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Published: February 20th 2006
St. Basil's and Red Square
We made it to Red Square (so called because it was originally a market square on red coloured ground- nothing to do with Communism!) and saw inside St. Basil's Cathedral. It really does look as colourful as a gingerbread cake!Sat. 26 November
Arrived in the evening at Moscow Airport after flying with Aeroflot, the major Russian airline. They still have the hammer and sickle as their airline symbol.
It was a forty-five minute ride to our hotel in the city centre. We noted right away how flat the city is. We wasted little time after checking into our hotel to run to the nearby 24-hour shop and purchase some samples of Russian champagne, vodka and caviar. The woman behind the counter looked amused as we pointed to the red, salmon caviar and motioned that we wanted a small sample. This gave away that we were tourists!
Sunday 27 November
Huge day of seeing the sights in Moscow. The city centre is easily navigable with the Kremlin as the epicentre of several concentric circles. Our guide, Llena, was a wealth of information (and a good storyteller!) and showed us more in a few hours than we could have seen in days.
Just a few of these sights included...
Beria's house (nefarious KGB leader), Brezhnev's daughter's apartment (she had the whole floor with special, extended ceilings), Chekhov's house, the Rostov's estate (from Tolstoy's War and Peace),
Photo Contest
Photo contest: 1) Is this Harvard University or the Kremlin, Moscow? 2) Which one has more Marxists today? the buildings used in the 1930's show trials, Red Square etc.
Llena told us many stories about the city's developments under Stalin's reign. This included his obsession with building the ultimate socialist city. This "workers paradise" included boulevards that were widened with slave labor as buildings were moved over 25 meters. The recognizable "Stalin's Sisters" buildings--the social realist skyscrapers such as that given to Warsaw--dot the skyline. Stalin envisaged building over 200 of them; only seven were built. The Moscow subway stations are very beautiful. Stalin wanted to build a Kingdom of Socialism underground as well.
Cold from the Russian winter, Marcus purchased a warm mink Russian hat, though he politely declined wearing the old Soviet symbol many tourists place on it for some reason.
Monday 28 November
Another day with Llena as we toured the Kremlin. The Kremlin is a castle complex and many Russian cities have kremlins. The current Moscow Kremlin is actually the fifth one built in the mid-16th century. Historically, much of Moscow was made of wood and therefore susceptable to fires. As if the city was not destroyed enough on its own accord, Napoleon torched over 90 percent of it,
The Rostov's House
This was the house upon which Tolstoy based his description of the Rostov Mansion. The statue commemorates the man himself and the mansion is now the home of Moscow's Literary Society. lighting fires on two sides.
On display in the Kremlin are hundreds Napoleon's cannons captured during the fighting in 1812.
The Kremlin features a great deal of tsarist history with at least a dozen cathedrals/chapels, each devoted to something specific about the royal family, e.g coronations, weddings, christenings. Of course there are also the government buildings, including the Senate House where President Putin's office is. We returned later to visit the Armoury Museum - which does not contain any weapons whatsoever! Instead are impressive displays of thrones, clothes and carriages used by the royal family. There was an magnificent ivory throne used by Ivan IV (the Terrible). We particularly liked the display of Faberge eggs, commissioned by Nicholas II for his wife and daughters. Each porcelain egg is unique with a different theme and a surprise inside. The best had to be the Trans-Siberian one with miniature clockwork toy train (made to scale) inside.
We also walked around the neighborhood of the Lubyanka--that is the KGB headquarters and much feared complex of buildings in full use during the purges and show trials.
Tuesday, 29 November
Walked around the city centre and bought a few souvenirs.
Also bought supplies for the long train journey ahead across Siberia.
Our train departed Moscow 11.20 pm and we were on our way to the Ural Mountains...
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Joanne
non-member comment
At last!
Hi guys, At last I've got round to checking up on you. Fantastic reports and pictures! Love all the stuff about pre-communist Russia. War and Peace and the Romanovs and all that. Faberge! How jealous am I? Was Chekov's house as boring as his plays? Controversial! Jx