Well..it is time to do another ofiget-or-ppc trip,
and this time the main goal will be Moscow - and instead of going from
Gardermoen, I have decided to save a car trip and parking cost and
instead go via my much more local airport located at Rygge -
http://www.ryg.no - and go via Riga with
a couple of nights there. This will allow me to get a taste of the old
city at least, before heading on to Moscow, where I have decided
to stay for 5 nights.
I have chosen to go with Ryanair -
http://www.ryanair.com - for the
first time - their flight to and from Riga costs me around 60 EUR
including my checked-in luggage, which is actually 60% of the total cost
for my ticket. To go further to Moscow, I will use Air Baltic. As usual,
I will need an approved visa to enter Russia, which I sort via a travel
agency named Privjet! - thankfully they also deliver the visa
application directly, as the Russian embassy does not accept this via 'snail mail'.
Day 1
My flight with Ryanair is uneventful, and apart from
the ghastly yellow colour inside the cabin, it is quite ok. We land
before schedule, and it doesn't take me long to go with Air Baltic's
airport express service to get to the centre of town and check into my
hotel -
Radisson Blu Elizabete (formerly belonging to the Reval chain) - in
fact not much more than half an hour has passed since my flight landed.
I have a good chance to relax and experience the room, which is very
nice indeed - according to the website's own information it is supposed
to be 29 square metres but it feels somewhat smaller. I have two large
beds, a flat screen TV, tea and coffee making facilities, a somewhat
poorly functioning A/C, but lo and behold - the window can be opened!
The wash basin is halfway integrated into the main room, while the
toilet and shower cabinet (yess!) is only separated by a non-lockable
frosted glass door - perhaps not the best solution for non-intimate
partners.
I head out into town - not the
old part, I will save that for tomorrow - but go to a chinese restaurant
which I discovered on the
inyourpocket website, Lielais Ķīnas
Mūris, meaning 'Great Wall of China'. Here, I have a fairly normal
chicken style dish with some nuts, fried rice as a side dish, and order
dessert - my favourite - fried bananas, but the size is almost as big as
my entire dinner! I ordered white wine to my dinner, but got red wine,
and had some plum wine together with the dessert - mmm, and a full glass
it was too! I do not need to walk back to my hotel - I can easily roll
back!
Day 2
Today I will explore the old town of Riga. I picked
up a tourist brochure at the airport, which looks surprisingly like the
one inyourpocket.com makes - even the text describing the places to eat
and stay is exactly the same! But the name of the guide is 'Riga
insight' - I wonder if they have changed name?
Anyway, I see they suggest a walking route around the
old part of town, taking in most of the interesting sights. I head back
towards the Radisson Blu Latvija hotel, where my airport express dropped
me off, and notice the almost cavernous entrance/lobby area - that
really is a big hotel. Well..it does have 573 rooms compared to mine's
"meager" 228...
From here I head straight down to the freedom
monument (Brīvības piemineklis), raised in 1935 to symbolise freedom (!)
and independence. The figure at the top is named Milda, and the three
stars she holds represent the three regions - Kurzeme, Vidzeme and
Latgale, but first crossing a small park and noticing the locks on the
railing - no doubt from newlyweds?
I drop by the National Opera house and sigh at the
dry fountain in front of it, then go further past St Peter's Church (Pēterbaznīca)
to the town hall square - Rātslaukums, but the town hall itself is
fairly unimpressive - the show stealer is definitely the House of the
Blackheads (Melngalvju nams) - originally built in 1334 by the Great
Guild, it later became the home for an association of single merchants
known as 'Blackhead'. It was destroyed in 1941, then beautifully rebuilt
in 1999.
I head on towards the main cathedral in the town,
which houses a very impressive church organ. On my way around, I see
that there are organ concerts, and on my second visit here I hear some
sweet notes from inside, drop in and find out that today's small concert
was just finished. Wahh!
Next up is the castle, which may be best viewed from
the river side or even the main bridge crossing over the very wide river
Daugava. While the castle isn't particularly impressive, the riverside
makes for an open-air break from the narrow streets of the old town, but
it is fairly windy and cold, so I do not stay there for long, but
instead decide to go for lunch nearby - Michelangelo is an italian
restaurant, and I have a great (but small) portion of minestrone soup, a
pasta dish and panna cotta for dessert. And a glass of red wine :) It is
quite a nice place, but the service feels somewhat cold - but all are
guys..who knows.
