Terrassa

Just back from fab, sixth-floor restaurant just off Nevsky Prospect by the Kazan Cathedral.  Recommended by a young couple we asked on the street.  Stunning views, great wine shop / cookie store.
www.terrassa.ru

Peterhof Fountains

Peterhof does fountains like nowhere else.  There's the Grand Cascade - a wondrously over-the-top, multi-level, golden-Samson-statue-featuring, escalator of water.  There are the Roman Fountains: two massive urns chucking out streams.  There's the Spruce Fountain, cunningly disguised as a tree.  There's the Umbrella Fountain, looking quite like an umbrella.  There's a golden nymph emptying a bucket.  There's the gorgeous hazy Sun Fountain.  There's the Checkerboard Fountain.  And there are the joke fountains.  We stopped by one of these, watching children run in and out of the arcs of water.  A smile on every face.  The jets seemed random, until we tried to sit down on a bench behind the fountain and a surly individual indicated his stick.  It seemed that he wanted the bench to himself.  Then we worked out that the stick controlled the fountain.  It wasn't random at all: this guy was watching the kids play and directing the spray.  With sunglasses, head-phones and a cigarette, he looked the most miserable person in the place.

The Grand Cascade

Me by the Sun Fountain

The Joke Fountain Dude

Peterhof

Fabulous day in Peterhof.  We took a Meteor hydrofoil across the Gulf of Finland - silver-steel-blue water - to Peter the Great's estate.  The view along the sea canal to the Great Palace and the Grand Cascade is stunning.  First we lunched on pancakes (Nick had red caviar on one of his) and then walked up the Grand Cascade, dazzled by the interplaying water jets, the golden statues, the view out to the blue bay.  The queue for the Palace was as long as for cabbages in the old days, so we went instead to Monplaisir, with yet more wondrous views out to sea.  It was here that Catherine heard about the coup against her husband - she hastened to Petersburg (one wonders how) and by nightfall was Empress of All The Russias.  The fountains are miraculous (more in later post).  Peterhof out-Versailles-es Versailles and out-Sans-Souci-es Sans Souci.  Unbelievable.

On the hydrofoil

Red caviar blin

Peterhof Grounds

Me by the Sun Fountain