Bring on the bling – Baltics and Russia on AY in J (plus ferries and a coach)

[RooFlyer]

Continued.

Nearby we passed, but did not visit the Artillery Museum. Well, where else would you put your old ICBMs?




A quick spin around the Summer Palace grounds, withy usual immaculately kept grounds and scores of fountains:




During the day, we noticed a number of caches of ?paramilitary (looked a bit more serious than police). Groups of 2 or three troop carriers – with troops - here and there. The G20 was now only a few days away and obviously the authorities wanted people to know to watch out!




And now we know how ‘Burger King’ is spelled in Cyrillic script:




Finally, exhausted and quite shattered having covered goodness knows how many kilometres over the past 3 days, we got a taxi to the departure point of our cruise through to Moscow.

 

[RooFlyer]

St Petersburg to Moscow by cruiser

Our cruise was for a conference, but it is one that is done many times daily by commercial services. For most of the journey there were either three or 4 of these 'Rhinecruiser' type boats virtually nose to tail, and at popular stops along the way, there may have been 6 to 8 such boats moored whilst their pax were on shore. Our boat held about 150 for the conference, and had a crew (including cleaners, restaurant staff etc) of 95. It was a really good experience, and I would recommend anyone who has the time to look into one of the cruise options: Russian River Cruises – Vodohod - www.bestrussiancruises.com.

Single and double births were tiny! Showering in les than 1 sq m space (each cabin had an 'ensuite') was an, er, experience. Meals were pretty good. Always 'traditional Russian' - its a normal Russian cruise, after all; lots of fish, meatballs, the occasional steak. Lots of good fresh salads, heavily featuring shredded carrot, cheese and often beetroot. Vodka with every meal! (not my scene, unfortunately) For our conference the wines varied between countries of the participants, including Russian of course.

Besides the restaurant, there were two forward bars where you could relax with a drink or a good coffee while looking at the forward view, and one other bar/ tea room area. Lounges and tables & chairs were on the roof 'solarium' and forward deck, where drinks and fresh air could be enjoyed. We had great weather for half the trip, and cloudy for the other half. It was pretty good. Tipping the barman ensured that we could 'byo' from the towns we stopped at and have the bottles opened, and glasses provided so we could set up shop on the forward deck in the sun without problems.

This was our route:




This craft was identical to our own:




If you ever go one one of these cruises, try to get a suite (there aren't many). Relatively HUGE compared to the singles and doubles! Good large sitting area with couch, and TV with channel showing the view forward of the boat.




We were invited into one couple's suite a number of times and fortunately they were keen on Russian 'Champagne' (the Russians still call their product that.). After an initial couple of duds, we soon got our eye in, and when we moored at a town we would take in turns to head for the nearest bottle shop (usually next to the wharf!) to stock up. I regret not getting any pics or names.

The first feature was Lake Lagoda, the 15th largest lake in the world, at over 17,000 sq km; 220 x 80 km and average depth 51m. After traversing to the north of the lake overnight, we moored at the monastery at Valaam and did a tour. Our first introduction to the 'iconostasis' - the wall of icons at the 'altar' end of an Orthodox church (forgive my lack of appropriate terminology - I should know better by now!). Later tours would explain the local iconostasis' in gruesome detail.




After the monastery tour, the boat had a 'training drill' for instruction in the use of life jackets etc. This left me with some genuine concerns, as the training was a bit of a fiasco and many of the life jackets were found to be faulty in some measure (lights, clips etc). Several passengers complained to the purser quite strongly, but I'm not sure if anything came of that. Those that I were in contact with made sure our lifejackets were replaced where faulty and made our own recce of the life boats etc and planned to look out for each other. The trip involved traversing several large lakes, where no shore could be seen in the middle, but were still relatively shallow, with lots of traffic within confined lanes. So an incident requiring an evacuation was not out of the question.

Anyway, we went back south across the lake and entered the Svir river where the next day we stopped at Mandrogy, a recently built cultural village - AKA tourist trap. But it was not without some curiosity:

 

[RooFlyer]

Day 4 of the cruise - Kizhi

We departed Mandrogy and later entered Lake Onega, the second largest lake in Europe behind Lake Lagoda that we traversed yesterday.

By the early next morning we had reached the myriad of islands that occupies the north of the lake. At dawn we were pulling into the settlement and 'museum of wooden architecture' at Kizhi, which was one of the highlights of the cruise. We learned that beside the photogenic wooden churches (Summer and Winter versions) Kizhi was a centre of great Russian folk lore- similar to the Icelandic sagas in scope.

