Blogs from Moscow, Northwest, Russia, Europe - page 6

We are preparing for our journey. Today is Sunday September 11, 2016 & we leave for Moscow on Thursday September 15th. This trip has been building for me for years, but it came to a head when skyping with my 2nd cousin. He had emailed me after the tragic loss of life at the Orlando, Fl nightclub & offered his condolences. I had been entertaining joining a group that was traveling to Moscow & St Petersburg. I had told Maxim, my 2nd cousin, that I might join a group traveling to his country, but only if there was still space in the group for me & if I might visit him afterwards. Given his intro English abilities, he immediately took this possibility as a certainty. My grandfather, Israel Glickman, his wife, Sarah & my uncle, Hirsh ... read more

Day 3 and 4 Moscow Our day started crossing The Krymsky Bridge, the first cablestayed bridge in the Soviet Union, built by Stalin in 1938. Around the same time, the granite Krymskaya and Pushkinskaya embankments were laid down, which still border the Muskva River, making similar to the Thames or the Seine in the middle of their capital cities. On the site north of Gorky Park in 1923 was the All-Russia Agricultural and Industrial Craft Exhibition with pavilions from Germany, Italy and elsewhere. Lenin visited the exhibition three months before he died. During the Great Patriotic War (what we call WW2) aircraft guns were stationed near Krymsky Bridge, and by the late 1940s, a vast, empty space had appeared that became the city’s largest snow-dumping ground. The Central House of Artists was built in 1965 amidst ... read more

The mosquitoes were out in force by carriage No. 1 at 21.00 on platform 2, Novgorod Station. Each coach had a hostess in uniform, arms and legs exposed to the giant sized, voracious vampire insects ........ ours checked the passports and assigned cabin No 1 to us..... I'd like to think this was because we looked very important but in reality it'd be because we were the first to book our tickets to Moscow way back in April, on the Internet........ The cabin had a shower/toilet, upper bunk and lower, wider bed, table laden with food and drinks, 2 x comfort packs with slippers and toilet bag, TV, & towels ...... Hoorah! As we made the booking way back then we debated whether we should spend a bit more for a two berth cabin on the ... read more

We spent two days in Veliky Novgorod. It proved to be a rather beautiful place smaller and rather different than St P'sburg. We arrived there mid morning by train and walked our suitcases from the station to the apartment address. This seemed to be part of a fairly rundown apartment block with no visible sign of Prusskaya Apartments. We were rather early so sat on the concrete steps and waited for something to happen. Eventually a couple emerged who had been renting there and assured us we were in the right place. The owner would be arriving in an hour. So we wandered off with our bags and found a great cafe on the corner which served us coffee and delicious macaroons. Eventually the owner turned up and was very pleasant and helpful but had no ... read more

Try getting that song out of your head... Ok so you haven't heard from us for a while. Germany and Austria kept us busy but we are trying to catch up. This will be interesting in internet starved Cuba... Stay tuned. After a long wait the Moscow blog is yours to enjoy. Moscow greeted us with a massive rainfall which literally flooded the streets. At one stage we were concerned that our taxi would get stuck in the floods. The unfortunate side effect of this was that the toilet in our hotel overflowed. Nice welcome Moscow! Moscow made up for it though. What a city! We spent most of our time in Moscow on foot exploring the city. According to my phone we did 14 km on the first day and we have come close to ... read more