On 12th June we travelled on the metro to Pushkin via Kuchino metro station and Pushkin by bus, which we didn’t pay for because we didn’t have the necessary card. The driver waved us onto the bus for the journey of 17 kms. Reaching Catherine Palace, the summer palace of the Tsars, we had a shock at the entrance price at £25 each, and we weren’t allowed into the palace until 13.30, so we spent 2 pleasant hours walking round the beautiful grounds. June 12th was Russia Day, a national holiday, and it seemed that the 5 million inhabitants of St Petes were all at Catherine Palace. On entering the palace, we were swept up in a crush of people along a predetermined route trough the staggeringly beautiful palace, covered in tons of gilt and gold plate. It was destroyed by the Germans in 1944 and rebuilt at eye-watering cost. The world-famous Amber Room lived up to expectations.
Russia Day meant that there wasn’t a single hotel room available in Pushkin or St Petersburg so we returned to Moskovskii Station and booked tickets on the Sapsan express train to Moscow.
The Amber Room
The palace after the Germans left
Unexploded bomb
Busker