St Petersburg Russia

Day six afternoon, we went to the Peterhoff palace to see the fountains. There are two sets of fountains, those in the upper gardens that are run in the morning and those in the lower gardens that run in the afternoon. These are a selection of some of the foutains in the lower gardens followed by photos taken as the afternoon went on and finally as we departed St. Petersburg for Estonia.

Left & Right :- Wacky Races. Because Of The Narrow Channel All Shipping Must Navigate To Enter St. Petersburg Harbour The Commercial Ships Entering The Channel Seem To Race To Get Pole Position. Even In Thick Fog They Rely On Radar To Overtake Each Other In The Bid To Get There First.

The Clocks Go Back An Hour During The Night.

To the right,:- The new dock gates. No one said anything of these, but after reading that St.Petersburg suffers flooding on a quite regular scale it appears that they have built a damn nearly right accross the mouth of the river & have only left a small channel across the river beside these new gates. Once completed I should think work will continue to complete the damn across the remaining gap.

The Peterhoff fountains are run from harnessed natural water pressure, this is obtained by storing the water in lakes on higher ground. This water is released to allow the fountains in the higher gardens to work then collected and stored to give pressure to the lower fountains during the afternoon.

The gardens spread over quite an area to the edge of the Baltic Sea. The 150 fountains and 4 cascades have been regarded as unforgettable throughout its history.

Above Left :- A View Of The Palace In The Distance From Where The Hydrofoils Sail To St. Petersburg, This Is At The End Of The Canal That Runs From The Front Of The Palace. Centre :- The Kirov Stadium In The Fog Taken From The Hydrofoil As We Speed To St. Petersburg. Right :- As We Set Sail From St. Petersburg At 17:57 We Passed The Old Naval Shipyard That Was One Of The Russians Main Naval Bases During The Cold War Era..

Above Left :- Euginia Our Tour Guide For The Afternoon Standing On One Of The "Mystical"Fountains, Not Activated By Any Of The Pebbles Being Stood On, But By An Ordinary Looking Chap Sitting On A Bench Just Out Of View Working A Valve. The Other Two Photo's Showing Two Views Through The Window Of The Palace Summer House.

Below:- As We Leave The Long St. Petersburg Channel That Leads Into The Baltic The Fog Came Down. The Sea Again Was Very Calm, Almost Pond Like And With The Fading Sun A Few Photo's.

Above & Below Left :- Some More Views Of The Old Naval Shipyard, Now Naked Of Any Of The Large Russian Navy Ships That Once Moored Here.