Making Merry in Moscow

Sunday, July 05, 2015
Moscow, Central Russia, Russian Federation
The night before we arrived in Moscow, we enjoyed a delicious Russian- inspired farewell dinner while sailing down the Volga to the Moscow Canal. 

By the way, for all our dear American friends, it's pronounced MosCOH not MosCOW - which now sounds very strange to my ear

It took me a long time to hound Rick out of this pronunciation error!

This set the tone extremely well for Moscow -- which we'd imagined as drab and grey with frowning folk dressed in simple hand-spun overalls.

We certainly weren't prepared for fun city.

We started to realise how totally wrong were our assumptions once we started noticing some very gorgeous modern buildings as we approached the city.

What were these delicate silvery edifices and leafy business parks? 

Where were the concrete rabbit hutches packed with plebs and ex-serfs, survivors of Stalin's gulags? 

Where was the evidence of Gorbachev's economic collapse and Yeltsin's big sell-off? 

We now knew ALL about that after the lectures given by our Viking guides, Natasha, Sasha and Tatiana!

On our first day we were offered a choice of two Moscow city tours-- one by bus and one a bit more demanding .

As Rick and I needed to start shedding the couple of kilos we'd gained while on board, we opted for the 'Up-Close Moscow Tour by Metro'. 

This meant lots of walking which was welcome although the day was sunny and quite hot. 

The heatwave across southern Europe had affected Russia too, which saw temperatures around 30C. 

That's not incredibly hot in Australian terms but being so far north and when not set up for it, we did feel it.

The Metro system was, like in St Petersburg, super efficient but being a bigger city, had more lines so did get a bit confusing when we went off on our own one day.

So, after a good look around Red Square, checking out the huge GUM department store -- really more of an up-market shopping mall with colourful floral displays -- we had to admit that it wasn't all doom and gloom in Moscow .

'Red', we found out, means 'beautiful' in Russian, so the name Red Square took on more more pleasant and less scary connotations.
 
We saw brides in full regalia traipsing down the middle of the street and into GUM to do a spot of shopping.

Kids and teenagers - in fact most people - eating huge ice-creams.

Buskers playing guitars. 

Everyone, young and old, just thoroughly enjoying themselves.

At the Cathedral - destroyed by Stalin and now rebuilt, we saw such magnificence, again, with beautiful gardens with more brides and celebrating students.
 
It was a long day as we walked from there to attend a folklore concert later that evening. 

This had sounded rather dull on the program and we nearly bailed, but I'm so glad we didn't

Not only was it highly entertaining and fun, but the young performers were incredibly talented. 

Never have I heard the music from Dr Zhivago played with such exhilaration -- or with the original instruments. 

Weirdly - writing this a few days later - I just heard about Omar Shariff dying.

The next two days were the same story--happy Russians out enjoying themselves with not a pinched miserable face in sight.

The Kremlin tour was packed with local families and tourists all keen to see the weekly changing of the guard which takes place during the summer only. 

We were in luck being there at the right time to see it.

If you call standing behind people holding up cameras and selfie sticks with elbows, arms and cameras waving about actually SEEING .

They should be BANNED! 

These hellish devices virtually double the number of spectators, by blocking so much of what can be seen.

It wasn't the odd photo that was the problem - we were equally to blame for that -- but the videoing of the entire thing.

WHO on God's Earth would EVER want to sit around at home watching 30 minutes of soldiers marching about and twirling guns?

Madness!

But after strolling around the Kremlin gardens, watching children picking daisies (really!) I started to calm down and enjoy the fun-loving scene once more.

Our last day was spent in the quite wonderful State Tretyakov Gallery. 

Unfortunately we had little time to spend in our favourite sections with the 19th and early 20th century works but did manage to squeeze in some greats .

The realist genre pictures by Vasily Perov depicting the appalling conditions suffered by the poor.

Mikhail Vrubel's gorgeous 'Lilacs.'

The Asian-inspired, almost psychedelic, work of Nicholas Roerich.

These were just a few of the fabulous painting on display here.

We opted to stay in the city after the gallery tour so headed back to GUM, strolling past elegant restaurants, brassy bistros and kids hanging out at McDonalds.

After getting a bit lost on the Metro (to put it mildly) we finally made our way back through the heavily wooded park by the dock. 

Here was another wedding party having photos taken in this scenic setting. 

Our last night on board .

One last champagne on the deck at sunset.

One last night making merry with Uma and Prakash -- our new Indian friends from Pasadena.

John and Paula from Corfu / Southampton.

 And a large Texan vet with a very loud voice belting out his favourite (I stress HIS) country and western songs.

What a city.

What a journey.



 



 
 

Comments

HARVEY STOCKWELL
2015-07-17

You've given Moscow a life of which I had been ignorant. Yes I hate selfies - they are taken by people who think they are at least as important as the object they are in front of.

2025-02-07

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