I head further on along narrow streets, an old
barracks house which has been converted into a series of shops and
restaurants (as mostly everywhere in the old town), and see various neat
Art Noveau buildings - Riga really has a lot of these, some of them have
beautiful decorations and figures/faces.
I head over to Līvu square where the Great and Small
Guilds were, and notice another building by chance - the Cat house. The
story goes that the owner of the house wanted to join the Great Guild,
but was refused membership. In revenge, he had two iron cats erected on
the gables of his house with their tails turned towards the Great Guild
building across the street (the expression "I fart in your general
direction" comes to mind here...) When he was eventually admitted to the
guild, he turned the cats round. Another legend states that two
neighbours led a cat and dog life and one of them put a figure of a cat,
with its back to the street, on the roof. In return, the other neighbour
put a dog on his roof across the street. Yet another version of the
legend suggests that the architect who put up the cats, fell down from
the roof to his death...any more suggestions?
Well, that is enough for one day - I head back to my
hotel and have some rest before I go out with my tripod for some night
shots - first of all I head to the Blackheads' house which I know is
beautifully lit up, then down to the bridge across Daugava and to shoot
the beautifully blue-lit railroad bridge. As I go back via the
Blackheads' house, I decide to take one more pic of it before it
disappears from view, but as I lift my camera up, the building goes all
dark - at 19:30! What is going on? Are they saving electricity - so
early in the evening? And then a 3-minute classical music/flood light
show starts! I never heard or read anywhere that this would happen - I
enjoy it greatly and decide to come back after dinner. Thankfully I have
an extra, smaller camera with me which can record HD video - and of
course I use the opportunity to do so!
Dinner - I decide to go for the somewhat expensive,
but stylish and old Rozengrāls
- first mentioned in 1293 according to their own information - where
waiters are dressed in medieval costumes, the dining halls are like
dungeons, and the food is...old without being dangerous - that is, the
dishes are from medieval times! I go for a pork shank, which looks
different from what I expected - it comes with spicy cabbage and
horseradish, a side dish consisting of boiled pearl barley with
prunes, onions and pumpkin seeds, an apple drink with honey and mint
leaves, and red wine..altogether at 20 LVL - still quite a bit cheaper
than at home, and it took me the better part of an hour to consume the
meat parts of the pork!
I head back to the Blackheads' house at 21:30 and
record the show from the beginning now - a nice extra touch together
with the pictures!
But the night isn't over yet for me - I do want to
try out the 'Sky bar' on the 26th floor of the Radisson Blu Latvija, and
order first a 'Wrong Island Iced Tea' where I think the soda is
exchanged for Riga balsam, and some Red Bull is added too...then I have
a 'Mai Tai' before heading home, well into the night..somewhere between
1 and 2 am.
Day 3
This will be a travelling day, as I see it. Little
did I know how long it would turn out to be, and that was in a way a
good thing - if I had known, I wouldn't even have wanted to get out of
bed! Breakfast at the hotel is great, it is indeed a buffet as expected
from this chain, and I have to have an early one to check out in time
and make my way back to the airport, as my Air Baltic flight is
scheduled for lift off at 11:40.
However, things start to take a turn for the worse -
not long before my flight, a message ticks in and says that the flight
is delayed until 13:00, at first. After this, Murphy's law really took
over - messages appear at the gate from now on, saying there is another
delay - first half an hour to "wait for the next information", then the
next information is that we should "wait for the next information" -
another hour to wait. We are then shuffled to another gate to wait some
more, then at around 15:30, the announcement is made: our flight is
cancelled - and we have no idea why, because there is a long
announcement in Russian, then a short one in english which is mostly
muffled out by angry voices. I hear absolutely no reason for it - just
that we should follow an assistant, back towards the arrival point,
luggage pickup - then over to passport control, where a dude decides to
be funny on the wrong occasion...
"What is your purpose for visit to Riga?"
Tempting: "To head back to Air Baltic's ticket office
and raze it to the ground - do you mind?"