Our first view of the old twin summer and winter churches, with their bell tower seemed a bit funky. Surely that mass of church and domes couldn't be held up by those wooden poles?



We later learned that the poles were actually modern steel - the superstructure was being jacked up in sequences to allow major structural restoration This church compex has the legend that no nails were used in the construction. Turns out that that is true for the main buildings, but the domes do have nails in 'em.

The 22 domed Church of the Transfiguration (1714) was simply amazing to look at and explore. In the pic below, the left hand structure is the 'summer church' and the right hand one, more compact and closer toi the ground to allow easier heating, was the winter church. We could imagine that winters here would be pretty severe!!




We learned more about iconostasis (plural) in orthodox churches (the wall of icons). The one at Kizhi wasn't the oldest or grandest we would see, but never-the-less impressive. Individual icons dated from the 16th century.




There are many old wooden buildings in this outdoor 'museum', mostly transported here from adjacent areas. From this little church, we were treated to a bell ringing recital (CDs for sale nearby ). Glorious.




By lunch-time it was time to leave and that would require some shuffling of the cruise boats moored by that time:

 

[jukebox333]

Those Rhinecruisers sounded familar, Rooflyer - then I remembered they and Lake Onega form a key plot point in a Patrick Robinson (Tom Clancy-esque) novel I've read - Kilo Class. Well worth a read if that sort of thing floats your boat.

Great TR - loving the photos!

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks! Think I'll have to look up Kilo Class !

From Kizhi we sailed sough back across the lake and then entered the Baltic-Volga canal system. Before we reached Moscow we had climbed up three series of large locks, two involving a series of 6 locks. These were built in the 1950s, so of course had a number of reminders of the Soviet era - such as statues of Lenin, friezes including the hammer-and-sickle flag etc.

We mostly went up a lock with a similar 'Rhinecruiser' in front of us. There was about 2-3 m to spare at each end of the lock!





Once the gates were closed, the locks filled in 10-15 minutes. Occasionally, the rate of ascent was quite startling - like going up in a slow lift. But once you got to the top, the views opened up, and we sailed out, behind the cruiser in front.

 

[RooFlyer]

On and on we continued through the canal/canalized river system. One morning, we woke to fog, which brought lock activities to a standstill during the night, resulting in a traffic jam of commercial and tour boats. Fortunately, we found out, our sort of boat got priority and in one lake we were amazed to see about 25 large ships at anchor, waiting for the initial flush of cruise boats to pass them towards the locks.



The Goritzy monastery was yet another complex of ancient churches and other buildings with ancient icons and we got another explanation of the iconostasis. This is a part of the wall around the complex.



By now we were sailing south, still on the Volga-Baltic canal. The waterway was begun in 1709 to connect St Petersburg with the interior, but the major canals were dug in the 1930s, and reconstructed and modernized in 1964. The dredging and repairs continue today. The system almost seamlessly includes stretches of river, some pure canals and some 'canalised' rivers. the system from Lake Onega to Cherepovets, at the entrance to the huge, man made Rybinsk Reservoir is about 370km. The locks can take craft with up to 3.5m draft and 5,000 tonnes. At many of the locks, 'run-of-rive' hydro power stations generate a substantial amount of power, when put together.

During day 6 we crossed the massive Rybinsk Reservoir to enter the fabled Volga River, the longest in Europe. We are now clearly 'out of the woods' and into holiday dacha country, and there are many fine houses with boatsheds and the like along the river. Also, we were never far from Orthodox churches. One thing not mentioned before is virtually every site we have visited on the cruise, and indeed in St Petersburg, is undergoing restoration to some degree, and usually a significant degree. In several years these sights and places should be truly magnificent, but for now, many have scaffolding inside and out.



Of course some places just puzzled .. This looked like an Orthodox duck-shooters hide.

 

[RooFlyer]

Day 6 saw us dock at Uglich where a tour and more ancient but beautiful churches and their ancient iconostasis (plural) awaited.







Although we guessed that our excitement wasn't going to match that of this couple:



Later we left Uglich behind and saw two consequences of progress. Flooding of an old church in the lock/lake system (steeple preserved), and a space telescope.

 

[RooFlyer]

Day 7. Australia had voted overnight and a number of us tried to get on the net via the conference Wi-Fi to hear what had happened. unfoirtunately the conference had ended, and the Wi-Fi routers were being packed up, but we hard enough to know the result.

We had left the Volga by this time and were into the last canal system to Moscow, and another series of impressive locks.




