THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CITY IN EUROPE-ST. PETERSBURG.

MOSCOWSKY STATION

The person who came to receive us at the train station at St. Petersburg was our cab driver who was English speaking. He was a very friendly person and quite happy to describe the areas that we were passing through. Our hotel was reached quite quickly and to our surprise we found that the hotel had just a door on the  street. When we entered it we found that it was a boutique hotel. The place was cute, small and friendly. Our rooms were cozy, clean and comfortable.We had to wait for some time to gain entry to our rooms as we had arrived quite early in the morning, so we waited in the lounge which had a lovely little book shelf.

KRISTOFF

It rained the whole morning and we had no option but to rest in our rooms. After some rest, we bravely ventured out to explore our neighbourhood and were pleasantly surprised to find a street at the back of our hotel brimming with different restaurants offering a variety of cuisine. We walked up and down the street and settled for a bright looking welcoming restaurant which served Italian cuisine.

ITALIAN PLACE

It served us the most delicious food and the water that they served us was absolutely delightful. As the water was being prepared in front of us, I was quite fascinated by the work involved in its preparation. First water was poured into a jug, slices of lemon and lime were both put in the jug and crushed, with a strong wooden  spatula, sprigs of mint were added, a dash of Sprite was added, some crushed ice was added and lo and behold the water that was served to us was absolutely divine. It was much better than any mocktail that I had on a number of occasions. No one had recommended the restaurant to us and we had actually stumbled upon an excellent place. After lunch we again decided to walk in the rain with our umbrellas. Walking in the rain with an umbrella is a delightful experience and when there is no water logging, and no dirty water splashing, the walk is even better.

NEVA RIVER

The rain stopped soon and instead of a walk in the rain, we now set out to explore the city. St. Petersburg is situated on the banks of the river Neva at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. It is the most westernised city of Russia and is also its cultural capital. Because of it being at 59 degrees latitude it is considered as one of the northern most cities in the world. Even the sun I think doesn't like to set over here, it shines brightly till 11pm and then is quickly back on the scene around 3.30 in the night.

THE GENERAL STAFF BUILDING

This city was established by Peter the Great in 1703, and was made the capital of the country which until then had been at Moscow. In 1918,  Moscow was again made the Capital with the end of the Romanov rule and the advent of the Soviet Union. This new city was named St. Petersburg in 1703, which was changed to Petrograd in 1914, so that any affiliation with the German word, "burg" could be avoided.  The name was  changed to Leningrad in 1924, and in 1991 it went back to square one and  the city was renamed St. Petersburg. Interesting to see how men in power kept  changing the name back and forth!

A number of cruises originating on the Baltic Sea at Scandinavia come up to St. Petersburg, therefore to cater to the tourists there were many sign boards in English and more people know and speak English here.

St. Petersburg is a beautiful city with aristocratic buildings all in a row. It had been proclaimed long ago that no building could be taller than the Winter Palace and all the houses were to be built in a row with no space in between them.

 The houses were of  aristocrats and so were  palatial, large and beautiful. When the Bolsheviks came to power they allotted equal space to every individual and all these houses were filled with the proletariat who came to claim their share. 

WATCHING DR. ZHIVAGO.

One needs to revisit Dr. Zhivago the movie, to see what exactly happened during the Russian revolution. I did exactly that, on my flight back from Russia, I watched  Dr. Zhivago, and could visualise the scenes vis a vis the majestic houses. 
On our second day at St. Petersburg we took the inevitable

 "Hop on Hop off" bus which took us around the city. It is a smaller city than Moscow but is more beautiful. The river Neva is never far off, and like Venice one sees water almost everywhere, only one does not need gondolas to travel, as the roads are very well connected. 

WATER, WATER & CANALS

Peter the Great had designed the city on the pattern of Venice or Amsterdam with canals instead of streets. It will amaze you to know that there are 342 bridges of different sizes over canals and the river within the city. Peter wanted the people to move in boats during summer and when the river froze in winter to move in sledges. Bridges started getting built after Peter's death.

The city oozes an amazing display of character. I had been told that this is the most beautiful city of Europe, and I quite tend to agree with this statement. 