So the ticket clerks - five of them - have a lot of
work on their hands, and I end up waiting in a very short line with
maybe 6-7 people ahead of me - for an hour, before I get the possibility
to go on the 19:10 flight to Moscow instead! Nice! And throughout our
wait, we have received a voucher for a 5 LVL meal + 1,50 LVL drink at
the airport. Starvation rations, if you ask me! Thankfully I do not have
to pick up my luggage, but have to go through security check as well as
passport/visa control yet another time before heading to a much more
comfortable gate lounge (one without metal seats). And we get a Boeing
757-200 instead of a 737-500. Whee!
I seriously do not like Riga airport. It is small,
narrow, cramped - and there is no separate arrivals area - you have to
plow straight through the queues at the gate as you exit from the
aircraft. And most of the seats are uncomfortable and made of metal -
cold on your popka!
Some Koreans seem to have to spend the night in Riga,
since they will miss their connecting flight. A Russian girl that I talk
to in the check-in queue is going further into Siberia on the same day,
if she gets a flight.
This time, our flight does indeed leave at 19:10. And
the aircraft is the most comfortable one during my trip - it is my first
time in a 757. But my pre-ordered and pre-paid meal disappears into thin
air, as they do not have hot food on this flight! I have to ask the crew
what to do, and if I even may have to pay to get something to eat after
all this wait and starvation rations courtesy of Air Baltic - "we thank
you for not flying with us!" But I get an option of a lighter meal,
which I take, just to be done with it. But it seems they will be keeping
some additional value for my meal.
The flight lands at 21:45 Moscow time - it is getting
quite late now, and before I get through passport and visa control and
pick up my bags, I rush through the 'E' terminal at
Шереметьево - Sheremetevo towards the
Аероэкспресс -
Aeroexpress and
make it in time for the 22:30 departure. I have thankfully pre-paid my
ticket on their website. The train will take me directly to
Белорусский Вокзал - Belorusskiy Vokzal, from
where I will be able to get onto the metro. The train ride is very
comfortable, although I am beginning to get too tired to appreciate the
comfort. I arrive at the train station at 23:05 as scheduled, then look
for the metro station, which should be right nearby. But outside there
is a huge construction work going on, and the signs to the metro point
both left and right with no clear indication which direction is which,
or even which line is which, as two lines cross at this station.
I decide to head towards the right, where most people
seem to be going, pay my double price ticket (because of the luggage),
and haul it down to the metro station, where I find the correct line,
but it is only going in the wrong direction! Normally lines go in both
directions at a station - but this seems to be an exception for an
unknown reason. And my troubles do not end there - the crossing to the
other direction of the line is closed due to construction work, as far
as I gather from a sign bearing a few familiar words:
переход, закрыт - perekhod, zakryt - walkway/transition closed.
Great. Do I walk all the way back to the train station and try my luck
with the sign in the other direction? Or...it is beginning to get pretty
late - 23:30 or so, and I know I have only 1 1/2 hours left before the
metro shuts down for the night, and I would REALLY like to reach my
destination before that happens! I study my own map which I brought as a
backup, since I find no map in the station itself. So if I take the
circular line #5 instead in a counter-clockwise direction (the only
direction available at this part of the station) for 6 stations, I will
reach the southern crossing between the circular line and line #2, which
will take me to my destination - station Домодедовская
- Domodedovskaya.
So I hop on and go...and the stations are quite far
between, considering the speed of the metro (up to 90 km/h) and the time
it takes between stations - 3, 4, maybe even 5 minutes. I reach station
Павелецкая - Paveletskaya, and cross easily
enough to line #2, then stay on for 7 stations before I reach my goal.
I remember checking on Google maps and seeing that
the exit from the station seems to be on the right side of
Каширскойе
Шоссе - Kashirskoye Shosse. At
midnight, I start my walk in the direction of my hotel - or so I think.
After walking for more than 20 minutes trying to find the outline of my
hotel in the dark suburbs, I realise I must have been going in the wrong
direction. What confused me even more was that I saw a sign pointing to
the name of the street where my hotel lies - Шипиловская
Улица - Shipilovskaya ulitsa - but I definitely can not see
anything resembling my hotel there or anywhere else!
