Peter, Paul and the Hof

Day 71 – August 3rd

The hostel must of got my subtle hint on the lack of breakfast the day earlier as breakfast miraculously appeared the next morning. After a quick bite to eat and shower, we packed our gear and checked out of the hostel. 

We had booked an overnight train to Moscow in the evening (leaving at 10:55pm) so we still had another full day in St Petersburg. Not wanting to drag our suitcases around with us, we headed to the train station and stored them for the rest of the afternoon. 

A little lighter, we then headed to the Peter and Paul Fortress – another of St Petersburg’s most famous attractions. The fort was built by Peter the Great in 1703 and established to protect the city from attacks by the Swedish during the Northern War.

Outside the Peter & Paul Fortress Gate.
The double headed eagle coat of arms in the background
weighs more than 2 tonnes and is made out of lead.

SS Peter and Paul Cathedral.
Burial site of all the Russian Tsars.

The fortress housed the Peter and Paul Cathedral, which is also the burial place of all Russian Tsars and the last Tsar Nicholas II who was actually buried here 80 years after his death with his wife, his son, his four daughters, the family's medical doctor, the Emperor's footman, the Empress' maidservant, and the family's cook as they were all killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.  

Another extremely ornate ceiling and chandelier inside the SS Peter & Paul Fortress.

Also a feature of the fortress was the prison, which had some fairly famous inmates including Peter the Greats own son Alexei, the writer Nikolai Chernyshevsky and Vladimir Lenin's elder brother Alexander. We did a tour through the upper and lower cells of the prison and being an inmate (before trial) actually sounded quite comfortable, although I’m sure the descriptions were made to make the Russians look more humane in their treatment of prisoners. 

Our hostel in St Petersburg...oh no sorry this
was one of the prison cells at the fortress.

A couple of city buses converted into toilets.
I guess this is what the Russians do with their large buses.

Our final stop in the fortress for the day was the space museum, which gave a detailed overview of Russia’s input to rocket and space exploration over the past 60 or so years. Many of the exhibits were very interesting although there was a limited amount of English on these and I can only think that this is probably due to Russia’s paranoia about giving secrets away and having the USA pip them again. 

Suited up ready for the Moon.

Replica of rockets from Apollo 11.

Original cosmoneaughts suit.

How do you go to the toilet in these things?

Following our fortress visit we still had plenty of time up our sleeve so decided to make a trip out to a palace called Peterhof, which was about 25km out of town. We had noticed many people on the street selling organized tours out to the palace, however, decided to do our own tour by navigating the metro and a local bus out to Peterhof.

This turned out to be the right move as the metro was already included in our ‘Smart Cards’ and the mini-bus from outside the metro to Peterhof was only 140 Ruble (less than £3). Had we taken an organized tour or the ferry over, it would have been more like £40 and we would have missed travelling with the locals.

Front yard at Peterhof Palace.

Peterhof itself was built by Peter the Great (surprise…surprise) and modeled off the Palace of Versailles after a visit he made there. The major feature of the palace was the lower garden and Grand Cascade, which sported a huge number of fountains and gold statues to commerate the Russians victory over the Swedes in the Northern War. Nothing like building a massive palace and fountain to stick it up the loser is there. 

The back yard at Peterhof Palace. No room for cricket though.

By the time we arrived at the palace the interior had closed and we managed to see the ‘closing ceremony’ for the fountain, which featured the water going slightly higher than normal to the tune of some Russian operatic singer. For those of you that have seen the Bellagio Hotel in Vegas and it’s fountain show – Peterhof is not a patch on this. At the end of the show, they pretty much shut off the fountains and turn off the cascading water to give visitors a bit of a nudge in leaving the grounds.

Claire and I at the Grande Cascade before they switched it off.

Just one of the many gold statues in the Lower Garden.

Looking down the Grande Cascade towards the sea.

At first I thought this sign was warning you of people
touching your arse while taking photos.

The fountains all turned off, so time to go home. 

With the fountains no longer performing, we made our way back out to the bus station to catch one of the many mini-buses that were ferrying passengers back to the metro. For some reason in Russia they don’t tend to have the larger scale buses but prefer to run a whole bunch of mini-buses that seat about 25 people. 

Again we didn’t pay when we got on, however, on this occasion people started digging into their pockets for loose change and notes and then passing them forward to the driver. After a bit of shouting, the person that sent the money up would eventually get their ticket and hopefully some change back.

Not having anything smaller than a 500, we decided not to risk passing this off to a bunch of strangers on a crowded bus. This was a wise decision as there was a bit of an argument between one passenger next to us and the driver about the fact that he didn’t get his change or ticket I would assume. 

With all the travel on sweaty trains and buses we had worked up quite a thirst and decided to stop for a beer just near the statue of The Bronze Horseman. It was a very pleasant evening with the sun gradually setting over a hot St Petersburg. The drinks didn’t last too long, as I managed to spill half a pint over myself – I guess I was that excited for a beer. 

We did a quick stop by The Bronze Horseman and then dropped by Isaacs Cathedral, before making our way towards the train station. Not wanting to venture too far from the station, we decided to eat at our favourite restaurant yet again – this time devouring a huge plate of chicken and pilau rice. I think the lady behind the canteen had now recognised us as loyal customers and gave an extra serving. 

Evening stroll past The Bronze Horseman.

Isaacs Cathedral.

By the time we had finished it was 9:30pm and we headed off to board our overnight train to Moscow. Before getting on we grabbed a couple of drinks, as it was still hot and the train itself was roasting so needed something to cool down.

When booking the tickets, we managed to get a 1^st class cabin for roughly the price of 2^nd class meaning we had a room to ourselves. In the end this was a real bonus, as the train was super hot and sharing a cabin with two other people wouldn’t have been the most comfortable of journey's. 

Once we had got ourselves setup, I ventured off to use the bathroom quickly. Not being that familiar with the do’s and don’ts of train travel I didn’t realize that you shouldn’t use the toilet for number ones (or twos) while still at the station, as it empties directly on to the track. Unfortunately for me the attendant was waiting right outside the toilet compartment on the platform and could hear and see everything, which got her a little riled up and I got a firm telling off in Russian when exiting the toilet.

Tucked in for the night bound for Moscow.

After the little toilet debacle the train lurched away and started it’s journey towards Moscow. When booking our tickets, the description had mentioned air conditioning, however, I think it was on the blink as it didn’t seem to be operating and the staff had opened up all the external windows in a vain attempt to cool things down. 

As we left the Moscow city limits and entered the country areas, things got a lot cooler and Claire and I both managed to fall asleep to the gently rocking of the train.