The dachas were becoming more impressive too, under Moscow's proximity.



Finally we entered Moscow and the decrepit cruise ship terminal (under renovation) came into view, under a glorious Soviet star.




As did this. not sure what is happening here - its up on cement blocks, so maybe a restaurant.




So after 7 days R&R aboard the cruise ship, we were ready to resume the assault on our feet and to see what Moscow had to offer.

 

[Melburnian1]

Marvellous report. Having visited all these places except Riga or the towns in between St P and Moscow, one thing I found in Moscow in particular was that staff on the metro were grumpy (unlike St P). It was also a costly country for which to obtain a visa, but St P in particular has amazing treasures that RooFlyer's report brings to life.

 

[RooFlyer]

Our hotel in Moscow was the Novotel Moscow Centre. It was centre-ish considering the huge size of Moscow but didn't seem to be anywhere 'central' in particular - just a (long) metro stop to a place near the Kremlin, with the station being right under the hotel.

Or at least the entrance was. The Moscow metro is cheap and very efficient - abt $1 per ride anywhere and trains every 2 minutes or so. It can get crowded in peak hours (which we discovered included Sunday afternoon) but not as bad as (say) in HKG or Tokyo in peak times. But two things made initial use of the metro a bit of a challenge. First, the station signs are only in Cyrillic script (unlike ST Petersburg which also had the Roman script equivalent).



The we learned that joined stations but for different lines had different names. So you had to juggle several names to look for if you were on a journey that changes lines (of which there are many!). And the stations themselves are cavernous and sometimes complex ... like the London Tube, but MUCH bigger.

So we had to learn fast. We did learn during our cruise that Cyrillic script was based on Greek script, introduced by St Cyril in ancient times. So, mustering our memory of the Greek alphabet, we could read the Russian a bit better. Then we found a map that had both Roman and Cyrilic names, so that helped, along with experience in navigating the colour schemes for the lines and how the stations are generally laid out.

The Moscow metro is consistently very deep. The deepest station - and world record holder - is Park Pobedy at about 75 m below surface. All the ones we accessed (incl the latter) are accessed initially by a single loop long escalator (but usually there are 2 going each way).



Moscow's metro is famous for having some beautifully decorated stations - often with good Soviet People's themes. We did a special metro hop to look at the stations. Ride, get off at a station, take photos, then board to the next stop and carry on. The regularity of the trains (every 2 mins of so).

Here are just a few examples of the station décor and artwork:

 

[RooFlyer]

Mostly the stations were very clean - beautifully polished marble! One thing the stations don't do at all is internal ramps and internal escalators aren't that common. There can be very long walks between platforms of con-joined stations!

 

[sergeyvzn]

An excellent report! Being Russian, I must commend you on your attention to detail and good quality of information. Just wanted to mention, though that there is a much better alternative to the simple, Soviet style cruise that you took, you can go on a refurbished Viking River Cruise ship which will provide a modern standard of accommodation and services on board. Highly recommended if more expensive:
Russia & Ukraine River Cruise Ships Overview - Viking River Cruises

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks sergeyvzn

Yikes! I'm glad I didn't see the Viking product before we went on our cruise. However, ours was on and organized by the scientific conference we were attending, so we had no choice. The single and double cabins on our ship were about 1/2 to 1/3 size of the Delux category on the Viking ones. I guess that made sure we attended the conference lectures, rather than lounging about in the cabins

 

[RooFlyer]

And so we were in



I've wanted to visit here since about 15 years ago, when I was flying LHR-HKG with a forward window seat. It was a perfectly clear night and the aircraft was dark and as silent as they can get. We flew past Moscow off to our left I could silently observe the city in great detail, almost as if I was on a spy mission. I thought I HAD to get there some day.

Moscow is full of 'must see' sights of course, and we got to the main ones, but the thing we quickly discovered were the 'neighborhoods' where you could walk and discover unexpected quaint and/or amazing sights; find a great café to have coffee or lunch; to people watch the ordinary Muscovites going about their business.

Like St Petersburg the architecture is amazing, particularly the old Soviet edifices. But we also learned that many of the 'old' churches and Cathedrals are new reconstructions.

We had one interesting experience with the State security. Having looked at Red Square, St Basil's etc during the day, we returned to the city in the early evening for dinner and then to see the places lit up at night. We walked towards Red Square, first noticing a large number of security personnel on the streets and in groups near the Bolshoi Theatre. Most of these guys were in 'army' looking uniform (with the big hats), and some were in camo. We didn't feel threatened, just curious.



