End of an Era

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Moscow Airport: Waiting on tarmac for take-off clearance


We haven't even pulled out from the gate yet and already this flight has gone for long enough. Of course, the two hour delay at the gate hasn’t helped, and for the life of me still cannot fathem how a flight can be delayed for takeoff due to our ‘weather conditions’ as flight control over the intercom so put it. Looking out of the airport lounge window, at our aircraft which was sitting at its gate, not a cloud in sight, nor evidence of any wind, just sunny blue skies.


Sitting immediately behind me on board a two year old wails in the high pitch yell only a child could have. No, he is not in discomfort; he is just simply doing it because he can. After several failed attempts of conveying disapproving looks to his mother in vain effort that she may control her child I pulled out my ear phones; I’d rather have my ears bleed from something I enjoy than put up with that for the next three hours. No sooner had I done so the toddler, now mobile went running past down the aisle. I turned the volume up to its highest setting. Luckily the parents soon followed and the three were reseated further to the front. With a smirk I sat back and enjoyed this little comfort. Only a few moments later the family was again reassigned back to their original seating. Who would of thought a Mum, Dad and a toddler were not suitable candidates to sit in the Emergency Exit row?


A few days earlier


Today is the last of our guided tours around Moscow. Tatiana our guide greeted us in the lobby. Her olive complexion is more of a Sri Lankan - Australian than that of a Russian. Although she has a somewhat easy sense of humor (breaking into laughter mid sentence over the silliest thing) she has been a great guide, very informative whilst coming across as somewhat motherly too, a far cry from the young blonde Russian we had in St Petersburg, the fact that I can't remember her name says something. Although she too was quite a knowledgeable guide she didn't come across as friendly.


Today Tatiana took us to the Kremlin; the name given to the castle-like-grounds center of Moscow, home to a collection of cathedrals, parliament house and of course Red Square.


The Kremlin was rather exciting. Back in the day, as the original site of Moscow, the Kremlin grounds were fortified by a tall red wall and surrounded by a moat of water. Over time, as the population grew the city center expanded; the Kremlin walls expanding three times. Today the moat runs underground and fixed bridges at the main entrances where draw bridges would of once been used now exist. At the entrance, a lone metal detector arch, manned by a very bored military guard. So bored in fact he asked both Michelle and Tatiana to humor him by allowing him to briefly inspect their hand bags to achieve if nothing else a little achievement and sense of purpose which for him was shaping up to be a rather slow day being a Sunday.


Inside the Kremlin walls we visited a few of the more popular places of worship - one in particular which hosted all coronation services for the royals. All the churches we visited were named after various patron saints, inside from floor to ceiling were painted illustrations of the saint’s life along with other popular bible illustrations depicting stories of Christ; a very beautiful way to decorate a house of worship.


We then proceeded to walk towards the museum, where along the way I was told off by a guard for taking a photo of a garden yard behind a tall bared fence. The museum has all the history of the royal line including their thrones, crowns and coronation gowns; some of the dresses, as elegant they looked were more entertaining rather for its obvious elegance to ascertain how the princesses could of squeezed into them with some dresses having less than a 35cm waist!


The museum collection also housed many of the gold and silver gifts given by other countries for one reason or another. The gifts varied from really fancy goblets to gold and silver decorated plates and other unique items. Interestingly one of the most impressive gifts received was from the French government in honor of a newly signed peace treaty with the Russian Empire. Some two years after receiving this genuine token of good will, the French lead by Napoleon invaded. Russia not wanting to hand the keys of Moscow to Napoleon evacuated the towns people to villages further east and then burnt the Moscow city (80% of it) to the ground. At the sight of this and the battle that ended in a draw Napoleon turned away. The second most interesting gift was from the Germans, also in celebration of a non-aggression agreement recently signed. Some two years on an art connoisseur by the name of Adolf Hitler came to power and amongst other things wanted to take the gift back. The two events known historically as the Patriotic War and the Great Patriotic War (World War II). If I were the Russian president and an allied nation gifted the government with an impressive gift in honor of continual truce I'd be setting the nation to Red Alert!


After the Kremlin at our request Tatiana dropped us off in Monument Park, the place where Soviets monuments and other relics of the Cold War go to die. If that were not interesting enough artistic directors from the 1995 film James Bond Goldeneye drew inspiration from this park for the film’s opening credits and later 'Bond meets 006 traitor scene'.


The park lived up to its name, filled with a variety of sculptures and monuments ranging from traditional to modern or in my opinion talented to no talent. Upon entry Michelle and I immediately headed for the far right corner where the Soviet monuments lay. I was neither wowed in awe nor disappointed, just grateful that I could get close to statues of Lenin, Stalin and some CCCP (USSR in Russian) monuments. Sadly a great many of the iconic larger than life Soviet monuments didn't survive the new communism turn in 1991. I was very happy with the few that had survived.


For me, the Soviet era is one of particular interest to me and a strong influence for my wanting to experience Russia. A combination of this along with such rivetingly interesting history, extreme winters and a love for the 'Red Alert' War time strategy chapter of the Command & Conquer gaming universe (featuring a Soviet force) has meant Russia has never been to far from mind.


I look forward to the return visit I plan to make in conjunction with the Trans Siberian Rail.


For now the adventure continues, onwards to Frankfurt, Germany.

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Photos

Kremlin Defense
A Larger than life Canon, with Larger than life balls that are too big? How did they win the war again???

Soviet Memories
Soviet symbol stands tall and proud in the far far corner of Monument Park

Monument Park
The more interesting part of monument park..