WINTER PALACE

We soon reached the Palace Square where the Winter palace of the Tsar is located. The massive Alexander Column which was built in 1834, of a red granite column which weighs 500 tons is at the centre of the Square. 

ALEXANDER COLUMN

The Hermitage and the Winter palace is massive. The Winter palace is now a great art museum. These buildings do justify the vastness of Russia.

ST. ISAAC'S CATHEDRAL

Our next stop was the  St. Isaacs Cathedral which  is huge, beautiful and grand. All that glitters in Russia is actually gold. Many churches have domes covered with gold. This Cathedral was quite awe inspiring as it was very big with a golden dome. 

ENTRANCE DOOR OF ST. ISAAC'S CATHEDRAL

The entrance door of the Cathedral is made of bronze and is patterned after the famous doors of San Giovanni of Florence. As one enters the Church one does not feel humbled, but one is awed by the grandeur and splendour of the interiors.  The vastness of the church and its artistic grandeur makes one feel proud of the people who built such places of worship.

No story is complete without a bit of suspense, and no journey is complete without an adventure. We therefore had a bit of suspense as well as adventure on this journey. When we got off at the St. Isaac's Cathedral, one of us who was not too well decided to stay on the bus, while seven of us disembarked.

As the stop was for fifteen minutes we tried to come back in time, but miscalculated the time by a minute. Two of us reached the bus as it was moving out of its bay, and asked the driver to wait as the others were on their way, but the Driver refused to stop and continued on his way as he was maintaining his punctuality. Our friend who was on the bus moved on and seven of us were left wondering about what was the next step to take and how were we to re unite. The instructions about what to do in such an eventuality had been given, but I guess none of us really remembered it. Nevertheless, we boarded the next bus and kept a look out for our friend, who we thought would have either gone on or got off at the next stop. The next stop was at a big crossing and the place was thronging with a lot of tourists, but the watchful eye of our group leader caught the missing friend, he ran down the steps and brought him back to the group. All's well that ends well, and in any case such adventures only help us to make  our fun trip story better.

CATHEDRAL OF SAVIOUR ON BLOOD

There is another multi coloured Church with onion shaped domes near the St. Isaac's Cathedral. This is called Cathedral of the Saviour on Blood. This church was built at the spot where Tsar Alexander II was killed by an anarchist. The Church was built by Tsar Alexander III and was funded by the Imperial family.The Church was designed on the patterns of the St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. Both these Cathedrals to me appear like the Turkish Dervish, with bulbous domes which have brilliant colourful stripes like candy sticks. They make me feel as if Aladdin will suddenly make his magical appearance from the sky in his flying carpet. Why on earth did religion have to come in? It could all just have remained like a beautiful dream come true with white stallions, flying dervish, billowing pyjamas, all converging on these multi coloured domes. 
The Tsar or Czar was the ruler of the biggest in size country and today all that I found was a Restaurant named Tsar with the photograph of the last ruler of this land who was brutally assassinated by the revolutionaries in 1917 at Ekaterinburg.If you did wonder what Tsar meant, well it is derived from the Latin title for the Roman emperors "Caesar". This term  was also used in Bulgaria and Serbia.

We had so far not eaten at any Indian restaurant in Russia, so when we saw Tandoor on the sea front near the St. Issac's Cathedral, we decided to walk in. The owner is from Delhi and the employees were from Bihar. All the men of our group were closely associated with Bihar having studied at Birla Institute of Technology which was then in Bihar.  I too have close association with Hazaribagh, Mount Carmel School and Ranchi Women's College, so we felt very much at home and settled down to have a great evening. The food was very good and the ambience was excellent too.
I need to take a break now and will return soon with the final episode about ballet and Peterhof.
To be continued....

