We didn’t wait for the courtesy bus, but
headed out again on the metro. Arrived at Red Square before anything was open,
on a fresh, sunny morning. We wandered down through the gardens next to the
Kremlin. A flower festival was on, so the gardens were spectacular and GUM had
special flower displays. The centre of Moscow is very well kept. It looks like
roads are swept daily and there are a lot of people keeping things looking
good.
We arrived at the Pushkin fine art museum
and joined the queue, finally realizing after half an hour that it wasn’t
opening until 11, rather than its usual 10, and decided to return to the
Russian museum on Red Square. The museum didn’t have many people in it, but
turned out to have a good collection, running from prehistoric times to about
1900. It also had a ‘gold room’ with bible covers and other gold and gilded
items, though of course not a patch on the Treasury. Still, bling from wall to
wall. We had no energy to find the Bulgakov museum, which was set up as it
would have been in the 1930s. A shame, but we probably would have collapsed
otherwise.
As we leave Moscow heading north, the riverbank
slides by. Across from where we were moored is cable-waterskiing and a large
plane and submarine that look like part of a museum. A little further along, a
couple of riverside beaches with restaurants and swimmers in the river. Right
along the banks at intervals are groups of friends and families picnicking,
barbecuing and swimming, waving at the boat as we go by, most men with their
shirts off, some in long trousers. At first the buildings are high-rise, but
they give way to houses – perhaps the dachas that everyone disappears to on the
weekends – and campers. The banks are lush with trees, slim silver trunks of
birches, undergrowth and clumps of flowers.
Our first lock was a monumental building
with columns and statues of workers on top. I didn't manage a picture, so here is a link to someone else's blog with the lock and a nice picture of swimmers: http://janfordsworld.blogspot.ru/2011/07/navigating-moscow-canal.html
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