Pushkin, the Summer Palace, Catherine's Palace (all the same place)

 On to Pushkin and the Summer Palace, or as our tour guide kept referring to it as “Catherine’s Palace”.  I had always seen this place as Tsarkae Selo or such, but she states that this used to mean “Czar’s village” and of course that is something they don’t use anymore.  I mean, if 

you're going to rename a village Pushkin is a good go since he attended school here and is the most beloved poet of Russia probably.  Anyway, I have always wanted to see this place because the rooms were made of precious stones.  I could 

 have sworn that there was a malachite room, a lapis room, and an  amber room, but now there is only the amber room.  And this room had to be recreated in the last 15 years because the original amber room panels for the walls are missing 

since WWII and presumed to be in Germany or something.  Now, you can’t take  pictures in the amber room, but the entire thing is made of amber, with wall panels that have different colors of amber in the imperial symbol, frames of pictures, etc.  You can’t take

  pictures of the amber room, but this palace’s interior was as rich as Peterhof’s was lacking.  If you combined the outside of Peterhof with the buildings and interior of the Summer Palace, you would have Versailles.  It was stunning, but very reproduced.  I guess the French 

left their palaces intact in a “civil” revolution that only beheaded their royalty.  As you can see in some of the pictures, they were setting up for a wedding and unfortunately, our tour guide didn't know how much it would cost to have 

 a wedding in the Summer Palace, but we believe that it would be high.  Our little tour group didn't take up much space in this grand ballroom which John remembers saying that he would make into a hockey rink last time he was here.

 Even with all the fabulous art, rooms, and decoration, I was enamored of the parquet wood floors which were spectacular.  Too bad that dad moved to Florida, or I could see what his next project in the house could be.

 Anyway, a very good two stops and we were able to make special requests for these tours like going to the siege memorial.