 

MOSCOW VISIT PART 2

HOP ON HOP OFF

In Moscow on day two of our trip, we took the "Hop on Hop off" bus. The ticket was valid for two days and also included the boat cruise.The hop on hop off bus has two routes, number one and number two. One takes us to the outer circle and two takes us to the inner circle of the city 

I had always pictured Russia as a very cold land with people always in great coats and fur hats, totally clad to ward off the bitter cold weather with only their eyes visible, as the warm mufflers would have their face also partially covered. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find that they do have a summer. The sun was bright and shining in full glory, the sky was as blue as one would expect a sky blue colour to be. A couple of white clouds were there, just to let us know for sure that clouds are meant to enhance the beauty of the clear blue sky. As it is Moscow is at 55 degrees north and I always think that the north is any day colder than the south, being closer to the North Pole. We all had our dainty umbrellas up against the scorching bright sun as the rays came directly at us without any atmospheric pollution.  

The bus journey was lovely, the amount of English that one heard on the bus was reassuring. Channel two had the guide speaking in English and describing the different sights as we passed them. It is always a good idea to go to the top of the bus and try and grab the front seats. The view is good and one gets good pictures of everything. The bus took us around the lovely Summer Garden, the Red Square, the Moscow University. We took our first halt at Sparrow Hill which from 1935 to 1999 was known as Lenin Hill. This hill is the highest place in Moscow and one gets a good view of the 1980 Olympic Stadium, as well as the Moscow River. The Moscow University was founded in 1755, and was near the Red Square originally.

OLYMPIC STADIUM

NEW SKYSCRAPERS

RIVER MOSCOW

 The new building of the University was built in 1953, when Joseph Stalin  had ordered seven huge tiered neoclassical towers to be built around the city.  It was built using Gulag labour. It is interesting to note that Stalin had said that Moscow lacked skyscrapers and therefore  these skyscrapers must be built so that when people from the west came, they would see the development around the city. These skyscrapers were  termed as "Seven Sisters", however now the term  is neither used nor understood by the local population as Muscovites call them Vysotki or Stalinskie Vysotki which  means Stalin's high-rises or Stalinist skyscrapers. They were built between 1947 and 1953. 

MOSCOW UNIVERSITY

At the Sparrow Hill  there were a number of people dressed up as old time aristocrats waiting to pose  for a picture for a small fee. We were least interested in such pictures and so did not even find out the price.

KREMLIN TO LEFT

After Sparrow Hill we took our next stop at The Red Square. We went along the Moscow River to our right and the walls of the Kremlin to our left.  

BOLSHOI THEATRE

On the drive to Red Square we saw the Bolshoi Theatre and then we visited the great GUM store. GUM is the abbreviation of Glavnyi ('main')Universalnyi Magazin,  which means Main Universal Store. Catherine II the Great had commissioned Giacomo Quarenghi, a Neoclassical architect from Italy, to design a huge trade center along the east side of Red Square. The existing structure was built to replace the previous trading rows that had been there since long. 

The store is a virtual garden with a fountain in the centre. Near the fountain there was a long line of people waiting for ice cream, therefore we also stood in the line and bought an ice cream for 50 Roubles each. Just near by was another ice cream vendor selling his ware at 100 roubles per ice cream cone and there was not a single person at his shop. It has suddenly occurred to me that this could be a good ploy to attract customers. If you have a kiosk selling ice cream at some price, and have some one else close by selling a similar product at double the price, customers will rush to you, and at the end of the day you both can share the proceeds.

BENCH

There are plenty of benches to sit on inside as well as outside the GUM, All these benches had been painted very colourfully, perhaps by children, may be for a cause.  Lenin's tomb is also on Red Square and one can go inside and pay one's respect.

THE FOYER

We then moved on to see the Evropeisky Mall which is near the Kievskaya Metro Station. The mall had a lovely entrance and more than the shopping we had a great time taking photographs of the lovely foyer. None of us had eyes or wish to buy anything from the shops.

ON THE CRUISE

 After that we went on our river cruise and saw the city on both sides of the river. 

MONUMENT OF PETER THE GREAT

The monument of Peter the great, looks more like a pirate ship. It was a beautiful day and the sun after shining brightly   for half the day, hid behind clouds, therefore, the boat ride became quite enjoyable. 

MAINTENANCE WORK AT THE FOUNTAIN AT ALEXANDER GARDEN

ALEXANDER GARDEN

Moscow has a lot of beautiful gardens and there is a lot of greenery all around. Alexander park near the Red Square has the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier  with an eternal flame  burning. It was  created in 1967, and contains the body of a soldier who fell during the Great Patriotic War at  kilometer 41 marker of Leningradskoe Shosse, the nearest point the forces of Nazi Germany penetrated towards Moscow. On the day that we visited Alexander park, there was a commemorative parade for the Unknown Soldier, and so we could see the ceremony. 

