This morning we left the hotel at 9.10 AM, heading for the palaces and gardens of Peterhof, about 15 miles southwest of Saint Petersburg.

These gardens were laid out on the orders of Peter the great, and are sometimes referred to as the “Russian Versailles”. We tried to work out where the entrance was, which you would have thought would be simpler than it was. We wandered in through a gap in the hedge, and thought we might have got away with it, but then realized that the area we were in was free to enter.

We paid for entry into the lower gardens. There were an array of impressive fountains, acres of gold leaf and tourists taking photos of themselves. I found it very difficult to get a good picture of the grand cascade without anyone in it.

The gardens are also riddled with trick fountains, which spray passers by when they inadvertently trigger the mechanism. Some of them are simply on timers and come to life every half an hour or so. One really big one consists of two pipes running down either side of the main thoroughfare. It comes on every day at 1.00 PM, soaking up to 60 people at a time, and was hilarious to watch – we happened to be walking along the path but hadn’t quite reached the “wet zone” when everyone ahead of us suddenly got doused.

On the seafront at the bottom of the gardens a navy band was marching along playing and collecting donations, though what for I have no idea.

We took the hydrofoil back to Saint Petersburg at 2.00 PM, which deposited us in front of the Winter Palace. We walked around looking for a cash point, but failed and headed for the metro station. The metro station had a cash point so we got money, and headed for the nearby Kirov museum. Turns out to be closed on Thursdays. Everything here seems to close on odd days of the week.

We wandered around the Saint Peter and Paul fortress, but found little to interest us, so ended up visiting Saint Isaac’s instead. We climbed to the colonnade, for which I was issued a ticket as a student – despite my protestations the woman seemed uninterested in charging me the full fare. 232 steps later we had an excellent view of all of Saint Petersburg. We took a few photos and enjoyed the view, then walked down taking our time, and ended up leaving after closing time.

Having met up with the rest of the group, we all went to dinner at a pizzeria.