Russia! ~ McC Ab Test

We drove from Delft straight to Schipol (Amsterdam) Airport where we successfully linked up with Linda and Kevin at the departure gate for Saint Petersburg. They had just come from Dublin. Flying to Russia turned out to be pretty much like flying to anywhere else - including the risk of losing your bags!

Kevin and Linda's bags did not emerge from the system in St Petersburg. A four-hour wait in a queue followed, and still no bags. They had even been told to check their carry-on bags because the plane was very full, so they have almost nothing with them! Not a happy start.

Waiting in vain for those bags at St Petersburg.

St Petersburg has canals too! Nowhere near as many as Amsterdam, but it is still quite watery.

Saint Petersburg was raised out of a miserable swamp where the Neva River flows into the Baltic sea, constructed by thousands of serf labourers and prisoners of war. Peter the Great took the area from Sweden during the Great Northern War, and founded the city about 1700. He badly wanted a port for Russia on the Baltic Sea, and built the city along European lines as a showcase to portray Russia as a modern European country. Tens of thousands died during its construction due to the harsh working conditions and climate. It was the capital of Russia until that role was transferred to Moscow during World War I.

A glimpse of the Winter Palace and Palace Square.

We shared Palace Square with thousands of red-shirted marathon runners. Another beautiful weather day.

Our first outing was to Peterhof, across the Gulf of Finland. This fast hydrofoil took us there.

Peterhof Palace was built in the 1700's for Tsar Peter the Great, as his response to Versailles Palace in France. In 1700 this part of Russia was part of the Kingdom of Sweden, which was much larger than modern Sweden. Peter the Great succeeded in taking this land from Sweden, and then set about creating the city of St Petersburg, giving Russia a port on the Baltic Sea and sea access to Europe.