A CEREMONIAL FUNCTION

TOMB OF UNKNOWN SOLDIER

Post Number One, where the honor sentinels stand on guard, used to be located in front of Lenin's Mausoleum, but was moved to the Tomb of The Unknown Soldier in the 1990s. 
The middle section of the upper garden at Alexander Park contains a false ruined grotto. The garden's cast iron gate and grille were designed to commemorate the Russian victories over Napoleon, and  rocks at the grotto are rubble from buildings destroyed during the French occupation of Moscow. In front of the grotto is an obelisk erected on July 10 1914, a year after the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty was celebrated. The monument was made of granite from Finland and listed all of the Romanov Tsars and had the coats of arms of the Russian provinces. Four years later, in 1918 the dynasty was gone, and the Bolsheviks  as per Lenin's directive on monumental propaganda, removed the Imperial Eagle, and re-carved the monument with a list of 19 socialist and communist philosophers and political leaders, personally approved by Lenin. 

DOUBLE HEADED EAGLE OF ROMONOVS.

As I have said earlier, history is written by the victors and rulers, there is therefore now a discussion to remove Lenin's obelisk and reinstall an obelisk duplicating the original.

BEAUTIFUL PAINTINGS.

I once again talk of St. Basil's Cathedral, the most beautiful and colourful onion domed Cathedral, as I find it very interesting when adjectives such as Ivan the terrible, are added to the names of mighty rulers. 

PAINTING ON WALLS

The nine churches which form the Cathedral have beautiful alters and colourful paintings on its walls. Each Church is different. When we visited there was a choir and scripture reading going on in one of the churches. Each church is connected to the next in a labyrinth. The Cathedral does not seem to have absolute symmetry, in fact it gives the feeling of beautiful domes rising freely and blending with each other harmoniously. There does not appear to be strictness in its composition. Although I am told that the structure is symmetrical when viewed from the side of the Kremlin, I prefer to think of the Cathedral as a free and flowing Church not constructed to strict perfection, may be because Russia was such a strait jacketed regimen where laughing too was controlled at one time. Even today people do not give the cheerful smile and say hello to a perfect stranger, as one finds in USA. It is said that during the era of Stalin there was a proposal to demolish the St. Basil's Cathedral as it was obstructing the clear space of the Red square. Wiser sense prevailed and the Cathedral remained. 

 NEW KAZAN CATHEDRAL

There is another Church on the side of The GUM Store. That is called the Kazan Cathedral which was originally built in  1625, destroyed in 1936 under Stalin's regime and rebuilt in 1993 by Moscow city branch of the All Russian Society for Historic Preservation and Cultural Organisation. Obviously it was the end of state sponsored atheism.  

MONUMENT TO CONQUERORS OF SPACE

The Space Museum is another must see place. As one approaches the Museum, one can see a steel monument,called Monument to the Conquerors of Space  which shows the trajectory of a rocket launching. 

BASE OF THE MONUMENT

It is rather difficult to locate the entrance to the museum. Not knowing Russian we ended up like total illiterates asking every guard on duty the direction to the ticket counter. We eventually did find it and saw the museum which is quite educative and interesting, as one could see the place where a cosmonaut worked, ate and slept, as well as the toilet that he used, 

WORK STATION & UPRIGHT SLEEPING CHAMBER.

TOILET

The history of space conquest was vividly described. If all the pictures and items were marked in English, it would have been better.
Next day we went to see the Armoury Museum at Moscow. This is located near the Alexander Garden in Red Square. Here again there was the eternal hunt to locate the Museum, then there was the formidable queue to buy the tickets in the blistering sun without any shade in sight. The men were brave and stood in the line, we decided to stay in the shade and wait. 

