A Journey to Moscow

One of the most incredible things I did last summer, aside from having my family come on a cruise, was fly from St. Petersburg to Moscow for a day.

I've always been interested in Russian history and it was a completely surreal day for me to visit the country's capital. From the time I first watched the movie Anastasia, learned about the Cold War in high school, read snippets about the Romanov legacy in history books, or glimpsed my first Orthodox church in Winnipeg, I have been fascinated by Russia and all its history. The country has been, and still remains, an exotic, mysterious, enigmatic place in my mind. In truth, my visit there still hasn't sunk in; sometimes when I look at my pictures I'm amazed.

Even with the expense and the prospect of an internal Russian flight, there was no question whether or not I would go.

An unhappy flyer at the best of times, the thought of the refurbished cargo planes I had heard rumours of made my blood run cold. Still, I signed up for the tour.

When I left the ship that morning I hugged Jack goodbye like I was never going to see him again, which seemed like a vague possibility in my fear-addled brain.


The tour was for crew members and we looked around in fascination at St. Petersburg's very untouristy domestic airport. Luckily, the plane seemed relatively normal...
.... if a bit worse for the wear.

The hour long flight was fun enough. Everyone was excited. They served us slightly soggy sandwiches, tea and beautiful dark Russian chocolate. Although a bunch of people tried, you didn't seem to be able to get the chocolate without the tea for some reason.

Also interesting was that when we landed and stood up, all of our seats flopped forward and laid flat. Weird.


The rest of the casino gang who made the trip.
Some of these photographs are taken from our verrry long bus ride into Moscow. The airport is only 18 miles from the city it took us almost three hours to reach the city.

With a population of more than 10 million and an ancient circular grid system, Moscow is notorious for its nightmare traffic situation. For us the nightmare was compounded by the fact that our bus had no air conditioning and it was 30 degrees out. It was literally difficult to breathe.

This is one of "Stalin's birthday cakes," seven skyscrapers he had built throughout the city. They are huge and forboding; a reminder of Stalin's reign of terror, they loomed over everything around them.

Stalin was an evil man who killed millions of his own people and ruled the rest using terror and deprivation. Still, as much as I hate to admit it, these buildings were interesting to see, and I was unwillingly impressed by the power they exuded.
This is the Peking Hotel, which, although it looks similar, is not actually one of Stalin's birthday cakes.
Another reminder of Russia's troubled past - the former KGB building.


And interspersed everywhere are these beautiful Russian Orthodox churches. I LOVE this style of architecture.
Moscow is such an interesting city. While a lot of it is very beautiful, it is also a big jumble of churches, skyscrapers, traffic, power lines, billboards and chaos. I loved it.

This monument to Peter the Great seems a little out of place in Moscow, but is impressive nonetheless. The ship is supposedly life-sized.
More birthday cakes. Today some of these buildings hold Moscow State University, an apartment building, the Hotel Ukraina (the tallest hotel in Europe), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Leningradskaya hotel.
I loved this ad.
The Moskva River, which the city is named after.
The striking Cathedral of Christ the Saviour sits regally on the bank of the Moskva River. It is the tallest Eastern Orthodox church in the world.

There it is in all its splendour. Except for those power lines.
At long last (after waiting all my life), the approach to the Kremlin entrance.

The Kremlin grounds actually include much more than just the seat of government. There are a lot of other government administration buildings there, and a staggering number of churches.

Also, the largest cannon in the world, the Tsar Cannon. It is 16 feet long and weighs 85,000 pounds!


And the world's largest bell, the Tsar Bell, which weighs in at 200 tons.



Assumption Cathedral, the largest, oldest and most important church in the Kremlin compound. Built in 1479, it is the primary church of the Russian Orthodoxy, and thus the site of coronations, state funerals and such services.







The interior of the cathedral, in the traditional Russian Orthodox style, in which every inch of surface was painted or decorated. It was absolutely amazing to see.





We were not allowed to take pictures here, so please excuse the poor quality of these ones - we were being sneaky. Can you blame us?

Back in Cathedral Square, still on the Kremlin grounds, there are many more churches to admire.


All those golden onion domes... I was loving it.

There was beautiful scenery on the way to the State Armory (not shown), also part of the Kremlin. The Armory blew my mind.

Essentially it holds Russia's national treasures, and they are many. It is Russia's oldest museum and contained the most impressive historical artifacts I've ever seen.

We weren't allowed to take photos in there either, but came out with a few decent ones between all of us.
I think this room was the most impressive for me, and I only have one picture to show for it. It was a huge room , filled with dozens of carriages straight out of Cinderella.

I cannot describe how beautiful they were - almost all gold, many decorated with precious stones. They looked like they were straight out of Disney movies. Unbelievable.

More stunning treasures from the Armory. There was also a huge display of Faberge eggs, worth millions. I took one picture of them but it wasn't very good. Sorry! If you want to see examples just google Faberge eggs.

From there we left the Kremlin and went for a ride on the subway. Moscow, and even St. Petersburg, are famous for their subways, which were often called the People's Palaces.

They are usually works of art in themselves, with huge, soaring domed ceilings and statues and carvings covering every surface. The light was bad though, and I didn't get any good pictures, unfortunately.

I was glad to have a tour guide because I think I would have felt a little lost.
Too bad the subway cars are ancient.
The hammer and sickle on the ceiling.

I love this little display and wished I could take all these old Soviet labels home.
On the way back to the city.


And the last, and my favourite, leg of our trip. Here we are approaching Red Square.

Eeeeek I am so excited at this point!!!

There it is... sigh... Red Square. This is like a life-altering experience for me.

On the left, St. Basil's Cathedral, and on the right, the Kremlin clock tower. Further to the right is the mausoleum where Lenin is embalmed for all the world to visit and see.

The details are stunning.


This is another unique cathedral near the main entrance to Red Square.

The State History Museum, also in Red Square, facing St. Basil's.

The very famous G.U.M. Store runs along one long side of the square.
After all that running around in the 30 degree heat and the excitement of everything we saw, we decided to end the day with a cold, refreshing beer, while we admired the square for the last time before leaving.

A perfect end to a perfect day.