Peterhof

For our second excursion we went out to Peterhof.  Now I really didn't know what that was until Jessica said that she really wanted to go to it like the first day that we got here.  Then I heard that there were bunch of fountains and gardens.
To get there we got on the orange line of the metro and then transferred to the red line.  Between our adventure yesterday and our adventure today I think I like the red line metro stations the best.  I like the way that they look. The thing is though that the trains are smaller and so they are more crowded. After the metro the we went to get on a bus to go the 40-something kilometers to Peterof. The first van driver we saw really wanted us to get in his bus. He was very insistent.  We got in, paid our 70 rubles and then were on our way.
We ran into some traffic and so the driver decided to take a side road, which I really didn't know that they had those here in Russia.  I haven't been missing out though.  The road that we went on was really bumpy. I caught air a couple times because of the bumps. That was pretty fun.
Once we got there Peterhof was absolutely stunning.  There were so many fountains and gardens and trees and so much water. I really can't give words to describe Peterhof. Pictures are worth a thousand and will do better justice than words.  The really cool thing about Peterhof is that all of the fountains are nature-powered.  There are no pumps.  It was incredible.
Another incredible thing was that the only reason Peterhof looks like it does is because there has been restoration that has been done.  Back in WWII the German Nazis occupied Peteroff for 28 months and destroyed a lot of it before relinquishing power.

Of course there is a cathedral.  Though I believe it is used as a museum now.

Looking out to the Gulf of Finland

Looking back at Peterhof

"Warning: look after your belongings."

After we enjoyed our time there we got on a different bus and went back to St. Pete's.  We stopped by a mall and got some food.  I, for the first time since coming back to Russia, went to Macdonalds.  While I was doing that everybody else went to Teremok and got some blini. The we came back to the apartment and watched Arrested Developement and eat cake for Ty's birthday.