BEAUTIFUL KIOSKS

We therefore missed the opportunity to see all the treasures of the museum, as we thought the Armoury museum may house only articles connected with war. Some of us decided to see the lovely kiosks selling Russian Souvenirs instead. There was "Matrioshka" the famous wooden doll, the Babushka which is a triangular scarf, the lovely blue ware, and the red cut glass.  For buying souvenirs these kiosks are good and bargaining is quite acceptable.

NIKULIN CIRCUS

THE INDIAN FINALE

We went to see the most famous Nikulin Circus.What is interesting is that tickets were not available over the net, and one had to go to the venue in advance to buy the tickets, which we could get outside the ticket counter only at a premium price! The circus was amazing and should not be missed at all. The grand finale were acts performed on Indian Bollywood music. Elephants and humans performed to perfection and none of us could stop clapping and singing with our favourite songs which we were hearing in a foreign circus on foreign soil.  

 

ACROSS MOSCOW STATION BY NIGHT

Moscow by night is a delight to watch. Every building is lit up and one feels as though they are power surplus.

THE RED ARROW TRAIN

MOSCOW STATION

After spending four days in Moscow we left  for St. Petersburg by the night train. The station is beautiful from the outside and functional from the inside. There is no concept of coolie, so one has to carry one's bags till the train. On the side of the stairs there are rails on which one can pull one's luggage up. Thankfully most signages were bilingual therefore one could locate one's platform without much problem. In the station there is ample seating so one can sit and wait for the arrival of the train. We were greeted outside our compartment by a smartly dressed hostess, who checked our passports and helped us in as there was a gap between the train and the platform and it was rather tricky to carry one's bag and one's own self into the compartment. The train was beautifully furnished with red and white heavy curtains. There was a box under each seat where one could stow away a suitcase. The duvet cover, pillow cover and sheet were clean and fresh. The toilets were very clean and well equipped. As our train was to leave at midnight and arrive at St. Petersburg in the morning, they had laid out the breakfast in packets. For extra tea and coffee they charged us.

Arrival at St. Petersburg was on the dot and our taxi driver was standing right in front of our compartment. The first impression of the city was that it is an old city. It was evident that more tourists arrived in St. Petersburg from the fact that there was a lot of English on boards.

To be continued.

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ON A FIRST CLASS TRIP TO MOSCOW. PART ONE

 

HINDUKUSH

Getting upgraded to business class was the beginning of a great journey to Russia. The service on the aircraft of Air Astana was good, food was excellent, drinks were unlimited and view from the plane window was astounding. I believe we flew over Pakistan, the Hindukush mountain range and saw snow capped mountains and beautiful rivers go on and on. The passes in the mountains gave me the routes that the Mongols, would have taken on their journey to India on horseback, about five or was it six centuries ago?

ALMATY

My imagination usually takes wings and I now saw all the faces of the invaders on the faces of the crew of the flight. They had high cheek bones, slightly slanted eyes, broad faces, fair complexion, dark hair, and spoke an unknown language. They looked friendly and calm, may be as their country though land locked was calm, peaceful and beautiful. 

THE AIRPORT

The airport at Almaty was small, the facilities were limited and it reminded me more of a railway waiting room. People were disciplined, there was not much noise, except for people comparing this airport with Delhi airport from where we had boarded the flight. I do think traveling is a great eye opener and one can learn so much about the ways of the world, the different people, their culture and their cuisine, as we observe them and visit their land. There was a Kazhak Doctor we met at the airport, who spoke impeccable Hindi as she has lived in Delhi for a couple of years, who asked which part of Delhi we came from and the only remark that she made about our country is that it is very unsafe for women. She spoke from personal experience. Sadly that is how we appear to the world.

As it was daytime we could see the city of Almaty which quite took my breath away. The surrounding snow capped mountains and the beautiful city of Almaty which once was known as Alma Ata had lovely colorful sloping roofed houses. All around one could see cottages with tiny gardens. The air was fresh, the water was cool and very refreshing as though it was from a brook coming down straight from the snow capped mountains.

APPETISER

We had a brief halt at Almaty, where we went through the Duty Free shops in a jiffy. Then we took off for a great first world country which I had known as a big power throughout my life, till only the other day that Glasnost happened and Gorbachev changed the face of the whole world. The Iron country, the huge Communist country which divided the whole world into two camps, has changed the configuration of the World once again. USSR was the place where everyone had a chance to equality, the country where the peasants rose under the leadership of the great Lenin to overthrow the beautiful world of the Tsars and forever end the rule of the Russian aristocracy. 