I head back towards the metro station and realise
that there are exits on both sides of the street due to the main road,
Kashirskoye Shosse being a wide boulevard which is dangerous or
impossible to cross for mortals. So, 1 km further on (this time in the
right direction), I recognise the dim outline of my hotel and check in
at 01:00 in the night. As I reach my room with a back and shoulders that
are seriously trying to kill me, I realise it has taken me 16 hours to
get from my hotel in Riga to my hotel in Moscow - which is called
Отель Милан - Hotel Milan by the way. I try to
get some rest and calm down before heading to bed - I still feel as if I
am on my own time, which is 2 hours behind, and it is 02:30 before I get
my tired popka into bed. I promise I will not get up at 7 in the
morning...
Day 4
I can still feel my back and shoulders aching
somewhat from last day's trials and tribulations. Breakfast is really
good, with a wide variety of choices - several types of cereals, bread
in white, dark and rye editions, meats, cheese, juices, coffee, tea,
boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, fruit...everything you
need to fill up your tummy and have a good day's start.
I do have a plan for what I wish to see. But which
days do I choose to go where? And will I regret it later due to weather,
good photo opportunities etc? And how do I move around as efficiently as
possible so that I do not spend half my time inside the metro and
walking between stations and sights?
It must have been 11 o'clock at least before I head
out, but I did need that extra rest. I decide to go towards the Moscow
University or МГУ,
Московский государственный университет имени М.В. Ломоносова
- MGU, Moskovskiy gosudarstvenniy universitet imeni M. V.
Lomonosova (phew!). My metro station is Университет
- Universitet on line #1. The reason why I want to visit it, is that the
main building is quite an impressive one - the largest of the so called
'seven sisters', built in the gothic Stalinist style. The university is
the largest in Russia, employing 4000 academic staff as well as 15000
other staff members, and houses 36000 students and 7000 post-graduates.
Just getting here via metro and walking takes almost 1 1/2 hours, so by
the time I am finished taking pics and moving on, lunch time is already
nearing.
Thankfully, my next destination is only 2 stations
away, at Спортивная - Sportivnaya, and I stumble
over the familiar ресторан - restoran sign
somewhere, and decide to take a look. A quite cosy tavern-like place is
hidden inside a narrow back alley, and they have so called business
lunch at this hour. There is no english speaking staff, and the menu is
only in cyrillic. I do manage to navigate it and order a portion of
борщ - borshch - classical Russian beetroot soup
at 50 roubles, and a glass of wine at 100 roubles. Quite a bargain - I
just wish I could get the waitress to understand that I wanted more, but
she just wants payment...ah well, maybe she thought I looked like I
could use a diet?
My next stop on the list is
Новодeвичий
монастырь - Novodevichiy Monastir', a UNESCO
World Heritage site, even! I see the walls and onion rooftops, but the
first entrance I take leads me only to a separately walled cemetery,
which I end up trawling halfway around before heading out and going
along the wall to the proper entrance.
The monastery is quite an impressive complex of
buildings. It was founded in 1524 by Grand Prince Vasili III to
commemorate the conquest of Smolensk in 1514. It was built as a fortress
at a curve of the Moscow river, and became an important part of the
city's southern defenses. It houses several beautiful churches, the most
important one probably being the so called Smolensk cathedral, built in
1525. Other churches painted red were added late in the 1600s. There is
a slender belltower here which rises to a height of 72 metres - indeed
it does not look that tall at all...
On the outside, there is a nice pond which makes for
an excellent foreground for a photo - I just wish the weather would have
been better!
Anyway, I decide to head on and go to the centrally
located station Библиотека Имени Ленина -
Biblioteka Imeni Lenina, and take a peek at Красная
Площадь - Krasnaya Ploshchad' - Red Square. But I end up at the
wrong side of the Кремль - Kreml, near
Александровскй Сад - Aleksandrovsky Sad.
As I try to go around the south side, I notice that the city
isn't too pedestrian friendly - there are big boulevards to cross all
around, and they cannot be crossed above ground, unless you have a
serious death wish. So I search for underground passages, and in the end
head towards Храм Христа Спасителя - Khram
Khrista Spasitelya - Church of Christ the Saviour.
It was originally built to commemorate the retreat of
Napoleon in 1812. It took a long time before building was started, and
it lasted from 1839 - 1883. Incidentally, Tchaikovsky's 1812 ouverture
debuted there in 1882. It was a prominent site in the city, and on
Stalin's orders, the church was blown up in 1931, as it was to be
replaced by a giant 'Palace of the Soviets', which with its planned
100-metre statue of Lenin on top, would rise to a height of 300 metres.
