Wordless Wednesday- Peterhof Palace, Russia.

The grounds of Peterhof Palace.

 

A fountain in the lower garden.

There are also trick fountains in various places that spray the unwary visitor if they step on a stone that triggers it. These children must have found the stone at this fountain and are using it to cool down.

Part of the gardens. Note yet another gold statue!

I forgot to resize the photos so hope they display properly.

I am joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for the blog hop.

Wordless Wednesday

 The red columns in St. Petersburg are called rostral columns. Since ancient times, and particularly Ancient Rome, architects used to “decorate” columns with trophies - the prows or rams of the defeated ships, which, in Latin, are called ‘rostrum’.

The more rostrums, the more enemies should be frightened to attack the navy. And more people would be proud of their country. 

Another famous example of the rostral column is the Columbus Monument at Columbus Circle in New York City. There are also rostral columns in French Bordeaux, on the place des Quinconces.

I am joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for the blog hop.

Wordless Wednesday - Peterhof Palace.

Peterhof Palace.

 

The Menager Fountain.

The Cascade.

You can see these and more photos from Peterhof Palace on my original post of our 2014 cruise.

Click here

I am joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for the blog hop.

Wordy Wednesday - St. Petersburg, Russia.

As we will never revisit Russia I thought I would do it with selected posts from our 2014 cruise.

The embankment on the Neva River with one of the pair of Sphinx in the background.

I hadn't realised how old the Sphinx were until I looked it up. I knew they had come from Egypt originally but was amazed to learn how old they were. This is what I read about them:

"The two magnificent sphinxes on Unversitetskaya Naberezhnaya (University Embankment), in front of the Academy of Fine Arts, are roughly 3,500 years old and are considered among the finest examples of Ancient Egyptian colossal sculpture kept outside Egypt. They once stood on the Alley of Sphinxes in front of the tomb of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. For nearly two centuries, however, it has been the waters of the River Neva rather than the Nile that reflect in their bottomless eyes."
"The sphinxes were discovered during excavations in the 1820s, and were soon written about by the great French Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion. At the beginning of the 1830s, they were bought in France on behalf of the Russian Emperor and shipped to St. Petersburg. Carved from pink granite, the sphinxes weigh around 23 tons each, and the great neo-classical architect Konstantin Ton designed their pedestals and the granite pier, with its bronze lamps and griffins."

One of the gryphons (griffins).

The English Embankment.

The Imperial Academy of Arts on the Academy Quay of the Neva River.

I am joining Sandee at comedy Plus for the blog hop.

(Not) Wordless Wednesday - St. Petersburg

 These photos are from the first time we visited Russia in 2014.

If you do your own thing in Russia you need to get a visa, not that many people would want to under the current conditions in that part of the world now! The ships tell you that you have to take their tours but that is not true. We booked with a registered Russian tour company and had eight in our group as opposed to ship tours with forty people.

St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral built in 1753.

We weren't allowed to take photos so I stood in the doorway with the flash turned off and hoped no-one would notice.

I took so many photos there so more will most likely be appearing here. I am glad I did though as we obviously will never return there.

I am joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for the blog hop.

Wordless Wednesday.

Our second and now obviously final visit in 2018 to St. Petersburg, Russia.

 The Lakhta Center is an 87-storey skyscraper built in the northwestern neighbourhood of Lakhta in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Standing 462 metres tall, it is the tallest building in Russia, the tallest building in Europe, and the sixteenth-tallest building in the world.

The second day we were there England were playing Croatia in the football World Cup semi finals (they lost!). We had been asked if we wanted tickets but declined, and looking at the huge queues I am very glad we did.

I am joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for the blog hop.

Baltics Cruise July/August 2014 Russia Pt. 5 The Hermitage 2.

I was originally going to do The Hermitage all in one post but as there are so many I decided to split it into two parts.
This post includes some of the huge amount of art. There is some blur and reflection as a lot of it is behind protective glass.

The Great Throne Room.

Catherine's Hanging Gardens which are at second floor height and link the north and south wings.

Well that is it from inside The Hermitage.
I still have more photos from St. Petersburg as well as some more places we visited on that cruise but I need to take a break from them and post some more recent trips we took in the UK first.

Baltics Cruise July/August 2014 Russia Pt. 5 The Hermitage 1.

It has taken a long time coming, but here are my photos of The Hermitage and there are a lot of them! There are so many that I think it is better to let the photos speak for themselves.