USSR was formed in 1922 and broke up in 1991. The Soviet Union was formed with the unification of the Russian, Trans Caucasian, Ukrainian and Byelorussian republics.  Following Lenin's death in 1924, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. and  suppressed all political opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism-Leninism and the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivisation. Stalin conducted the great purge to remove opponents of him from the Communist Party through the mass arbitrary arrest of many people who were  sent to correctional labour camps  or sentenced to death.

People of my time would remember Alexander Solzhenitsyn who was one such inmate and won the Noble Prize for Literature in 1970. At the beginning of World War II, Stalin signed a non aggression pact  with Hitler's Germany, the treaty delayed confrontation between the two countries but in June 1941, the Germans did invade Russia.  It is said that one million civilians died of starvation in St. Petersburg during the German siege which lasted for 872 days from Sept 1941 to January 1944. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945. The territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc, and we had the city of Berlin divided by the Berlin Wall. 

Following Stalin's death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as "Khrushchev's thaw" took the country forward rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took an early lead in the Space race with the first satellite and the first human spaceflight. On October 4, 1957 the Soviet Union launched the first space satellite Sputnik. On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into space in the Soviet spaceship Vostok 1.

In the 1970s, there was a brief detente of relations with the United States, but tensions resumed when the Soviet Union deployed troops in Afghanistan in 1979.  The war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen  fighters.

In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to further reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of Glasnost(Openness)  and Perestroika(economic restructuring). The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing economic stagnation. The Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes.  On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the remaining twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union, as independent post Soviet states.  The 15 states that had formed USSR were  Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) now consists of 11 former Soviet Republics. 

I had to go through this little History of the USSR as all this happened lately and is very interesting to recapitulate.

BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS

Russia is a huge country, better known to me as the land of the different Ivan's, Peters, Alexander, Rasputin, Catherine the Czarina, the beautiful golden Faberge eggs, circus, ballet, gymnasts, cheap and beautifully illustrated children's story books, Ekaterinburg where the last Tsar and his family were executed, Anastasia the princess, who they say survived the attack, Russian peasants. The great literary world of Dostoevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, Vladimir Nabokov, Leo Tolstoy, Alexander Pushkin, Tchaikovsky, Boris Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn, all forgotten memories came tumbling out of my memory banks. Today's generation may not even have heard of those times, when one had to wait in line for buying everything. The communist world where everything was rationed, when everyone had to work and wait for their turn. All aristocratic houses were taken over, every person was given a specific amount of space, personal property did not exist, everything belonged to the government then. Glasnost and Perestroika had changed everything.

 We landed at Moscow's Sherematyevo airport in the evening on the 2nd of July and waited for our taxi, which had already been pre-booked. We faced language problem as soon as we landed, as no one could guide us to where our taxi could have been waiting. After much waiting, running around, buying a phone card, we were able to contact our hotel and were told that the taxi was on its way to pick us up. The airport was not impressive at all, it looked just like a functional landing and disembarking station for planes, a mere means of transportation. Today we look for beauty besides comfort in an airport, but come to think of it, an airport actually is just a transit point.

The drive into the city which was fairly long, 29 kms. to be precise, was quite a treat. The roads are beautiful and all the buildings on the route are very well lit. One building is more beautiful than the other. 

Moscow is one of the most amazing places that I have been to. The roads are very very wide, and I could recall all those pictures of troops marching in formation on these roads. The roads actually look as wide as a farmer’s field and a mere pedestrian would find it intimidating to cross those wide roads which are without dividers. 

The well lit roads, beautifully lit magnificent buildings did not look identical as it may have looked like during the time of the Communists. History is indeed written by the victors or those in power. I did not see any statue of Stalin, there was a slight glimpse of Lenin, there was absolutely no mention of Khrushchev, Bulganin, and all those people who had created the aura of the iron curtain or Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin who removed the curtains.