Thankfully, none of the plans were realised due to the second world war,
and in 1994-1999, the church was rebuilt to its former glory. A
footbridge across the Moscow river was added in 2004, and makes for a
perfect photo opportunity, and also gives a fairly good view of the
recent 90-metre statue of Peter the Great, which sits on an outcropping
in the Moscow river. It was built to celebrate the 3rd centennial of the
Russian navy.
On the way back, I want a second lunch, and try to
enter the restaurant 'Akademiya' which lies just behind the church. I am
denied entry due to it being full, I am told - or was I just a sudden
victim of face control? I thought that was mostly in night clubs...hmm.
I find another place nearby anyway, and order some local dishes: beef
stroganoff, shashliki and a glass of red wine - I feel I have earned it
(?) - and everything tastes great! According to the receipt, which I
kept, the name of the place is Стар Компани Боровицкая -
Star Kompani Borovitskaya.
Finally I head back to Red Square and take a look
around - there is the Государственный
Исторический музей - Gosudarstvenniy
Istoricheskiy Musey - State Historical Museum in one end,
Собор Василия Блаженного
- Sobor Vasiliya Blazhennogo - St Basil's Cathedral with its easily
recognisable candy-like onion domes, the walls of the Kremlin with
Lenin's mausoleum in front, and the giant department store known as
ГУМ - GUM dominating it all. As I arrive, it is
beginning to darken, and GUM is beautifully lit up already - it looks
like a cross between a castle, a drawing, and a circus. It is a lot to
take in at just one visit, but I know I will be coming back here during
day time as well as at night with my tripod!
Tonight, I decide to have dinner in my hotel's
restaurant Tiberio, and order borshch, a chicken dish with 'Pushkin'
style potatoes - boiled, then fried for a short moment, and a glass of
white wine. Yummy!
Day 5
After breakfast, I decide to go for a short walk at
first. As I was reaching the 18th floor with the windowed elevator
yesterday, I noticed the blue roofs of an orthodox church - one that I
had seen described and pictured somewhere. I have learned that its name
is Храм Троицы в Орехове-Борисове
- Church of the Holy Trinity at the Borisovo Ponds. As recently
finished as 2004, it is built in a Byzantine style, rises to a height of
70 metres, and I must admit - actually looks a little bit misplaced in
the far southern suburbs of Moscow. With that in mind, I head back to my
'home' metro station and reflect on the endless rows of apartment blocks
- very Soviet style, as I would expect it to be. But my next goal should
be more uplifting - Царицыно - Tsaritsyno. It is
only 2 stops towards the city centre - definitely my nearest 'sight', if
not counting that nearby church. As I head out of the station and onto
the local train station with the same name, I walk of course in the
wrong direction, and end up face to face with a fence separating me from
the railroad tracks. I backtrack, and head beneath the railroad and
easily recognise the entrance to the big park, then as I pass through
the gates, I see the palace in the distance. The sun is shining, but
there is an icy cold wind sweeping across the small lake and its
surrounding park.
The residence is also quite huge, in a way similar to
the palaces in St Petersburg, and indeed it was built for none other
than Catherine the Great between 1775 and 1796, but it turned into a
ruin and was only completely restored in 2007. The total area of the
park is 700 hectares or 7 square kilometres! I decide to not go inside,
but satisfy myself by walking around the palace to the back side, then
back to my metro to head into the city centre. Or to be more precise, a
little bit outside, as I have decided to pay a visit to what I consider
to be the most awesome of the metro stations in Moscow -
Комсомолская - Komsomolskaya! But as I appear on line #1, I see
that this is not the Komsomolskaya that I want to see, so I realise that
since it crosses circle line #5 here, I head to the 'perekhod' to that
one, and as my escalator brings me up, I am greeted with something that
is as close to an underground palace that I have ever seen. With a
yellow roof, intricately carved decorations and huge chandeliers, it
definitely is a sight not to be missed. The other two stations depicted
are Paveletskaya and Arbatskaya, respectively.
