There is a certain "pinch me" factor when you find yourself having silver service breakfast in front of huge picture windows framing a view of The Kremlin across the street.
It is a magnificent building in its own right but together with St Basil's and very wide boulevards lined with the Bolshoi Ballet building, the ex-KGB headquarters and various other examples of fine 18th and 19th Century architecture.....Moscow is an impressive city indeed. It is named after the Moskva River, which it straddles, and has been a settlement located on an ancient trading route since before Roman times. But what strikes you is that there are no skyscrapers in the centre of town, the CBD. There are large, impressive, multi storey buildings but they don't form the "canyons" which block the light and view of many modern cities like Sydney or New York.
Our first day's sightseeing was spent in a van and on foot as we attempted to take in the ambitious list of "must sees" without actually breaking into a trot. Apart from the sights themselves, we were regaled with information and historical facts by Kata, our guide, until some of us were crying out for mercy.........in a nice way. Actually I think all of us discovered "our limits" in terms of the amount of information that can be absorbed, let alone retained by mere mortals in a day.
On our travels around the city we found that the Russian people have a religious dimension at the core of their history and culture. Even though, Kata told us that only about ten to twenty percent of Russians regularly practise their religion, and that religion was actively discouraged for most of last century by the government in power, it is impossible not to be impressed by the way the churches and religious sites were protected in secret and have since been restored and rebuilt, in many cases solely with private funds. Small and large churches with their onion or ancient helmet shaped domes are common around the city and other precincts.
The Moscow Cathedral rebuilt nearby the Kremlin after the original was destroyed
We visited and saw many places and points of interest ( including a huge famous food store from the 1920's nicknamed "The Place of Gluttoney")
....but three hugely impressive sites for me were:-
1) Red Square and The Kremlin. As a boy of the 1950's this place was the epicentre of the Soviet Union and never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever be standing right smack in the middle of it, (standing where the parades of Soviet military might passed in front of Kruschev, Brezhnev and Stalin ....taking the salute) and looking straight at Lenin's tomb....amazing.
The Russian Museum of History at the opposite end of Red Square to St Basil's.
Lenin's tomb. Only open at certain times.
2) St Basil's Cathedral. The iconic, multi-coloured, onion-domed icon of Moscow.
It is actually eight small, narrow, tall churches clustered around a central one.
3) The famous 1930's Art Deco metro stations, with their unique style of mosaics, sculptures, marble and chandeliers. There are over forty of these with different themes for each station and used just as we use Central and Town Hall in Sydney these days.
Mosaic tiles on the domed roof....dozens of these lining the length of the platform.
Our second sightseeing day centred around the Kremlin and continued at the pace we had experienced the day before. Kata's stamina and grasp of historical facts about just about everything Russian was impressive...astounding really. A Kremlin is the centre of any major Russian town in old times, the fortified part to protect the populace in times of war...but this is "The Kremlin", the seat of Sovie power for much of last century and still the seat of Russian government today. There are a number of churches and chapels where the Czars and their families worshipped and where most of the royals are interred in crypts and we explored the main areas within the walls (six to nine metres thick in some places) keeping strictly to the path and the crossings...no wandering off!
The largest canon in the world at the time....never fired in anger
We saw where their legislature meets and where the President is sworn in,
Canons confiscated from Napoleon after he was defeated in 1814. The 1812 invasion by Napoleon figures very highly in Russia's history and psyche.
....but that was all leading to The Armoury Museum the home of thousands of relics and artefacts and valuable items from about the 10th Century to recent times.......sorry, photos forbidden.
There were vestments and coronation robes ( never in my life have I seen or had explained to me in such detail the intricacies of embroidery!), thrones, sceptres, crowns, any number of gold, silver and platinum statues, fountains and serving plates ...... you really would need to visit to appreciate the depth and breadth of this collection started by Czar Peter the first....or was it the second? There was a whole section of Faberge Eggs and clocks, carvings and trinkets. There were dozens of gaudy Royal coaches and a section devoted to guns, swords, armour and various other nasty implements of war....two huge floors of it. Our brains hurt!
As part of the deal we were treated to lunch at the Cafe Pushkin, a high end restaurant with waiters in uniform and very plush surroundings. It was an enjoyable experience and the borscht was surprisingly nice but the Beef Stroganoff not as good as Wendy's! We learned much from our tour and guide...but were also thankful for an afternoon off to explore a bit for ourselves.
An evening of light shopping for souvenirs and things, and trying to get some night shots in Red Square...the weather was very difficult for photos with mist and rain, so an early night with stomachs still full after Cafe Pushkin brought our Moscow visit to a close ......and the Sapsan fast train to St Petersburg the next chapter in our travels in Russia.
From tanks to tourists. Red Square on a rainy night
Chuffed to be here!
We really liked Moscow, a modern vibrant city with lots of life and energy...which surprised us somewhat...and were left wanting a bit more time there...which is a good way to leave.
