Another day in Saint Petersburg. Today we went out to walk the Summer Garden, and to take a canal tour.
The Summer Garden (Ле́тний сад, Letniy sad) was originally designed by Tsar Peter himself in 1704. It was largely completed in 1719, but there have been many changes since, due to flooding (in 1777), an assasination attempt on the tsar Alexander II in 1866, and the Bolshevik Revolution to name but a few. All the original statues have gone, and others have been placed according to 19th century taste, but in spite of all this it remains one of the most romantic, evocative and beautiful places in St Petersburg. Alexander Pushkin chose the park as a setting for childhood walks of his fictional character Eugene Onegin.
The old orangerie is now a café
The statues & fountains are magnets for artists
Peter the Great's Summer Palace
nestles in the north-west corner, by the Neva
In 1854, a famous monument to the children's writer Ivan Krylov was opened in the park. It was the first monument to a poet erected in Eastern Europe.
The Summer Garden lived up to all its hype — a totally delightful place to while away a few hours.
The canal tour, on the other hand, didn't live up to expectations.
(Point 1) The 'canal cruise' took us onto the River Fontanka, one of the branches of the Neva — we never got onto an actual canal.
(Point 2) Once we got off the River Neva itself, all the buildings had a monotonous sameness. This might be of architectural interest to some, but there is nothing like the fascinating differences you see in the buildings surrounding the canals of Amsterdam!
We enjoyed the beginning of the cruise, but (Point 3) when the boat simply reversed on its course after passing under the Krasnoarmeyskiy (Red army) bridge and proceeded back the way it had come in, rather than the advertised route via the Kryukov, Moyka, and Winter canals back to the River Neva, we really couldn't wait to get off! Getting back to the picturesque River Neva was somewhat of a relief!
The people here get so little summer that they like to take full advantage of any that they get!
We left the cruise near the Admiralty, and walked the parklands near there and the Hermitage, before returning to the Metro and taking it to Nevskiy Prospekt station which comes up into — you guessed it! — Nevskiy Prospekt, the main avenue down the heart of Saint Petersburg. This is where all the best shops are, and where all the "beautiful people" hang out.
As we were coming in from the train, we had noticed a building with colonnades out the front — we came up right at this point. Needless to say, the building was full of jewellery and high-end fashion stores.
It was getting on towards dinner time, so we thought, "Why not?" We found a sign for a restaurant in a building over the road. Went in, and found that it was on the third floor, with little access but a lift. "How could they get any trade?" we thought. Well, we got upstairs, and the place was jumping! The place was called ГРИЛЬ#FACTORY (grill#factory). The waiters were mostly young and spunky men, and the patrons were mainly young and spunky women. Wonder if there's a correlation? But the food was great, the menu choices were wide and varied, and we have recommended the place to a few of our friends who will be passing this way!
And this is just about the end of our day. We caught the Metro back to the Hotel and settled in for the night (with Warren trying to catch up a little on the blog!).
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