19 September

Today on land – different after the days spent on the river.
After being told breakfast started at 0800, I prepared (but had to wait for the hot water – and wait and wait) and was down at precisely 0800 to find that the breakfast room was full to overcrowding already. After a look around I was mortified to find no toaster, so I had to settle for butter and Vegemite on raw toast (with sausages and eggs, but NO cornflakes or orange juice). I’m acclimatising to black tea (but only with sugar) but I’m not a fan. I’ll be back with milk and no sugar as soon as possible.
After breakfast I went back to the room and got ready to go out. I took some time to find the Metro station as the scale on the maps is not too good, and I went too far and had to turn back. Once on the Metro it was a quick run, but very crowded, out to the Avtovo Metro station where I caught a 424 bus out to the Peterhof. After false starts I got off and couldn’t see anything. When I found the gate and walked in – well, every corner held new surprises. The size and magnificence of the public gardens was great, but in the palace gardens – if I had any breath left after seeing all the things around St Petersburg, it had finally gone. I haven’t seen Versailles, but it will have to be out of this world to top what I saw today.
Apart from a few details like gold and statues, the amount of water was something I haven’t seen (at home at least) in years. I really can’t describe it all, expect to say after nearly three hours I couldn’t walk any more and my mind was exhausted from conjuring up superlatives to describe what I saw. Look at the photos from Russia 1 Day 14 to get an idea.
I caught the 424A bus back to the Metro and then left the Metro to check on access for the Moscow station on Saturday night (I leave at 2355, but will camp out earlier). That was okay, but quite a few steps, and then I walked around the area outside the station. With a few minutes I was footsore again (pampered from being on tours and the ship) so caught the Metro back to the hotel. I processed the photos from today and uploaded them (well, they are uploading at this time and I hope they continue), got some goodies from the corner supermarket for tea and then returned to write my blogs and post them. Then it’s off to sleep!