Despite spending hours on our feet the previous day, we set off to spend the day at the summer palac

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We last left off at the conclusion of the first few days in Saint Petersburg. new york city tours Many years ago my parents studied at St. Peter as two very young adults (teenagers maybe?) and they were both eager to see how the city of gold changed since. My dad is also an avid lover of sight-seeing, so we all knew we were in for hours upon hours of walking and exploring.
The Hermitage is huge . One of the tour guides mentioned that if you spent 1 minute looking at every painting/statue/sight, it would take you 11 years to get through the entire museum. Insanity! Even with a map we got lost multiple times.
new york city tours We spent an hour walking through the church/museum appreciating the incredible restoration that took place there. Our tour guide was Russian new york city tours and spoke quickly, so I didn t quite capture all the details/history (I still speak and understand Russian quite well though). And thus concludes our touristy day!
Despite spending hours on our feet the previous day, we set off to spend the day at the summer palace of the Tsars Peterhof (sometimes known as Petergof). Two words come to mind when describing this golden and lusciously green palace sheer beauty.
The interior was even more ornate than the Hermitage. Gold gold gold everywhere! During the German invasion, the entire palace was burned to its core. The soldiers stripped the palace rooms of their treasures. It took many years to restore Peterhof, but the final results are breathtaking.
It was a busy day but one that will remain in my memories forever. I spent much of the day feeling immensely new york city tours proud of my Russian roots. My country is beautiful and resilient, and my heart swells with joy.
Thanks to our sore feet and aching muscles, we unanimously decided to take it easy the next day and visit local churches/sights. We had two goals to accomplish that day: visit the small gold diamond museum in the Hermitage and go to the top of St. Isaac s Cathedral.
Funny story we (read: new york city tours I) thought new york city tours our mom had already gone back down and so we followed suite. After waiting for 30 minutes (we weren t allowed to go back up), the people had to make an announcement to everyone searching for my mom. Ha! A good end to the night nonetheless.
By the time the second-to-last day in Saint Petersburg rolled around, we were absolutely exhausted. However, my dad insisted on seeing one last site the Amber Room at Catherine Palace. My sister felt congested and decided to skip out on the hour-long commute to the palace, but the ladies of the family did partake in a quick bus tour of the city beforehand. It was nice not walking around for once. The comforts of the bus were a good break for my feet! The tour did have a few stops at noteworthy sites such as this Bolshevik ship:
The Amber Room aka my dad s dream was stunning! No photos/videos were permitted new york city tours though A quick history: the Amber Room is literally a room whose walls are made with real amber. During the war, the amber panels new york city tours were all stolen, never to be seen again. Eventually, the room was restored based on old blueprints and photos. The original wall panels have yet to be found their disappearance is still a mystery!
And so the first week of our vacation came to a close as quickly as it started. I walked along historic paths, visited ancient buildings, and experienced Saint Petersburg through the eyes of a true Russian. It was time to put the touristy part of our vacation to rest and continue on to friends and family.
I adore your photos! My study abroad group is traveling to St. Petersburg in October for a long weekend! I seriously cannot wait!! What do you recommend we see? We will be there for 3 days I believe, new york city tours which is not enough time to really see such an amazing city
I m so excited for you to visit there! I would recommend seeing the Hermitage, Peterhof, St. Isaac s Cathedral, and plenty new york city tours of restaurants! The food there is pricey new york city tours but delicious But definitely make time to visit the Hermitage and Peterhof, you will not regret it!
Thanks for sharing these amazing pictures! St Petersburg looks wonderful I never made it there and it s one of the top places I want to visit someday. A big part of that is to visit the Hermitage. I had no idea that the paintings/sculptures/etc were spread out through what still really looks like a palace! (In contrast to, say, the Louvre, which really looks more like a museum/gallery.) The eleven years statistic is CRAZY. What an incredible place.
I really do you hope you get the chance to visit this stunning city. It s breathtaking! The Hermitage and Peterhof (especially Peterhof) were my favorite places to explore. I ve been to the Louvre and actually liked the Hermitage more. It was filled with variety and all that gold was kind to the eyes
That is just awesome that you still speak and understand Russian well. It is so, so, so valuable to maintain your mother tongue so I envy that! I spoke Chinese at home when I was growing up, and while I can still understand it fairly well I have a very difficult time speaking it now. Sigh!
Awww thanks I m so glad you like the photos! As I said before you MUST go back and see this beauty again for yourself! I completely agree these days it s great to be bilingual and it s one of the main reasons I worked to never forget the language. I m sure that if you ever wanted to re-learn Chinese you would be able to learn it very quickly!