Thursday 07 September 2017

Peterhoff Palace and Park

Almaz-Antei factory in daylight.

Approaching Peterhoff Palace.

Outside the palace to see the magnificent ornate fountains - note the hundreds of visitors under umbrellas
and the long canal to the small harbour on the Gulf of Finland.

The cascading fountains.

For a small fee, you could have your photograph taken with these two courtiers.

Looking back to the palace from the canal.

The small harbour on the Gulf of Finland.

In the grounds.

One last look at the fountains - before departing.

St Petersburg from the water.

Front facade of the Church of the Spilled Blood.

Inside the church.

You could get a pain in the neck looking at all these murals.

Canopy over the site of Alexander II's mortal wounding.

Is this where Donad Trump gets the 'finger and thumb' thing???

Icon screen.

Back outside for a walk around the church - half expecting James Bond in a T80 tank to come crashing out of the building on the right.

Side facade.

North face.

Remember that Russian wedding party thing? - now combined with attaching padlocks to railings.

Wedding limo.

St Petersburg by Water.

Ready to board our tour boats - 'Millenium' on the left - and our boat 'Corsica' outboard.

This guy was waving to us as we went under the first bridge and we thought he was just overly friendly.

But then he ran along the canal bank to each bridge in turn - and waved. I suppose he enjoyed it?

Our tour guide - Sasha - told us to ignore him.

Here he is again - at the next bridge!!

Mikhailovsky's Castle - also called the Engineer's Castle.

At this point - unnoticed by me - my camera decided to go into monochrome mode - so the next few photos are in black-and-white!

Our arm waver made it to the next bridge in time to direct us to the left...