Catherine Palace

I have it cued to start at 2:05:00, when Sergey walks in the snow towards Catherine Palace.  This palace was a gift Peter the Great gave to his wife Catherine I (not to be mistaken with Catherine the Great).  It's 300 meters in length (almost three football fields) and has a room (the Amber Room) that is valued at more than $200 million.  When the Germans were advancing on the Soviet Union during WW2, they occupied Catherine Palace and used it as headquarters.  Later, when they were having to retreat, the Germans boxed and shipped back the amber panels, which were never found after the war.  They also ransacked and destroyed much of the palace.  After the war, the Soviets rebuilt the palace exactly as it was before, including the Amber Room. The palace is about 30 minutes south of St. Petersburg, and was used as a summer residence for the czars from 1700 to 1917.  - an e-mail I shared on February 1, 2021

Remarks friends made about the video:

*Quite a pad. I was telling my students of my train trip to Russia yesterday.

*It's a long journey.  I would want to stop at a few of the cities/towns along the way.  If you a week of that to the week on the train, plus a week minimum in covering ground in St. Petersburg and Moscow, that's three weeks there.  I would say a month then, to do it right.  Can you imagine arriving in Beijing on the Trans-Mongolian, only to have no time for the sights?   If I can't do close to a month, likely won't attempt it.    

Click here for aerial images of Catherine Palace.