Five Days in Moscow
It has been interesting being in Russia during the week that Tony Blair stepped down as British Prime Minister. People here in Moscow see a parallel between Tony Blair and Mikhail Gorbachev, in that both leaders were admired in the United States long after their popularity had evaporated in their home countries.
Our time in Moscow this week did not go strictly according to plan. To begin with, there are still many unresolved issues regarding enrolments and other issues back at the College that have kept me on e-mail for an hour or two every day. Hopefully, most of them are now fixed, although there are several National Committees that still have not finalised the selection of their 1st Year students who will (hopefully) join us in September. Another factor forcing changes of plans was that both Di and Andrew have been quite unwell, Di with breathing problems due to an allergic reaction to all the dust and cigarette smoke, and Andrew with a spectacular vomiting attack at the Sparrow Hills near Moscow State University.
One of our planned highlights in Moscow was a trip to Suzdal, a beautiful old town about 210 kilometres east of Moscow that is a gem of the “Golden Ring”, a group of towns surrounding Moscow that are noted for their golden domed traditional architecture. There are no day trips to Suzdal from Moscow, and enquiries about transport failed to find a cost below about US$500 for the day for a car and driver – clearly unaffordable. Then I had a great idea – rent a car for about one-sixth of that amount. Driving a manual car with left hand drive is no problem for me – I have done it often – and after driving in Bosnia-Herzegovina a few weeks ago, I felt I was well prepared for Russia’s roads.
What I was not prepared for was the challenge of renting a car. I began online at the Avis website, and obtained a confirmed reservation for the following day, collecting a small Renault at the Avis downtown office situated just two Metro stations from our hotel. We found the address with only a few problems, although the fact that there was no Avis sign was a slight concern. With extremely limited Russian and lots of gestures that I hoped resembled turning the steering wheel of a car, I “communicated” with the woman working at the hair dressing salon at the address given to me on the Avis website, and I was pointed through a heavy wooden door into the old office building next door. Using the same limited vocabulary and gestures with two security guards in the dark, dingy foyer, I was directed to a telephone on the wall, and following the Russian signage (which interestingly did not mention the word “Avis” in any language or script, dialled the number indicated. A very helpful lady told me that there were no cars available that day, and probably none the following day either. So much for our confirmed reservation, and so much for our plans to visit Suzdal!
So, we didn’t rent a car, we didn’t go to Suzdal, my wife and son were unwell, I was busy communicating with the College and various National Committees, parents and potential students around the world – “what was Moscow like?” you may well ask.
Actually, we had quite a good time in Moscow with some memorable experiences. When we discovered that there was no car for a trip to Suzdal, we decided instead to take a boat trip 
on the Moscow River from Kievskaya to the Novospassky Monastery, past the 1980 Olympic Games site, the Kremlin and the Ustinky Bridge (some Russian place names do not sound very flash in English – we later also visited Spaso House, which is the official residence of the US Ambassador!). The views of the Kremlin from the river, with those gold domes shining brightly under the clear blue skies, will not be easy to forget for a long time!
The views of the Kremlin from the river were especially appreciated because two days earlier we had spent a morning walking 
through the Kremlin. The word ‘kremlin’ means ‘fortress’, and many Russian towns have a kremlin, the famous one in Moscow being the largest. Moscow’s Kremlin still serves as the centre of government just as it did during Soviet times, and on the day we visited there were tens of black limousines parked for what was obviously a significant meeting. Visitors are, of course, not permitted to enter the buildings used by the national government, but there is much to see anyway. The Kremlin is perhaps Russia’s finest collection of traditional architecture, dating from the 1400s up the present time. It contains the world’s largest cannon (which never fired), the world’s largest bell (which never rang as it cracked while the metal casting was cooling), some glorious garden parkland (the Alexandrovsky Gardens) – and those wonderful buildings.
On one of the days when both Di and Andrew were feeling especially unwell, I spent half a day riding the Circle Line of the Moscow Metro, photographing the underground People’s Palaces that characterise the Metro. Moscow’s Metro is no ordinary subway. It carries more 
people each day than the London Underground and New York subway combined, the trains come at intervals of just one or two minutes, and the underground stations are glorious monuments to the triumphs of socialism and the promises of a bright future under Communism that reflect the artistic glories of socialist realism under Stalin. The red stars, the gold hammers and sickles, the rich mosaics of Lenin inspiring the masses – all these and more are still there in the Moscow Metro for all to see and admire.
I visited two museums in Moscow. One was the Museum of Revolutionary History neat Tverskaya Sqaure, which attempts to give a balanced account of Russia’s turbulent history from 1905 up to the present time. The memorabilia there is fantastic, but unfortunately photography is forbidden, so I cannot share it with you. The other museum visit was the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, which has an extremely impressive collection of French impressionist paintings. Sadly, photography in the Pushkin Museum 
is also forbidden, unlike the wonderful Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.
Perhaps the most magical experience we (that is Andrew and I) enjoyed in Moscow was visiting Red Square late last night to see the buildings under lights. It does not get completely dark in Moscow at this time of year, but it was dark enough by 11 pm to get the effects of the floodlighting on the Kremlin Walls, the State History Museum, St Basil’s Cathedral, the Assumption Cathedral and the various gates and monuments. On one side of Red Square, the huge GUM department store was lit up with thousands of individual bulbs in a way that made it resemble a castle in Disneyland. And while we were there, a huge full moon rose over the Spassky Gate – simply unforgettable.
As a substitute to going to Suzdal, we took the shorter journey to Sergiev Posad (still also commonly known by its former Communist name of Zagorsk). This involved a short Metro trip to Komsomolskaya Metro Station (one of Moscow’s most spectacular, and still named after the Communist 
Youth League whose members helped to build it during the 1930s) and then an hour and a half train ride. The highlight of Sergiev Posad is the Trinity Monastery of St Sergius, an eclectic ensemble of buildings dating from 1420. The monastery is a perfect vision of traditional Russian architecture, with golden and starred domes dominating the exteriors of the buildings, several onion-domed churches with interiors covered in religious icons, their dim interiors illuminated by opaque smoky beams of light and resonant with the sounds of small choirs of priests and nuns, and women with heads covered in scarves expressing their devotion by crossing themselves, kissing icons and praying. Russian buildings often have strange closing arrangements, and many of the monastery’s buildings are closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, as well as the last Friday of each month. Today was the last Friday of the month.
Our time in Moscow is almost at an end, and tomorrow (Saturday) morning we leave the hotel at 3 am to go to Domodedovo Airport to catch our flight to London where, after a 24 hour stopover, we begin our week in Iceland. There is some GREAT geography there, and I can hardly wait!
What is not so great in Iceland is the internet connections at the places we will stay. I will connect when I can and upload the next blog with details of what we have seen there. Whether that will be in a few days or a week, I guess time will tell. Please stay tuned....
Saturday, 30 June 2007
Ploshchad Revolutsii Metro Station, Moscow