I head back to the city centre again and pay a visit
to the outside of a theatre that should need no further introduction -
Большой театр -
Bolshoy! I have heard that the grand hall
is being refurbished, and do not know if it is finished yet - and
anyway, I don't think I have enough time and budget to give priority to
a performance there, sadly enough...it was the same thing I felt with
Mariinsky in St Petersburg, and I did not even have the time to see the
exterior of that one!
I have a date today and the butterflies are
rebellious :( I meet her at Biblioteka Imeni Lenina. We have a very late lunch at 16:00 in Aleksandrovsky
Sad's 'Planet Sushi', where they have a great offer of 8 pieces for only
245 roubles! A bargain, considering the central location. And her
suggested drink for me - a great idea, really: японский глинтвейн -
yaponskiy glintveyn - which I manage to translate into 'japanese mulled
wine'. This time, we
return to the hotel earlier, but still end up having a late dinner
- on Арбатская Улица - Arbatskaya ulitsa, at one
of the 'Ginza project' chain restaurants. Here, we have a well made
Caesar's salad with chicken, and I try for the first time another
classical Russian dish - солянка - solyanka, and
this is very good too! Whisky and cola?? Yes it tastes much better
together!
And before we are finished with this, it is 22:00!
Where does all the time go? Is it me still being on my local time? Is it
all the travelling back and forth from my suburb? Is it all the walking
around? Is it the sightseeing? Is it the stars aligning with the birth
dates of the countless models on high heels? Or is it the great company?
A night club..then it is indeed good night - in separate rooms.
Day 6
After finishing breakfast at almost 11:00, an even
more cultural experience awaits: my date suggests a visit to the
Государственная Третьяковская Галерея
- State Tretyakov Gallery. A modest entrance fee of 150 roubles awaits,
but after looking around in the various rooms, which seem a bit
labyrinthical at first, we end up with the feeling - isn't it supposed to
be more than this? Then as I read up while writing this, it seems that
the gallery is housed in several buildings, including a much larger one
than the 'classic old' from the early 20th century. As for the gallery
itself, it houses many portraits of Russian celebrities throughout the
years - at least I recognise mr Pushkin, as well as quite a few large
pieces of work. The little that I see is quite impressive, but it makes
me wish I had read more beforehand.
Time for lunch already! And we find ourselves at a nearby
place called hmm...I can't find any name on my receipt, unfortunately.
But I have borshch, she has a solyanka, and we both have 'potatoes mush' as it says, and a classical
Russian non-alcoholic drink: морс - mors.
Red Square really has to be visited on such a day -
the sky is actually perfectly blue, something I did not expect to see
during my visit at all!
And yet, time flies
waaaaaaay too fast..and at 18:00 I find
myself being alone again :(( taking a couple of pictures in the 3-station-square, with
railroad stations Ярославский, Казанский &
Ленинградский lying on each side of the square -
with many eager taxi drivers around. I also see two more of Stalin's
'seven sisters' here, one of them being
Hilton Leningradskaya.
I come back early to my hotel today, and drop by my
local super-duper-market in the evening to find something to bring home
to eat - just a small bite, but it is better than nothing, as today I
have skipped dinner :( I had absolutely wonderful company for 26
hours..and now it is cold again :(
Day 7
One more day before heading home. And I know I have a
busy day today, that's for sure, if I want to stay true to my plans.
Three metro rides later, including a new and very
comfortable line #3, I
find myself at the station Партисанская -
Partisanskaya, where I know I will find what was formerly the
participants' accommodations for the 1980 Olympic summer games. It has
now been refurbished and turned into possibly Europe's largest hotel
complex - Измаилово. There are four buildings -
alfa, beta, gamma and delta, and the total number of rooms is supposedly
7500(!)
I head on towards the park with the same name.
Covering 12 square kilometres, it is a wee bit much to cover, and after
walking for half an hour without seeing much apart from a closed mini
theme park, naked trees and dead leaves on the ground, I decide to head
towards the more recently built (2003) Кремль в Измаилово
- Kreml' v Izmailovo. It is quite an impressive mini fortress of
structures, quite like a copy in white of the real Kremlin. I do not go
inside, as I can't spend too much time here either. On to...
The real Kremlin! Fortunately, getting a ticket and
getting inside takes little time. And it was only 200 roubles, whereas
the tourist info said it was 300..hmm.
