Blogs from Moscow, Northwest, Russia, Europe - page 7

C'est mon dernier jour à Moscou. Je recommande complètement cette ville dynamique et sympa , avec une population assez jeune et bien sur beaucoup de choses à voir. Je partais avec des à prioris plutôt négatifs dessus (que les traces laissées par l'URSS avaient gaché la ville, surtout), mais à tort ! En particulier, la place rouge est vraiment saisissante, surtout de nuit (en esperant que mes photos kui rendent un minimum justice). Mais le centre ville comporte de manière générale des quartiers sympas et assez variés. Et il a même fait plutôt bon, niveau températures. Seul bémol : la circulation, hyper importante sur les grandes avenues du centre ville. Demain c'est le départ en transsibérien. Premier arrêt : Irkoutsk, au bord du lac Baikal, après environ 4 jours de train.... read more

It was our last full day in Moscow and a planned visit to the Kremlin. Having familiarised ourselves with the Metro it was just 3 stops from our hotel to Teatralnaya Station the closest station to the Kremlin. We walked through Alexander Garden, past the guarded grave of the unknown soldier to the booking office. Well you would think it would seem simple to buy your ticket from the office, however we were sent quarter of a mile to an entrance only to be sent another half a mile in the other direction to check in our backpack. I think we went back to the original office 3 times! A sense of achievement when after several ticket checks we were in, only to be told immediately we were out of bounds by a guard! Our persistence ... read more

Mardi 29 décembre 2015 Direction la gare pour notre trajet en train de Saint-Pétersbourg à Moscou. Avec les contrôles de sécurité, on nous a conseillé d'y être 1h à l'avance pour avoir de la marge. Mais une fois sur place, l'attente va nous paraître bien longue car la gare est minuscule! Il n'y a aucun café ou commerce, le hall principal est juste un lieu de passage. Et évidemment, rien n'est écrit en anglais. On devine les mots Quai et Sapsan (nom de la compagnie de trains) en cyrillique d'après les indications sur nos billets et d'après l'heure de départ on se dirige vers le quai numéro 4. Mais avant de pouvoir entrer dans le wagon, une employée vérifie manuellement tous les billets et passeports des passagers. Pour les re vérifier une fois installés à nos ... read more

First impression........ incomprehension......nothing is understandable, Cyrillic script is doing me in. This is hard. But, I've done this before, I think. A double shot espresso, shot of voddy and I'm off to face the Metro. It is a fantastic system. Fast!.......the old and new trains hurtle through the dark tunnels, I never wait more than 1 minute on any platform for a train. 196 stations, 237kms, 74m deep at best....you can google the details, it's huge! Some of the stations are like art galleries, incredible murals, statues, gigantic chandeliers, stained glass panels, surfaces of wood, ceramics, mosaics, slate, steel, bronze, marble, plaster. And it's all spotlessly clean, the trains too. I've not seen more than a couple of cleaners in the whole city but it's all really clean....and everyone is very conscientious about binning their litter! ... read more

20 June Early start for our flight to Moscow, its just over 3 hours away. Greeted by the Go Russia sign at Moscow airport, first time personally collected by a sign! Our hotel was very nice, just time for a cuppa and a lie down before negotiating our way to the Bolshoi ballet, which was our first Russian challenge. We knew it was 2 stops on the Green Line, but all the signs are in Cyrillic so bear no relation to the 'English' name. And of course when we got out, which building? The ballet was La Sylphide, a beautiful classic and the dancers, scenery and orchestra were marvellous. The cream was the beautiful old theatre (called the 'new' theatre just to confuse), it was extensivley renovated over several years and millions of $$ and sure ... read more