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The floors were all of intricate parquet wood mosaic as seen here
to the right.
We had to wear protective plastic booties over our shoes to prevent
damage to the floors.
The Nazis had done an astonishing amount of damage to everything
not removable, but restoration has been made in most areas.
One room that was still under reconstruction was the fabulous
"Amber Room" shown here to the left.
The walls were literally
As in many of the other rooms, there were elaborate paintings on
the ceiling in huge panels also sometimes in smaller ovals
at the corners.
The room to the right here is the "Green Pilaster" room.
The wall covering between pilasters is silk brocade.
In some rooms, the silk brocade of the wall coverings would
be repeated in the upholstery of the rich ornate chairs.
Several rooms had awesome wood desks like the one shown here.
There were so many rooms, each as spectacular as the last,
that I lost count of them all.
It was dazzling.
Another major highlight was Peterhoff, the country estate of Peter the Great.
What seems like a horizontal line in the photo to the left is actually
the Grand Palace.
The grounds around the Palace are extensive and
At the top of the picture are gardens that are said to resemble those in Versailles, France.
At the bottom of the picture are the "Lower Gardens" with
their stunning fountains.
The canal from the "Great Cascade" waterfall runs all the way
to the shore of the Gulf of Finland.
The "Great Cascade", shown below is the first, and most spectacular fountain that you see in front of the Grand Palace is the "Great Cascade". It's absolutely breathtaking!! Water spills down a double set of cascades that slope down from the Palace. Gold figurines all around the cascades are spouting water everywhere. Gold fish and frogs are perched everywhere, adding their water spouts to the overall phenomenon.
I also took a tour of the Grand Palace while we were there. Although Peteroff is famous for its fountains, a tour of the interior of the Grand Palace is worth every effort. It's as stunning as the palace of Catherine the Great.
Once we got inside the Palace though, I was awed yet again.
It's hard to keep coming up with superlative phrases, but seeing this
palace was well worth any rush and inconvenience.
Rastrelli was the
Italian architect that created many of the rooms in the Palace. He was a master!!
The Grand Staircase had pure white walls adorned with gold baroque and
gold statues in a dazzling array.
The ceiling was a massive painting.
The Ball Room was a similar style but the walls were covered with
gold candle sconces and there were massive gold trimmed windows
everywhere.
All of the rooms had fabulous wooden parquet floors.
Again, we wore protective booties.
We soon forgot how rediculous we looked when we started seeing the rooms.
This was actually the best tour we had because there were only 11 of
us - all from our Thunder Bay group.
The Throne Room was also designed by the Italian architect Rastrelli.
This time there was no elaborate ceiling painting, but several stunning
cut glass chandeliers. The hanging glass crystal were cut to resemble oak
leaves and were of a distinctive mauve hue, achieved by magnesium
impregnation. The walls were ornamented with white stuccoed sculptures
and the dazzling array of windows were set off with rich red valances.
The tour of the palace was over all too soon, and yet it would have been very hard to absorb more. Each individual room was breathtaking so to see all of them in one go was an incredible experience. It was a dazzling highlight to the Russian trip.