Five more cruise ships joined our ship in the docking sometime last night meaning the city will be very, very crowded! Luckily we arrived at Catherine's palace early enough to miss a big part of the masses. Our guide gave us some more history during our drive to Pushkin. Most of it was related to WWII and the destruction of parts of Russia by the Germans and the occupation or seige that St. Petersburg endured for three years during the war. So many people died from starvation and cold, so many places were bombed and so much of their history was stolen.
As we drove through St. Petersburg again, I realized it is becoming more westernized and urbanized. I saw KFC, Mc Donald's, Subway and Pizza Hut. They have modern trains, buses and subways along side ancient trolleys and trams. The Russian airforce was practicing formation flying over our heads. Most Russins live in highrise apartments, some new, lots of them old.
Catherine's Palace was started near a small church and then added on to many times. It has several small ponds and gardens, a small lake with several pavilions, a gallery, servants and ladies in waiting residences, and many other side buildings. It was bombed extensively so all we see today is the restored building and room with restoration efforts on going in many of the rooms. The exterior was completely restored in 1960 and the Amber Room was just completed 3 years ago.
Peter's wives loved the Baroque designes with lots of high ceilings, gold and mirrors, huge paintings and ornate parque floors. Later residents liked a more simple style so we get to see some of both. The Amber room had three walls completerly covered in amber stones with designs of crowns, picture frames, curlicues etc. No photographs were allowedin that one room. There are more than 100 rooms and we saw 18 of them. It was a very nice tour actually.
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