Snippets from Moscow Part 1, Structures and Statues

There was so much to see and do in Moscow, decided to split it into two sections: 

Part 1: Moscow - Structures and Statues

Part 2: Moscow -  People, Puns and Putin

Moscow is everything you ever read, saw or imagined it would be; 

Larger than life "heroic" statues, 

Huge Edifices,  

Wide Boulevards, 

Colorful Ornate Churches

Red Square

While the city seems to have an over abundance of statues, here are the ones that caught our attention.  Celebrating the heroic common worker...

Honoring the first Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin 

the world's first astronaut,. The year? 1961. 

He was killed in 1969 flying a MiG-15 trainer jet.

Celebrating it's war heroes... both World War II Field Marshall Zhukov... 

 in front of the state historical museum. 

Since all four of the horse's hoofs are touching the ground, 

this signifies Zhukov did not die in battle, but later in life.

and citizen soldiers with a simple roadside monument...

and of course that old guy with a beard, Uncle Karl, with his manifesto in hand.

Moscow is proud of its 'wedding cake' buildings surrounding the city center. All from the Stalin era.

Moscow State University main building lite up at night.

In the country side they also get into the fashionable gingerbread decorations.

Church of the Transfiguration in the Novodevichiy Convent 

with its five small golden domes and intricately painted exterior.

Even the modest non-golden churches are highly decorated.
For a country that tried to ban religion, churches are not shy about being noticed.

New buildings are made to look larger than life.

 This one occupying a whole city block is still under construction.

But look how out of scale it is compared to its neighbor on the right,

 a normal building designed for human occupancy.  

The new one looks like it will be occupied by people twelve feet tall.  

The vehicles in the street look like Hot Wheels toys.

Typical Russian inferiority complex, boasting that everything is bigger and better than the West.

Our guide explained how growing up in Russia, all she ever heard was how much better off they were than the West. The long lines they had to stand in to buy bread was better than no bread in the West. It wasn't until she actually traveled abroad did she recognize all the falsehoods they had been taught. 

She now lives in Germany.

A modern apartment building on the outskirts of the city is built to human scale, if not tightly packed. 

While apartments in the city center are of Stalinist era architecture. 

In 1955, Nikita Khrushchev condemned the excesses of the past and actually disbanded the Soviet Academy of Architecture. Even he was tired of the froufrou buildings.

Built near the end of the 1800's, the infamous GUM Department Store overlooking Red Square.

 GUM is not really a department store in our sense of the word,
it is actually a shopping mall with many different individual stores.

The round structure is the entrance for a Moscow METRO subway station.

Underground, the stations are ornate, highly decorated with many bronze sculptures. 

The trains are modern, efficient and fast.

Many levels below ground a high-relief sculpture celebrates victory.

Paintings on every column honor the Russian workers, here fishermen.

Or a mural depicting how great life is in the country with a joyous wedding.

And of course the most famous building in all of Russia, St. Basils Cathedral. 

Built in the 15th century during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. To think in the 1930's, Stalin wanted to tear it down to modernize Moscow. A couple of Russian historians opposed him on it, spending the rest of their short lives in a Siberian gulag.

In the background is a glimpse of Moscow city and power plant smokestacks.

Next up, Part 2,  People, Puns and Putin

CCjon

Snippets from St. Petersburg

After crossing the Russian border from Finland, we proceed on to Vyborg for a lunch break.  The weather is grey, overcast, rather gloomy. This photo of the church in Vyborg was taken at noon. 

All the color is washed out of the sky and everything below.

Rolling into St Petersburg, the weather has not improved any. 

The drab dreariness adds to the already uninspired government style of architecture. 

Before this trip, everyone we know who had been to St Petersburg raved about the beauty and culture here.  Didn't or couldn't see it. Is it the weather or the flu clouding the brain?

Colorful spirals of the Church of the Spilled Blood struggle to rise above the heavy grey blanket.

Driving down Nevsky Prospect, considered to be the hub of St Petersburg social life,  a green topped ornate dark theater inches its way out to be noticed. 

Then a beautiful red and white cathedral.

 Yes it was cold and raining. If the sun would only come out everything would be brighter.

A combination of the dreary weather and a burning fever has me as depressed as the skies.

Checking in, the grand lobby of Sokos Palace Bridge hotel on Nevsky Prospect in St Petersburg.

We decide to eat in the hotel the first night.  Fresh baked trout(?) looks tasty, but not to me. 

I'll settle for a hot broth to fight the flu. 

Tried to get some meds from a pharmacy, had to settle for a fizzy aspirin and cold medicine.

Amparo says that if I took a few more shots, I would get over the flu faster. 

Shots of vodka that is, she got over her flu before I did. 

Her and Anna celebrate with the first Russian vodka shots. 

The blueberry vodka yesterday was Finnish.

Taking in the Nevsky Prospect street nightlife . Many little shops are open and thriving. 

Wandering around we felt safe even at night.

Yes, we really are here in the old USSR.

Not sure what they are serving here, but if it makes you happy, 

then there's still truth in advertising.

Starbucks????  really are everywhere in the world.

The old Hermitage with Cathrine the Great's theater on the left, 

next to the larger newer blue Hermitage museum in the center. 

Many waterways divide up St Petersburg. Has been called the Venice of the north, but Anna says the locals prefer to think of their city as more like the Netherlands. 

Amparo is excited to be attending a performance of the ballet Swan Lake 

in Cathrine the Greats' private theater in the old Hermitage. 

