Nizhny Novgorod Stopover

Friday, September 20, 2019

Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russian Federation

The long distance Trans Siberian trains to the East will pass thru Nizhny Novgorod, four hours from Moscow and the largest city before Kazan. As I was heading the opposite way from Kazan back towards Moscow I had decided to do a half day stopover at Nizhny Novgorod. This was to break up the train journey and see a non touristy city people normally just pass thru on the train.

Having arrived after 6am from the 10pm sleeper from Kazan I first wanted to leave my luggage at the station. Fortunately they had luggage lockers and I was able to leave everything for 280 Rub ($5.60 Cad).

Next I went over to the metro where the fare was only 28 Rub ($0.50 cents). I only had to go one stop over to the terminal station on this line at the city centre from Moskovskaya to Gorakovskaya.

It was a lavish metro system but no scary deep escalators as had been in Kiev or Tbilisi. I was concerned about my impending visit to the Moscow Metro.

I'd planned my walking route on google maps. Leaving the station it was confusing getting my bearings but eventually I oriented myself on the large oval park towards the pedestrian street.

It was still only about 8am and people were heading to work. At the end of the long street the Kremlin tower was visible and before long I had reached there.

Though the walls are intact and nice to see the tourist map showed all the buildings were administrative and not open to the public. The only place to visit was the church. Just behind was an eternal flame overlooking the river.

I guess this is probably why people don't come to Nizhny Novgorod and just stay on the train as there isnt much to do. Then I noticed several gold domes of churches outside the city walls so I navigated my way over.

I was now on the waterfront and navigated my way more east toward the grand Chkalov Stairs. There was a similar staircase in Odessa Ukraine but was a let down as it was closed for renovations and only led down to a shipping port. This was nicer but absent any tourist interest.

From the top I was going to navigate myself to the Mosque about a 2km walk away. Fortunately it was on the tourist sign markers. There was another large museum but it didnt open till 10am and it was still only about 9am.

At the Mosque I could only go into the ladies section at the bottom. I'm not sure what locals were telling me but appears you could not go into the main mosque upstairs this early.

Vlog Nizhny Novgorod Mosque - https://youtu.be/Fx1a30itegQ

Nizhny Novgorod Mosque

Interior

Locals

Exterior

There were also some dilapidated traditional homes somehow held together and still used as residences, a prelude to my deeper adventures in Russia to come.

The heavy rains moved in so I took some shelter at a KFC just before noon and had a light meal. A wrap was 215 Rub ($4.30 Cad).

I then made my way back to the metro. My train out wasnt till 4pm but the rains were strong and I was tired from my overnight train so wanted go back to the station. This span of the metro is interesting as it is an outdoor bridge crossing the Volga River.