LUZHKOV BRIDGE

These are times of prosperity and peace now and therefore one finds that the city is dotted with statues of its artists and literary figures. Pushkin finds pride of place with statues and museums. The city now talks of peace, love, tranquility and happy times. The country now wants to commemorate their beautiful artistic and literary heritage.

LUZHKOV BRIDGE

On our first day in Moscow, as we walked towards the Red Square, we walked into a lovely garden with colourful blooms, flower laden gateways, lots of roses and a beautiful bridge over the River Moscow. This was a lovely park called "Luzhkov Bridge", where when a couple gets married, they write their names on a padlock, lock it on a metal tree frame and toss the key into the river. The garden is full of metal trees and we saw many newly wed couples in their wedding finery locking their love.

THE LOCK TREE

The Red Square historically was meant to serve as Moscow's main marketplace. It was also the site of various public ceremonies and proclamations, and occasionally a coronation for Russia's Tsars would take place here. The Red Square has the Kremlin, Lenin’s tomb, St. Basil’s Cathedral, the Spasskaya Tower, The GUM and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan.

 

RED SQUARE WITH SPASSKAYA ON LEFT, GUM, ST. BASIL'S ON RIGHT.

Every hour a small guard of honour comes and checks the collar and cap of the soldier on duty at the Spasskaya Tower which was built in 1491 by the Italian architect Pietro Antonio Solari. The clock on the Spasskaya Tower appeared between 1491 and 1585 and it  designates the official Moscow Time.

ST. BASIL'S CATHEDRAL

St. Basil's Cathedral is the most well known colorful, onion domed church associated with Russia and was erected by Ivan the Terrible to mark the 1552 AD capture of Kazan from Mongol forces. The church was completed in 1560. There is a dubious legend that Ivan had the builders blinded so that they could not create anything to compare with this building. This story was very similar to the story one has heard about Shah Jehan, who had cut the hands of the people who had constructed the Taj Mahal. It is indeed surprising that those who could get such fabulous buildings constructed, could be so cruel. The desire to remain incomparable is indeed unique and perhaps only us humans  can plan and execute such different kind of emotions. St. Basil's Cathedral is actually a cluster of eight churches built around a ninth in the center. Originally the Cathedral was all white to match the white-stone Kremlin, and the onion domes were gold rather than multi-colored and patterned as they are today. This Church stands out as an outstanding building, with no match to this day. 

 Kremlin means "fortress inside a city" and the complex now serves as the official residence of the President of the Russian federation. 

THE GUM PRONOUNCED GOOM

The majestic building which houses the famous GUM does not look like a shopping mall, which it actually is. It is magnificent and better than any mall anywhere in the world. It is more like a colorful garden with a plethora of flowers all laid out to perfection. 

INSIDE GUM.

Shops seem to be incidental. The entire feeling is of being in a peaceful, beautiful garden. This complex is located in the wholesale and retail trading rows of Red Square which were laid out here in the 17th Century. 

 

INSIDE GUM

The country now perhaps wants to commemorate their beautiful and artistic side. One can see lots of statues of writers and artists. Statues of Gaugin, Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, are dotted around the city. 

The KGB building does not look as intimidating as it once was. 

METRO STATION

The Metros which are their underground train network is remarkable. The trains arrive in quick succession without almost any gap, passengers do not have to wait for their next rain. Unlike London there is no gap between the train and the platform also. The plan for the people to have no inconvenience has been calculated to perfection. The people and their transportation seems to have been considered the most important. It is said that Stalin wished for the people to be able to see art daily, therefore the metro stations have been designed in such a manner that there is art displayed on the walls, the lights are generally chandeliers, the ceiling is painted and one is surrounded by art as one walks up and down the platform. 

METRO STATION

These are not just platforms, they are art galleries. The cost of a ticket is 50 roubles, whether one wants to travel to the next station or the furthest one. The ticket is not needed at the end of the journey, so we found that there were bins near where one entered the station, and many Muscovites threw their tickets after validating it on entry. 

METRO STATION

Before arriving at Moscow I did wonder about the commune living and their quarters, but I was quite surprised to see that there was no drabness evident. It is possible that we did not visit the lesser known places or perhaps those buildings have been taken down and new ones have been built in their place.

To be continued...