Russia Part Two
Moscow
Our first view of Moscow is coming into the city - miles and miles of drab, grey, high-rise apartments from the Soviet era. Decidedly unattractive! Next, it's the Moscow train platform - at least 1000 metres long to accommodate the 20 or so carriages that comprise the double header train. We walk to our coach and are transported to the Marriott hotel - upmarket for Moscow but on a frenetically busy main road that is 6 (seems like 16) lanes wide. Tony and Julie - two of our tour companions, actually crossed it 3 times before they realised that everyone else was using the road underpass to get across.
Tony has this weird shoe that makes a squeaking noise when he walks - (someone in the group thought it was a hip replacement gone wrong!). He says he ordered a pair of sneakers and got a pair of squeakers instead. I think the noise could be heard above the traffic and this is what saved them on their perilous road negotiation journey.
On our first night in Moscow, Anne and I and the Harrisons (Vivian and Adrian) went to a Georgian restaurant recommended by Alex for a dinner that's okay without being great. We soon discover that increase in latitude equates to an increase in the price of wine so we are somewhat sparing in our ordering of the precious drop. Luckily we discover a supermarket nearby our hotel with a surprisingly wide selection of wines and also luckily, we have Adrian with us who specialises in viticulture (professionally I might add) who can wend his way through the bamboozling array of wines with labels all in Russian. We get some quite quaffable wines for about 400 Roubles (approx $10 AUD).
The next day is Saturday - a weekend and the traffic along our street front has eased somewhat. It's a 60 kmh zone but every so often (about every minute) a hoon drives past at about 120 kph or even faster. It's bizarre!
In the morning, we start out and drive a short distance in the coach to one of the famous metro stations. These are the underground stations and the central dozen or so are richly decorated with paintings, sculptures, mozaics and frescoes. Apparently old Joe Stalin wanted to cheer the populace up and ordered these stations built to make everyone happy (except those in the gulags perhaps). After hopping on and off a couple of trains and going from station to station (and managing to lose one traveller) we head out of the underground and up towards Red (or 'beautiful') Square.
Naturally as we disembark from our coach it begins to rains, so we explore Red Square in the drizzle, look at Lenin's Tomb from the outside (the queue to go inside is too long) and explore the first department store ever built by the government in Russia - it's called GUMs Store, and now, after a dirty and seedy past, it's an up-market ritzy affair full of designer and boutique stores.
In the afternoon, we do a tour called Russian Mozaics which is really a look at the other, lesser known aspects of Russian life - or death as the case may be as the first stop on this tour is a famous Cemetery where many well-known people like Anton Chekov, Nikita Khrushchev and the like are buried. The carved stone sculptures on the graves are quite spectacular. Then its on to the Russian War Memorial which in its own way is moving and quietly understated (not!).
That evening we all clamber into the coach to look at Moscow by Night. Moscow sure lights up the city with its lights and we indulge in a little Vodka tasting under an overhead bridge on the way to seeing Red Square all bedecked in lights at the end of the night.
Sunday is our last full day in Moscow and we head out of the city towards the monastery town (actually a city of 100,000 people) of Zagorsk. This monastic complex is known as the Russian Vatican and was build eons ago by the Lutheran Monks. On the way, we visit an authentic Russian farmhouse on a little back road and get invited inside the farmers cottage - a rare treat that even our guide had not been invited to do before.
In the afternoon, we visit the Kremlin and check out the giant fractured bell, the huge cannon and some of the seven churches/cathedrals that lie within the secure walls of the Kremlin (which means fortress). We check out the splendor of the Kremlin Museum and although we can't take photos, the images of the jewels and other magnificent stuff on display will be imprinted on our brains for the rest of our lives. This place is simply mind-numbing!
This is the end of our time in Moscow and tomorrow, we head out of the city and southwards towards our next country - the ex-Soviet republic of Belarus. Moscow and Russia have a bit of a reputation for being unfriendly towards tourists - our experience is anything but that. We're not planning to emigrate any time soon, but its is a fascinating country and we really enjoyed our time there.
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