Московский Кремль - Moskovskiy Kreml'...the area
inside is quite vast, there is a park, numerous churches, the
presidential palaces, several other large buildings, parking lots,
roads, pavements..and some huge communist structure which I do not know
what is. It is of course the seat of power in Russia, and was so for
centuries. The first structures of the actual Kremlin were built here in
the early 14th century, but the oldest remaining ones are from the early
15th century - such as the Annunciation cathedral. The existing walls
and towers were built between 1485 - 1495, and the total length is 2235 metres. The height and thickness varies between 5 - 19 m and 3.5 - 6.5 m
respectively.
Apart from the notable palaces and churches, Ivan the
Great's bell tower with the Tsar bell, largest in the world and weighing
more than 200 tonnes is difficult to miss. Nearby is also a huge cannon
with really large...balls! I'd hate to try to load it up and have one of
them fall onto my foot!
The Kremlin area is still mostly off-limits for
tourists. As I tried my hand on a zebra crossing to get some distance to
the cathedrals for a shot, I was stopped by a guard who said 'закрыт!'
- zakryt - closed!
Well, time is passing..and I know I have one more big
task to do, and I need to time it pretty well - my
photography-with-tripod round! So I head outside to have a look at the
tomb of the unknown soldier with its eternal flame and guards - marking
the sacrifices made during the second world war. Then I go underground -
not yet for the metro, but inside the shopping complex known as
Охотный Ряд - Okhotniy Ryad. It is indeed
underground, and quite impressive with a glass covered cupola hanging 3
floors above a romanesque style fountain. I have a great lunch at 'Il
Patio' - an Italian restaurant. I then head back to Red Square again,
visit GUM inside for a short moment, then I go inside St Basil's
cathedral. And I already know that a one-way journey between the city
centre and my hotel takes me a full hour, so I head back, have half an
hour of rest, and then toss my tripod and my camera over my shoulder and
head out for what turns out to be a 4,5 hour long trip just to get a few
night shots - oh, and a small souvenir too :) And the bad thing is that
I wish I had spent more time on it - taking more pics in more locations.
And even so, when I return to my hotel, the restaurant is closed, and
the only option is the 'Inter' bar which is quite smoky and where the
non-english speaking waitress tells me the kitchen closes in half an
hour, and the bar closes in one hour. So I order a very quick beef
stroganoff and try to order wine, which the menu outside shows they
have. But she can't find any wine menu at all, so I end up as a
non-alcoholic this evening. How boring :)
And bedtime is as usual well into the night...01:30
or so.
Day 8
It is my last day, and I will spend most of it
travelling and waiting. Not my favourite pastime, but there's no choice.
I get to the airport without incident and am surprised to find a super
quiet, shiny and very pleasant terminal E at Sheremetevo - quite
contrary to the many negative reviews I have read beforehand. I am
completely alone at the border/pass/visa control, and completely alone
through the security check. Even better - Air Baltic has actually
decided to fly this time! And this time I even get my pre-paid hot meal
- really wow! I pick up a small bottle of vodka at the airport, but not
before I check specifically beforehand with an employee in the shop -
will they accept this as part of my hand luggage in Riga, with a seal
outside the EU? Yes of course, is the answer.
As I pick up my luggage, check in again (due to
non-connecting flights) and go through security in Riga, surprise
surprise..this bottle is not allowed, because "Moscow is not Europe". So
Moscow must be somewhere in Africa then, I guess..or Asia, I think.
Congratulations, you have been played with again. We wish you an
otherwise pleasant day!
As I reach my home, I see that today's travel time is
12 hours - definitely enough! Now..up with the camera first of all and
check out those pics :)
Epilogue: Now that I have been to
both St Petersburg and Moscow, how do the two compare? Well, in a way,
they do not compare, as they are quite different cities. While both of
them have many interesting sights, St Petersburg seemed much more quiet
and pedestrian friendly. What far surpassed my expectations in both
cities though was the quality of food. And now it makes me wonder why
the Russian cuisine is not more widespread than it is - it is hard to
find a single Russian restaurant apart from in really big (European)
cities.
UNESCO sites visited on the journey:
Kremlin
and Red Square, Moscow
Ensemble
of the Novodevichy Convent
