Russia – 2013

Greetings, friends – from behind the formerly Iron Curtain.

We are currently en route to our next stop (Helsinki, Finland) aboard the hi-speed Allegro train and very happy to share that we had a great time in Russia.  As with previous trips, it feels good to sit down (even if we’re really moving 130 mph)!

Getting to Russia was a nearly 20-hour affair (with layovers in Switzerland and New Jersey) and we really felt wiped out by the time we arrived at Domodedovo airport…which incidentally was bombed by Chechen Rebels in 2007.  Things move slower in Russia but the airport was mostly repaired.  We met (good friends) the Bergrens and headed out to find the drivers – customs was a ‘snap’.  I was expecting (read: requested) two vans…. but it turns out in Moscow that for eight American tourists with bags only one minivan is nece to shuttle said cargo over 1.5 hours to the hotel.  So we rode with bags both under foot and in laps to the hotel on the city’s outer ring.

We checked in, fueled up and set out for Tverstaya Street…one of Stalin’s planned commercial thoroughfares.  Spotting old Soviet monuments and plaques was a lot of fun as we made our way towards Red Square.  We walked around, got our bearings on the city and walked to dinner in the theater district.  We relaxed, jet-lagged, drank Vodka and ate Caviar on blinis while toasting Russia, “Novastroya.”  It’s light in Moscow until 11-ish, so we walked off dinner in Red Square before taking the Metro back to the hotel and turning in.

To start our second day we met up with Andre – our tour guide.  Normally I’d stay away from tour guides for exploring cities because they tend to move more slowly than do I but much was written about Moscow’s criminal element and so I retained Andre’s services for two half-day tours.  I figured he would be better able to deal with muggers than I.  Andre showed us the Changing of the Guard at the Kremlin, a Putin, Lenin and Stalin actor look-alikes, some fancy Stalin-era Metro Stations (very nice, by the way) and several of Moscow’s points of interest and by 1pm he was finished…so we waited in line for while in an attempt to purchase Kremlin tickets but without notice the Kremlin closed for the day.

So…we gobbled a picnic lunch on the steps of Red Square then continued the day with our own walk along the Moscow River

(World’s ugliest statue), the Tvaraya Art Museum,  we walked to a cold-war bunker that wound up being closed…without notice…and a park with a collection of old communist statues.  Italian dinner on the Moscow river followed by a river walk along the Kremlin Wall, a tour of the Metro Station near Olympic Stadium and off to the hotel we went.

We began our third full day in Moscow again with Andre..who admitted that he never lead a group who covered so much so quickly…so he basically walked us to Christ the Savior Church (beautiful…leveled by Stalin in 1950’s and subsequently reconstructed in 2000), up Arbat Street (cheap souvenir shopping) through a Moscow Greenbelt Park and then set us free.  We had Russian Tea Service at a hotel near the Kremlin and set out to walk / metro to see a few churches and museums:  (Russian

Modern History (1907 – present) and the Gulag Museum…which I was hoping showed a lot more of the brutality than it actually did.  After seeing some more of the city we settled in to dinner at one of the old Politburo’s favorite spots “Cafe Pushkin” for a great dinner served in a classic old-timber Russian restaurant.  Incidentally, during the Communist Era the restaurant was one of the only places in the country where non-Russian food/beverages were available.  A little rain and a lot of jet-lag kept us from a late-night walk about town.

Our fourth day in Moscow started great…Andre was gone and we headed first thing to the Kremlin.  It was supposedly open again.  We bought our tickets (no waiting and headed into the queue, behind only a moderately-sized group of Chinese tourists).  The Kremlin turned out to be truly beautiful with all its collections of silver, gold, weapons, porcelain, royal carriages,

Faberge eggs, Jewels etc… it easily rivaled the collections of the British, Austrian and French royal treasuries but in Russia “No Photos” really means “NO PHOTOS”.  Thus, just after clearing the entrance turn-styles Anne dashed back to the cloakroom to check all of our cameras and cell phones.  As such, the only photos of the Kremlin are from the grounds where the old churches and Putin’s private driving lane were the primary attractions.  Oh…the Tsar Bell (world’s largest) was also interesting.  At over 200 tons it’s the world’s largest and was cracked at the foundry after someone doused it with water while the rest of the Kremlin was afire.  We spent most of the day at the Kremlin, had lunch at GUM’s Cafeteria (famous department store), took the Metro to the Russian Cosmonaut Museum and went to the Bolshoi Ballet in the evening.

My family loves me and so do the Bergrens; so when I booked the 6:30am train to St. Petersburg and we woke up at 4:30 nobody minded.  Three short hours later we were standing along the Neva going to St. Nickolas, Peter Paul Fortress and getting a general sense about town with Helen – our very talented and talkative Russian tour guide.  Again with the scary crime stories about Russia.  After four hours touring with

Helen we had dinner (see my vegetable salad) before the tourist-production of “Swan Lake”.  While the girls turned in, Jeff, Karen and I climbed to the top of St. Issac for a midnight view of the city.  No joke, this is the season of the White Nights and the sun really doesn’t set. until after midnight.  Anne was feeling claustrophobic and waited at the bottom.

One of the main attractions of St. P is the Peterhof Palace.  So we fought hordes of cruisers (who get special early

passes) to walk the royal rooms at the palace.  We were in queue so long that by the end of the Peterhoff tour our half-day with Helen and our bad-attitude driver was over and we needed to get back to St. Petersburg.  After cafe lunch we walked to Kunstkammern Museum where among the anthropological collections there were dozens of malformed fetuses preserved from 200+ years ago.  It seems Peter was fed up with the superstitious ways of his people and set out to use science as the antidote to superstition.  We also went to the St. Petersburg City Museum to learn about the nasty affects of Germany’s blockade in 1941-2.  Afterward we had a fantastic dinner at another old Russian classic restaurant “Pallkin” … where it was my ‘birthday’ and I was subsequently sung to in Russian!  (thanks, Karen)

We really milked out last day for all it was worth to the tune of about 12 miles!  Hermitage museum, Peter’s Summer Palace / Gardens, St. Issac’s, Bronze Horseman Sculpture, Church of Spilled Blood, Church of Kazan, Russian Museum and we got some shopping in for the girls’ trinkets from St. Petersburg.  We had to bid the Bergrens adieu as they headed to Sweden and us to FInland…but we had a great time and have lots of fun stories to share.

Russia was a lot of fun, full of great food and of course…lots and lots of walking.  Everyone held up beautifully…even those with recently repaired: bunions, tendons and cartilage.

Look for the next update in a few days from Finland / Sweden…where the White Nights continue.

Love,
Jeff, Anne, Madeline and Hannah