No cameras or recordings were allowed, but Amparo was able to get a shot with her iPhone 

of the dancers taking their final bow. We were both very impressed with the quality

of ballet and the music in this intimate setting. 

Has to be one of the top three highlights of our entire tour.

In a small town near St Petersburg is a very ornate old church undergoing renovation. 

After glasnost, religion has experienced a resurgence in Russia.

All rails lead to Moscow on the map inside the St Petersburg train station.

After three grey days in St Petersburg, we board a high speed train to Moscow.

Not the slow one on the left, but the bullet on the right.

Leaving the St Petersburg rail yards. Those look like new apartments buildings going up in the background.

Though blurry, had to snap a photo of one of the few fields with crops we saw while crossing the Russian countryside.  Am puzzled as to why there were so few cultivated fields. Most are standing knee deep in several years of weeds. Why is no one farming the land?  It is obvious there used to be crops growing there as one can see the fence rows and ditches marking boundaries.

Anna says the government says the people are lazy and like their vodka too much... ?

We saw no farm equipment either. The only farm tractors we have seen so far were in the city hauling boxes of merchandise. 

Hmmmm... I'll keep asking the question until....

After four hours flying along at 227 kph (121 miles per hour), we're in Moscow! 

Hopefully the sun will come out tomorrow.

CCjon

Snippets from Helsinki

Our travel companions tell us the overnight ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki had many forms of entertainment, duty-free shopping, etc. but we were so exhausted we stayed in our cabin and slept the whole ride.  No casinos, no karaoke, no shopping, no drinking binges...

The flu bug we caught on the flight over to Berlin is gaining the upper hand.

Finland is the most technologically advanced country in Europe as well as the northern most outpost of the European Union. NOKIA, the mobile phone giant, calls Finland home. We have been impressed with the fast internet service everywhere.

Entering the Helsinki harbor was a bit unnerving. Looking out the water smeared port hole, huge boulders are close enough to reach out and touch, or so it seems. Has to be a steep deep channel.

 Helsinki, with a population of only 600,000 is a small big city. Being coastal at the northern end of the Baltic Sea, it's windy and cool most of the time. Unless you're sitting under a direct sun. then it warms up a bit. Otherwise, dress warm and turn your watch ahead one hour, time zone change.

Love to see these electric non-polluting trams in the cities. 

Though the overhead wires are slicing through every photo I try to take 

of the green domed Lutheran Cathedral in the background.

The Finns too love their bicycles. Young lady smartly dressed for work and cool weather.

Eila Hiltunen, a Finnish sculptress, was commissioned to create a piece entitled " Love of Music" 

 to honor Finland's great composer, Jean Sibelius.  

The challenge was to create a visual presence of what music sounds like.

In a city park, stands her interpretation for that challenge.  

A tight forest of six hundred stainless steel pipes floating over a huge rock

 amongst a forest of evergreen trees. It makes no sound. 

It's music for the eyes. 

Music critics were so opinionated, the sculptress was obligated to add a bust of Sibelius 

nearby so everyone would know what it was about.

Lesson learned: sculptors aren't musicians and musicians aren't sculptors. 

There are many big and even bigger rocks under and above ground in Helsinki. In the middle of downtown, was a particularly large granite boulder that until 1969 they could not decide what to do with it. Two architect brothers developed a plan to blast a hole in the center of the boulder to create Temppeliaukio Church, also known as Church in the Rock. Now a favorite tourist attraction. 

The modern main entrance was boring but I thought this service entrance had an interesting character with eight different textural elements. 

 Berry season is in full bloom in Finland. Market Square on the waterfront in front of the Presidential Palace was open today for a farmer's market.  The fresh ripe fruit was looking so delicious, just couldn't figure out how to stuff red and black berries in the pockets of my white shirt without permanent stains. Only buy what you can carry in your hands.

As in all countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, seafood is a main staple, and inexpensive too. 

The hot salmon soup with homemade bread was tasty. One has their choice of sitting in the sun soaking up rays or in the cool shade out of the wind. 

Tonight this food stand will be torn down and re-erected again tomorrow, in order to comply with the "No permanent structures" ordinance. 

Unless they are enjoying shots of Blueberry Vodka as did Amparo and Anna our Russian guide,  

we saw few Finnish smiles..

Wandering a small island near downtown, spied a country lane leading to a farmer's simple produce stand and home. Interesting how he built his fence.

On a back water lagoon, a solitary Finnish duck keeps a wary eye 

on the stranger with his camera.

Russian food is big in Finland, where they take great pride in preparing the most authentic traditional Russian meals. Of course, the meal would not be complete without Russian tea. 

A traditional Russian samovar is used for heating the water. 

but only after having a large portion of borsch (or borsht) with dollops of smetana (sour cream).

Next morning it's back on the road, next stop St Petersburg. 

But first the Russian border for a long wait. Maybe someone will show up and stamp our passports, maybe not. Our group was the first to arrive mid-morning, yet no one was working the other side of the immigration booth.

A typical non-smiling bureaucrat unenthusiastically opens her booth and slowly reviews each person's passport, their visa,  then studies their face.  

Should I smile, frown or clown?  

Better play it straight, we spent 60 days and paid US$350 each for a Russian VISA, 

don't want to screw it up now. 

At last we're in Russia. Now to exchange Euros for Rubles, so I can buy a diet Coke.

CCjon