Moscow - Day 1

After 9200 km - Moscow Kazansky Station

The next day (Sunday 5th) dawned with sunny blue skies as we travelled though more forest. Even 75 km from Moscow, we are in forest, with occasional groups of dachas. Russians certainly like their “shacks” outside the city, with a vegetable patch out the back – we have seen them for the whole length of the trip.

The kilometers passed by. Almost lazily, our train pulled into Kazansky Station at 9:23; we were right on time after over 9000 km of train travel. Given that, why can't the morning train from Gardenvale arrive on time?

We avoided the spruikers and found a regular taxi, which deposited us at our hotel - the Hotel Pekin. This hotel is on the Garden Ring, which means that it is a shrt distance from central Moscow. It is a Stalinist 1930's building which has been renovated and is a good hotel for a reasonable (Moscow) price, close to a Metro station. Luckily, we were given a room as soon as we arrived.

All Russian distances are measured from this point near Red Square

With our very helpful and knowledgeable Russian guide Alex Katov, we headed off. First stop was a walk around Red Square, followed by brunch. We then walked through the Aleksandrovsky Gardens, by the Kremlin. The weather was a perfect summer day - blue sky and a temperature of about 26 C, so there were many Moscovites about enjoying the Sunday afternoon.

Alex & Matthew in Red Square

We walked to the Puskin Museum. Our objective was to see the treasures of Troy and the Impressionists (most of which Russia didn't acknowledge having till late in the 20th century). Having bought our tickets and wandered around, we discovered that the Impressionists had been moved to an adjacent gallery (which means a new ticket). Otherwise, the Puskin contains a good collection of Reniassance art, of casts of ancient and European sculptures and other artefacts (much like the collection of casts in the V & A) and a more limited, but beautiful, collection of Greek and Eqyptian artefacts. The gold and other treasures from Troy included some exquitie pieces, but Matthew felt that it was much reduced from the collection he had previously seen there.

The soaring metal monument on the Cosmonauts Museum

From the Puskin, we headed off for the Cosmonauts Museum. Having Alex as guide made this easy to find and was particularly helpful in understanding the exhibits (no English captions). The Museum is recently refurbished (Russia is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Gagarin's flight) and is topped with a simply striking monument to Rusisan space endeavours, in the form of a soaring sweep of metal topped by a rocket shape, so that the whole looks like the take-off of a rocket.  The museum is well laid out and gives a comprehensive picture of Russia's space program, while acknowledgng the role of the USA in space also.

From there we took a slow monorail, which deposited us conveniently close to a Metro station. It also gave us a view of suburban Moscow, includng the areas of apartment blocks that are home to most Moscovites. Incidently, Moscow is an expensive city and it's average salary is probably 5 or 6 times the average salary in the Siberian cities we had visited (and about twice the average salary of Saint Petersburg).

We had a bite to eat at My My (pronounced Moo-Moo) - they are a chain of buffet restaurants and their symbol is a cow. Then, it was off by Metro to Arbat Street. The Metro stations are very clean and are often works of art (think marble, statues, art deco fittings etc), though each station is different. Many stations are buried quite deeply, around 70 metres, so that the elevators are impressive affairs. The stations are built with defense in mind - most have substantial blast-doors to seal off the stations.

Classy, classical performers in Arbat Street

Arbat Street is pedestrianised and is "tourist central", with many street vendors and street performers. We wandered along its length and stopped for a beer to quench our thirst in the Moscow heat. Alex had the Russian thirst quencher called kvas, which is apparently brewed from bread, is very slightly alcoholic and is certainly an acquired taste (but one that all Russians seem to have).

We farewelled Alex and headed back to the hotel on our own, without incident. However, when we got to our hotel, our magnetic room keys didn't work. After various attempts, we and the staff all declared failure and we were moved to a room down the hall.

A little later, we headed around the corner and found an Italian restaurant, where we each had a small pizza and a beer, before we flaked for the night. We had had a big day!