusted furnishings and wall decorations and the whole Ballroom became a
dazzling shimmering array of glitter. It all seemed "a little over
the top" if you ask me! But that's what the baroque architectural style
and decor demands and it does outshine Versailles by a tad. 
It was all very hard to take in, for
whereever we looked there was glittering gold. The gold wall embellishments
stretched up the walls and around the ceiling borders which surrounded a
wonderful ceiling painting of maidens dancing in the clouds - a mind boggling sight!
Again, as in The Winter Palace (now home of the Hermitage) the parquet
flooring patterns throughout the Peterhof palace are exquisite and unbelievably
well crafted by artisans whose skills have been lost to our generation, l'm
sure. 
Every room we entered in the palace, was lavishly decorated from
the furnishings to the gold of the mirrors, the furniture, the flooring and
even down the the detail of the ornaments in the rooms. Everything was
incredibly ostentatious. I will name some of the rooms that are included in the
blog, if I can remember them:
The Blue and Gold Morning Room with a dainty
coffee sit on the coffee table. - 
The Breakfast Room was incredible! Its gilded
furniture and heavily decorated doors framed in a heavy gold embellishment oozed
extravagent wealth. In contrast the simple table cloth with its floral
decorations was gentle and easy on the eye. As was the exquisite porcelain
dinner settings and the soft warm hues of the parquet flooring gave the room
warmth. Take time to study this room because we did and there is so much to
see.
But there's more!
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