PetersBurgers
June 30th, 2016
We began the day by taking the hydrofoil to Peterhof, which is considered the Versailles of Russia. After a very stressful line of everyone pushing each other out of the way, we boarded the boat and made our way to the Peterhof. We took some time to walk the lower garden, which is absolutely stunning and explored the fountains which run using only gravity to power! The main fountain was massive and surrounded by gold statues and designs. As we walked the grounds, we also enjoyed watching the trick fountains that were made to splash visitors as they walked through the gardens. All the tours taking place were in Russian and we realized we would need to spend most of this trip looking up our own facts on the places we are visiting. Although a little disappointing, we are getting by thanks to Google!
The gravity powered fountains of the Peterhof Palace
When we got back to the St. Petersburg area we walked around the city a bit and made our way to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. This cathedral is probably the most common picture we had seen while planning this trip and seeing it in person made it clear why! The colors and structure were incredibly ornate and so different from anything we had ever seen. We were happy to learn we could take an audio tour in English and finally learn something new!
Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood
Interior ofChurch of the Savior on Spilled Bloo
The church was more colorful and ornate than most we had seen on our previous European adventure and it was interesting to hear about the materials that had to be used because of the extremely cold winters. We also learned that this is why the onion domes are so popular in Russia, so the snow falls of easier during winter and they won't collapse, and they represent candles burning. The church was built by 1907 to honor Alexander II in the exact spot he was assassinated, however we were surprised to learn that it wasn't until much later that it began to be used as a place of worship. The Communist party was not fond of religion and destroyed many churches so it was actually used as a morgue and storage for vegetables, which is why it required such significant renovations.
Next we walked through Mikhailovsky Garden, and enjoyed sitting on a bench recovering from all the walking we had completed so far! We decided to head over to Wave for dinner for the most authentic food we could find, burgers...Now we know it sounds crazy to get burgers in Russia, but they were delicious and the workers were so friendly! We tried their classic burger and a crab cake burger with a squid ink bun. Both were really good and the workers were asking for suggestions on how they could make them better and how they compared to American burgers. It was also interesting to hear all the questions they had about American burgers that we had never considered before.
Palace Square
After dinner we walked around the area a little more, making our way to Palace Square and enjoyed listening to all the musicians playing American cover songs. By the end of the day we had logged over 40,000 steps according to Anna's Fitbit...It was an exhausting, but great first full day in St. Petersburg!
