Russia Trip Report, Day 5: Peterhof

DAY 5, July 31, 2012:

DAY TRIP TO PETERHOF:

We took the metro from Ploshchad Vosstaniya to Baltisky at 8AM, crossed over to the railway station, Went to the Prigorodni Kassa and bought obratno (return) tickets to ‘NOVYJ PETERHOF’.

How to read the Russian train website:

On http://www.tutu.ru/spb/ it is easy to see the schedule of trains available from Petersburg to the destination of our choice. Though the site is in Russian, it is quite user friendly for a non Russian like me with just a rudimentary grasp of the cyrillic alphabet.

www.tutu.ru/spb/rasp.php…

is the link I got by putting in Новый Петергоф (NOVYJ PETERHOF’) in the arrival slot, 

I clicked in Санкт-Петербург for the 1st slot of departure---already available on the link… this has given me today’s available trains as you can notice by the date.. we can put in our real travel date of course in the 3rd slot when planning a journey. Schedules show some timings are pertinent to working days по рабочим and some are daily ежедневно. Note that there are no trains in this route from 10.30—13…

All available trains appear when I give the 2 inputs and when I click on the time I prefer, I get the schedule for that train…say,

www.tutu.ru/spb/view.php…

For our current trip to Peterhof, our options are trains to Oranienbaum 1 (Ораниенбаум 1), Kalische (Калище), Lebyazhye (Лебяжье) or straight to Novyj Peterhof ( Новый Петергоф). They wait at the platform and one can get in checking the destination. We had the schedule for all different destinations. The train to Oranienbaum 1 was waiting at the platform and we got in. We verified the stations from the schedules we had printed out and got out at the correct station...

Here we are...On the suburban train from Baltisky Vokzal to Peterhof 30km (19 miles) W of St. Petersburg...

There are trains to Oranienbaum 1 (Ораниенбаум 1), Kalische (Калище), Lebyazhye (Лебяжье) or straight to Novyj Peterhof ( Новый Петергоф). We took the 1st one and verified the stations from the schedules we had printed out from www. tutu.ru...

The train was very clean, had polished gleaming wooden seats, large windows and a few Russians commuting on their business … they sat quietly reading the newspaper while we excitedly read all the boards at the stations the train called …it was a matter of pride to see our printed schedule from the website matching the boards and our plan on paper translating into reality.

(A little note on the help we got from google chrome here-- I use http://translate.google.com/ and write in the name in English and get the Russian version when needed…. … also google chrome browser offers the translation service, so after getting the schedule, we get the Eng version also to check if we are reading the Russian version right--- but sometimes the English version translates the words leading to unintended comedy…we don’t need to know what a station’s name means in English—just need the real Russian name but the translate service does its job literally!!)

It was a short ride of 40 minutes through nice country side to reach our destination.... and our destination was the 10th station after Красные Зори– the English version by google translates to red dawn—not just the pronunciation we look for in this particular context .. 

Quite enterprising and smart of us to negotiate this trip on our own....the cost was just 42 rubles per return ticket. Most other tourists take the water buses from the pier in front of the winter palace and get charged 1000 rubles for one way trip...the return is discounted at 700 ruble. we didn’t mind the charge but these ferries start from Petersburg only after 9.

We reached the new Peterhof station before 9 am, Scanned the barcode of our train ticket in the electronic turnstile at the railway station and got out. There was no one on the road.

A marshrutka with big sign ‘ФОНТАНЫ’ which means ‘fountains’ came by and dropped a few people at the station. We got in but were told to get out and cross the road .

We took a bus that stopped on the square in front of the train station... 26 rubles per ticket... Numbers we could have got into are 350, 351, 352, 356. Fifth stop was ours – Peterhof Parks.

Entered the Upper Garden --a pretty baroque "formal garden" which separates the Grand Palace from the St. Petersburg-bound highway... as can be seen, the statues are in need of renovation

Peterhof is an Imperial estate, founded in 1710 by Peter the Great on the shore of the Gulf of Finland (Baltic Sea). It combines several ornate palaces, a number of beautifully landscaped parks and a dazzling array of magnificent statues and fountains, lending it the epithet "The Russian Versailles".

Upper Park(Верхний сад Verkhniĭ sad):

This area forms the land approach to the ensemble. Originally, the upper park was functional: vegetables were grown and ponds were stocked with fish for the royal kitchen

By the middle of the 18th century, however, it became more like a formal garden. The paths of the upper park are decorated with statues and arbored trellises.

The area was extensively damaged during the German occupation in the early 1940s., awesome job has been done at renovation... Visiting the upper park is free. Covers an area of 15 hectares..

We had the whole park almost to ourselves except for a few gardeners and the security guards....the reward for getting up at 5 am and boarding an early train...interestingly, there are no trains coming in this route from 10--12 am on weekdays.. so if one misses to board a train before 10, there will be a delay...

From the upper park we saw groups with guides getting into the Bolshoi Palace. had a rude shock when the officials said the palaces were closed for individuals on that day... talked to a German guide but she could not let us join her group. their tickets had already been bought

We went to the gate, bought tickets for the lower garden and decided to enjoy the fountains which are anyway the best feature of Peterhof.

