We finally arrived at the airport just before 11pm the day after our planned arrival. We had managed to get an email reply from the boat company: a driver would pick us up and we could check in. Which was a great relief as we weren’t sure how we were going to negotiate Moscow at that time of night. After a bit of time at customs receiving a change in our visas, we were there.
Sure enough, Dmitry the driver turned up and we and three other delayed Australians hopped into a nicely appointed minibus. This was about midnight and the roads were full. Dmitry had limited English, so we took his shaking head and ‘Bye bye’ with hands to side of reclining head to mean that Moscow never sleeps. He did his best to give a commentary as we drove, pointing out McDonalds and the Kremlin amongst other things. We were all running close to empty, though, and it took almost 2 hours to get to the boat.
Our ‘stateroom’ is… snug. We need to coordinate moves to get around. But the beds are quite comfortable, there is decent stowage (see that nautical term!) and the bathroom is nice, though the shower is small. The boat looks much as it did in the brochure, having only been renovated a couple of years ago.
Note the small distance between end of bed and wardrobe.
After a short time we had to get up for our first day in Moscow. We were livened up by a tasty breakfast and a clear, beautiful day. After Mum fell down the middle steps on the bus (she didn’t see them as she walked up the aisle) without injuring herself, we were off to see the sights.
Cruising the streets at the centre of the city, the number of early nineteenth century buildings was more than I expected. About 60% of the city was burned (I think by the Muscovites themselves) when Napoleon came to town and they decided to rebuild in stone, so pastel-coloured facades line the streets. There were some interesting art nouveau buildings, including the Hotel Metropol. What surprised me was that Soviet buildings are quite ornamented, rather than utilitarian blocks, at least towards the city centre.
Rows of pastel early eighteenth century buildings.
We stopped at but didn’t enter the Novodevichy (New Maiden) Convent where naughty or inconvenient noblewomen and princesses were sent. Next to it is a cemetery where notable Russians are buried. Inventors (Mum read one name: Kalashnikov), soldiers, politicians and entertainers have monuments there. Flowers grow throughout and the monuments can be… monumental. A fascinating place.
You were locked up here if you were a wayward noble lady.
We toured up to Moscow University, past a gigantic statue that had originally been intended to be of Columbus and a present to the US. It was bigger and much uglier than the Statue of Liberty, so the Americans didn’t want it. They decided to change the head to Peter the Great, as his anniversary was coming up. But St Petersburg didn’t want it either, to the point of protests. The main Moscow University building is one of seven ‘triumphalist’ landmarks constructed by Stalin that you can see dotted about the city between gleaming gold domes.
Now the Russians have Kardashians and stretch limos. Moscow State University building.
I learnt that the word for red and beautiful are the same, so Red Square is actually Beautiful Square and it lived up to its name. We found an ATM in the swanky shopping mall, GUM, and had lunch.
GUM department store on Red Square. Triumph of capitalism.
St Basil’s was a surprise as my idea of a cathedral is of a large open space, but there were multiple rooms, most with a soaring ceiling under a minaret. On the shape of minaret caps: originally they were a helmet shape, as per the Greek Orthodox Church, however they found that under heavy snow they have a tendency to collapse, so the steeper onion shape was developed, looking like candles alight in gleaming gold.
St Basil's with tomb of Lenin to the right and GUM to the left. Religion, Communism, Capitalism all in the one picture.
Next was a tour of a few metro stations, the people’s palaces. I guess after the aristocracy having so much luxury for so long, it was not a bad thing to give ordinary people a bit of bling. Some of the stations are very deep underground, a product of the cold war fear of nuclear attack. A wander down Arbat Street, a mile-long pedestrian mall with historical buildings and souvenir shops, finished up the day. Mum and I spent a good part of it sitting in the shade people watching. I think Muscovites enjoy promenading.
The Metro. Scenes of Soviet productivity.
No comments:
Post a Comment