Up and off early today for a trip out to Pushkin to see the Summer Palace. This was originally a small house where the Tzar and family went in summer but it was pulled down by Catherine 1sts daughter, Elizabeth and rebuilt in 4 years in a European baroque style in the mid 1700s.

The gardens in front of the palace were lovely, laid out in the French style with long avenues of trees. The gardens to the side were English style, with naturalised trees and grass areas. There were several buildings in the grounds. It sounded like whenever Elizabeth had an event on, she built another dining room often out in the grounds and there was a separate kitchen, where things were prepared and then had to be transported to whichever dining room was in use at the time

The palace itself was like nothing I’ve seen before, bling in the extreme, quite amazing but also quite gross.

Lunch back on the boat then a walking tour of the city in the afternoon.

Got a bus to the nearest Metro station which was proletariat station and caught the metro into the centre at Gorsky Dana. Walked along Nevsky Prospect which is the Main Street of St P and runs from the Admiralty building out to the Nevsky Monastery and thus was planned to join the Sea and Naval force with the church and Godly force in Peter the Greats day.

After dinner, we were treated to a Cossack song and dance show in a marquee on the pier. This was fun, a lot of raucous singing, a band with a couple of balalaikas, two accordions and a percussionist. The girls did a lot of twirling and stamping feet and the men did some very acrobatic dances, including sword play and kicking legs.