Nowhere in our extensive research had it been mentioned that the palace will be closed for individuals on some days... we felt it was very unfair...we consoled ourselves that we could see better palaces on the coming 2 days...with this decision, we arrived at the lower park

Again had the whole gardens to ourselves, The fountains were to be ceremoniously started at 11am and we had a good one hour to enjoy the ambience..

The channel seen here is connected to the Gulf of Finland--the Baltic Sea

The weather was cloudy with a threat of rain but thankfully there were only very light drizzles thru the day. It was ideal weather for walking around...

Lower Park (Нижний парк--nizhni park):

Lower gardens is 2 miles long and about 1/2 mile wide with some 160 fountains and endless number of sculptures in it. hours of walking there to do justice.

Lower Parks were laid along the lines of the suburban residence of the French King Louis XIV at Versailles

Architectural-planning center of the complex is the Grand Palace . It stands on a 16-meter ledge ...in front is the two-kilometer narrow ribbon of Direct Line Sea Canal (Morskoi Kanal),from the Grand Palace to the Gulf of Finland bisecting the park into two almost equal parts: the eastern and western. On both sides spread large flower beds....

The Grand Cascade here is modelled on one in Louis XIV's Château de Marly, which is replicated in one of the park's outbuildings.

At the centre of the cascade is an artificial grotto with two stories, faced inside and out with hewn brown stone. It currently contains a modest museum of the fountains' history. One of the exhibits is a table carrying a bowl of (artificial) fruit, a replica of a similar table built under Peter's direction. The table is rigged with jets of water that soak visitors when they reach for the fruit, a feature from Mannerist gardens that remained popular in Germany. The grotto is connected to the palace above and behind by a hidden corridor

Before the ceremonial start of the centre fountains, we explored the east side and found the fountains there had started at 10am...

Huge crowd had gathered by 11am and the centre fountains were started one by one with music and fanfare...

Samson fountain:

In the 1730s, the large Samson Fountain was placed in this pool. It depicts the moment when Samson tears open the jaws of a lion, representing Russia's victory over Sweden in the Great Northern War, and is doubly symbolic. The lion is an element of the Swedish coat of arms, and one of the great victories of the war was won on St Samson's Day.

 From the lion's mouth shoots a 20-metre-high vertical jet of water, the highest in all of Peterhof. To make the jet rise as high as possible, a special wooden pipeline, over four kilometres long, was laid. In 1736 the whole work was completed and the fountain spurted a powerful water-jet ...This masterpiece by Mikhail Kozlovsky was looted by the invading Germans during the Second World War; A replica of the statue was installed in 1947

Models in old imperial costumes charge 100rubles for a pic with them...28rubles=1US$ (2012)...

Sun fountain.

A disk radiating water jets from its edge creates an image of the sun's rays, and the whole structure rotates about a vertical axis so that the direction in which the "sun" faces is constantly changing....This original and technically complex fountain is located next to the palace of Mon Plaisir.

In 1724 on the orders of Peter I this fountain was made with 12 jets arched around a central column of water rising to the surface of the water basin. The pedestal of the fountain is placed on a wheel driven by water. This turbine in turn rotates a pillar, on top of which there are disks with holes. water escaping from the jet is reminiscent of the divergent rays of the sun. ..

Sat here for 10 minutes till a guard came and said politely in accented English...I'm sorry, please stand!! ... not one bit rude as Russians are portrayed in all reports on the internet

Destroyed during World War II, the fountain was completely restored in 1957

There are some trick fountains...Two take the form of gangly trees rigged with jets that activate when someone approaches. ...Another, disguised as an umbrella with a circular bench set around the stem, drops a curtain of water from its rim when someone enters to take a seat....kids and adults have fun with these..

 

Had our packed lunch after getting soaked at the trick fountains...

On the territory of the Lower Park, which occupies 112.5 hectares, there are eight palaces and pavilions. In the eastern part of the park - the palace of "Mon Plaisir", Eastern and Western Aviary, museums, "Catherine Ward", "Bath building." In the western part of the park - the palace of "Marley," Pavilion "Hermitage" and the museum "The Imperial yacht.

 

Roamed around the grounds and enjoyed the 160 fountains and the greenery. 

Only annoyance was the fact they had only temp toilets which were stinking and so we could not use them. We got out in the evening when we were done with the gardens.

This is a beautiful church directly opposite the upper park entrance. After a visit inside, boarded a bus to the railway station and arrived at the same platform we had got off in the morning.

We figured we have to cross to the other side to go in the opposite direction back to ST Petersburg. Asked a Russian gentleman and he explained with very eloquent gestures in Russian that we had to go left, take a subway to cross to the other side. We did so, boarded the train back to Petersburg....

We went to our hotel, wore another layer as the day had been pretty cold and took a bus to river Fontanka ... ferries ply all day from there offering rides

Cruise on Neva River:

Enjoying an Evening boat ride on the Neva river... it was a pretty cold ride and in terms of beauty, Moscow boat ride did seem better.

A photographer had clicked us at the start and when we landed after an hour, he showed us 4 nice ceramic saucers painted with Petersburg landmarks which can be used as fridge magnets with our pictures in the middle. ... how clever of him.

We bought a copy as the pic has been well made ..Wound up a lovely day.

We made a day trip to the awesome Catherine Palace the next day:

http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2016/12/russia-trip-report-day-6-catherines.html