In June 2012 we travelled to Russia for a two centre holiday in St Petersburg and Moscow. Given the state of east/west relationships this is not something that I expect ever to do again.
Posted in Age of Innocence, Cathedrals, Europe, Food, Hotels, Literature, Postcards, Russia, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Arbat Street, Arbatskaya, Life, Moscow, Photography, Travel, Vodka
When Lenin died in January 1924 he was acclaimed as ‘the greatest genius of mankind’ and ‘the leader and teacher of the people’s of the whole world’. Time Magazine named him one of the one hundred most important people of the twentieth century (Albert Einstein was first and Mahatma Ghandi and Theodore Roosevelt close runners-up).
According to the article in Encyclopaedia Britannica: ‘If the Bolshevik Revolution is, as some people have called it, the most significant political event of the twentieth century, then Lenin must for good or ill be considered the century’s most significant political leader… he has been regarded as both the greatest revolutionary leader and revolutionary statesman in history, as well as the greatest revolutionary thinker since Marx’.
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, History, Literature, Postcards, Russia, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Adolf Hitler, Communism, Kremlin, Lenin, Lenin Corpse, Lenin Mausoleum, Lenin waxworks model, Life, Moscow, Photography, Red Square, Russia Waxworks, Russian Revolution, Travel
While the current travel restrictions are in place I have no new stories to post so what I thought that I would do is to go through my picture archives and see where I was on this day at any time in the last few travelling years.
On 26th May 2012 I was underground on a tour of the Moscow Metro…
Whilst visitors to London would be unlikely to consider the ‘Tube’ to be a tourist attraction, in Moscow the Metro is a ‘must visit’ place and not just for getting around the city because each station has a unique design using elaborate decorations and materials from all over the country.
Click on an image to scroll through a Gallery of the stations…
Posted in Arts and Crafts, Cathedrals, Europe, History, Postcards, Russia, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Life, London Underground, Moscow, Moscow Metro, Photography, Russia, Stalin, The Moscow Metro, Travel
This mall was built in the late nineteenth century to replace a covered market and originally contained over a thousand stores. It is built on three levels with a vaulted glass roof and even today resembles a modern cathedral. On this first visit, thirsty and hungry we ignored the rows of designer shops and made for No. 57 CTOΛOBAЯ, the recommended restaurant on the third floor with a noble history of providing good quality, reasonably priced food for the proletariat.
We picked up a tray, waited in line, selected our food and took it to our chosen table and it turned out to be really, really good, probably the best meal we had had so far in Russia.
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, Food, History, Postcards, Russia, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged GUM Moscow, Kemlin, Life, Moscow, Moscow Postcards, Photography, postaday, Red Square, Weekly Photo Challenge
Etched in my mind are grainy images from the 1960s of Russia’s annual May Day Parade when a cheerless looking Politburo would sit close to Lenin’s tomb and watch an endless procession of goose stepping troops and weapons of mass destruction that were going to wipe us off the face of the earth troop by in what seemed to be a provocative display deliberately choreographed to create paranoia and fear in the west.
The pictures were always dull, grainy and grey and my image of Moscow was always that it was a lacklustre, soulless and dreary place so what a surprise it was now to find a vibrant and colourful scene, a square brimming with activity and effervescent energy, a vibrant place with happy smiling people, exciting and lively and crowned by the iconic brightly painted onion domes of St. Basil’s Cathedral at the opposite end.
Posted in Europe, History, Russia, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged GUM Moscow, Kremlin, Life, Moscow, Photography, Red Square, Travel
We left the Cathedral and returned to the streets of Moscow that were now bathed in sunshine and we made our way towards the Kremlin and Red Square. As we walked away there was a small party of school children each with a packet of coloured chalks and under the instruction of the teacher leaving a personal memento of their visit to the cathedral on the pavement outside.
Posted in Arts and Crafts, Cathedrals, Europe, History, Russia, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Josef Stalin, Kremlin, Life, Moscow, Photography, The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
The Moscow Metro:
Whilst visitors to London would be unlikely to consider the ‘Tube’ to be a tourist attraction in Moscow the Metro is a ‘must visit’ place and not just for getting around the city because each station has a unique construction using elaborate decorations and materials from all over the country. Station designs incorporate granite, quartzite, limestone, twenty kinds of marble, semiprecious stones and are decorated with bronze sculptures, majolica panels, stainless steel columns, glittering chandeliers, bas-relief friezes, stained-glass panels, murals, and mosaics.
All lines start in the suburbs of Moscow and converge on the centre and there is an interesting legend about the origin of the ring line. A group of engineers met with Stalin to inform him of progress and as he looked at the drawings he poured himself some coffee and spilt a small amount over the edge of the cup. When he was asked whether or not he liked the project so far he put his cup down on the centre of the Metro blueprints and left in silence. The bottom of the cup left a brown circle on the drawings. Interpreting this as a sign of Stalin’s genius they gave orders for the building of the ring line, which on the maps is always shown in brown.
On the other hand, brown is also the colour of bullshit!
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, History, Russia, World Heritage
Tagged Life, Moscow, Moscow Metro, Photography, Russia, Stalin, The Moscow Metro, Travel
Queuing up like this to spend a few seconds looking at a mummified corpse might seem like a strange thing to do but I was fascinated to be able to do this and to be able to see for myself one of the men who shaped the twentieth century and the cold war world of my childhood – a world of spies and espionage, nuclear weapons, underground fallout shelters for the great and the good and the constant nagging fear of Armageddon. Of course I wanted to see him, I’d go and see the preserved body of Adolf Hitler if someone hadn’t poured petrol on it and set it alight!
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, History, Russia, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Communism, Kremlin, Lenin, Life, Moscow, Photography, Red Square, Russian Revolution, Travel
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, History, Hotels, Literature, Natural Environment, Russia, World Heritage
Tagged Life, Moscow, Moscow Metro, Photography, postaday, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge
The Moscow Metro
The Moscow Metro is the world’s second most heavily used metro system after the Tokyo’s twin subway. It has nearly three hundred kilometres of track, twelve lines, and one hundred and eighty stations.
Whilst visitors to London would be unlikely to consider the ‘Tube’ to be a tourist attraction in Moscow the Metro is a ‘must visit’ place and not just for getting around the city because each station has a unique design using elaborate decorations and materials from all over the country, including granite, quartzite, limestone, twenty kinds of marble, semiprecious stones and are decorated with plus bronze sculptures, majolica panels, stainless steel columns, glittering chandeliers, bas-relief friezes, stained-glass panels, murals, and mosaics.
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, History, Russia, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Life, Moscow, Moscow Metro, Photography, Stalin and the Metro, Train Travel, Travel
Have Bag, Will Travel 