Happy birthday Nathan!! The first day of spring in Australia and presumably the first day of autumn in Russia. We are certain, however, that today in Russia is the Day of Knowledge, which marks the first day of the school year – and one of many Russian national days (tomorrow is a particularly exciting day – it is the Day of the Russian Guard, Day of Workers of Oil and Gas Industry, Day of Workers of Fuel Industry and PPS Police Service Day). Sue, Jen and Steve set off on a day-long bus tour to St Catherine’s Palace, however we elected to stay a bit closer to home and headed off on foot along the banks of the Fontanka Canal, passing the Temple Simeon, to the Summer Garden, adjacent to Peter the Great’s summer palace. The lush green gardens, which extend for a few hundred metres, comprise a series of green corridors interspersed with fountains and statues. All very beautiful and relaxing.
We then walked the short distance to the Summer Palace, a compact square building, tiny in comparison to the Winter Palace. Peter the Great built this in 1711 as a residence for the royal family during the warmer months from April to October. It was a less formal lifestyle there; Peter rose at 4am each day, caught up with the royal news then spent a couple of hours working at his shipyard before having a sleep and perhaps doing a bit of informal entertaining in the evening. We were obliged to take a guided tour of the palace, entirely in Russian however we had a (brief) English printed guide to follow so at least we knew what each room was for.
From there we walked to the Church if St Panteleimon, passing a car that apparently had not escaped the graffiti brush then, after stopping for a light lunch, we continued to the Temple Simeon, a beautiful church with wonderful frescoed walls and much gilt. Next we boarded a canal cruise boat and saw St Petersburg from another perspective, travelling along Fontanka and Moinka Canals and venturing out onto the wide Neva River, where we competed with scores of other boats to be first back into the canal (at one point we could count seventeen boats ahead of us). After the cruise we headed back towards home, pausing at the Kuznechny fresh food market and the adjacent statue of Doestovsky. Then back to our apartment. Tomorrow we leave this grand city and board the train for Helsinki.
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