Maybe a couple of hundred of the guys by the time we left the area to find dinner. We crossed the road and I took this pic of the State Duma (Parliament) - note the troops in front of the building, at the bottom of the photo. the security wasn't total - note the (official) cars still in front and pedestrians were still walking by.



Later we walked back past the State Duma and found it still ringed with troops, at about 3m spacing and lots of other security guys. We found them also blocking the entrance to an underpass that led towards Red Square. We and others milled about puzzled not sure what was up and what we should do. One of the guys in camo saw this and approached us, and asked if he could help. This was great; although his English wasn't. basically he said 'Red Square closed for 5 days; please go somewhere else'.

Disappointed, we circled back past the security ringed building, hoping to get shots of the GUM store and Red Square etc from a distance. Observing the security around the Duma, we recalled that the Moscow Mayoral elections had been held that day, and the 'unofficial' challenger was expected to do pretty well. Maybe the authorities were expecting protests? We didn't want to get caught up in that, so we hurried on, taking a few surreptitious photos (but probably could have taken more care and just taken blatant pics).



We approached Red Square at the Resurrection Gate to find it barricaded off, again with security guys making sure no-one went through. In a few minutes, hundreds of army / security guys started pouring out, mostly at an amble. Again, we didn't seem concerned, but was wondering what was going on. We asked one guy what was up. Again, not much English, but a not unfriendly attitude and the message - 'Red Square shut - come back tomorrow'.

Tomorrow! This was better. We stood back, watching the security guys continue to come out of Red Square and disperse.



After about 15 minutes more, the barricades started to be packed away. This was interesting. Five minutes later there were no barricades and no-one apparently enforcing an entrance prohibition.

Apparently whatever the issue was, it had gone away

So we marched through the Resurrection Gate into Red Square, to have the amazing experience of seeing the GUM store and St Basil's lit up, and virtually no-one in Red Square in front of us!

I should reiterate that at no stage did we feel threatened by the security, notwithstanding that there was some issue afoot for them. The guys we observed and spoke to were not unfriendly. While I am sure if they did have cause to 'get serious' it would turn unpleasant for those concerned, for tourists there doesn't seem much to be concerned about.

We had had a not-quite 'unique', Russian experience, which added a bit of frisson to the visit.

 

[RooFlyer]

I mentioned above about finding the 'unexpected' delights.

We were walking past the new Tretyakov Theatre next to Gorky Park and came across what might be described as the place where old sculptures are literally 'put out to pasture', together with very many other sculptures and art. We couldn't find this mentioned in any guide, but it was a telling description of modern attitudes to the old regime ('out to pasture' but not destroyed) and an enjoyable walk.

For instance: A defaced statue of Stalin:



Just in case some-one 'puts the band back together' :



We thought this might have been Comrade Brezhnev, hiding under a tree:



Lenin again - oh, the indignity!



The funniest thing was, this park for retired statues of diminished Soviet greats (and much more) lies literally in the shadow of the 1997 statue of Peter the Great. its almost 100m tall, the eight tallest in the world (and has been voted one of the ugliest).



I'm told there is some irony to this massive structure - Peter the Great disliked Moscow intensely, and moved his capital to St Petersburg! Apparently Moscow is trying to offload the statue - first to St Petersburg (who declined, I was told), and now to anyone else who wants it :shock: .

 

[Wezza]

Great thread! Brings back good memories! I've spent about 4 months in Russia over 2 trips, but mostly in Kazan. I would like to get back to Saint Petersburg & Moscow to explore some more.

 

[RooFlyer]

So we had to do the hard core sightseeing of course.

First stop the Kremlin. We arrived at the nearest metro station but unfortunately took the wrong exit, so ended up about quite a distance away when we surfaced. Never mind, it was still early and every corner brought new unexpected sights. We were keen to see the Kremlin Armoury (read, treasure house!) and its vast collection of goodies early (the tickets specify a fixed time), so having bought our tickets at 9am, we were in the (short) line for the entrance to the Kremlin at 9:30, for an Armoury entrance at the 10:00am fixed time for strictly 1 hour in the exhibition.

Through the vast Armory Gate to the Kremlin and the entrance to the Armoury was on our immediate left. We were expecting another queue until 10am, but the door was open so we went inside. Very little English spoken there, but when we asked where to queue, we were just ushered through the ticket barrier, and then up the stairs and all of a sudden we were in the first exhibition hall. OK, the 10:am fixed time is a bit flexible . We looked around for guidance, but none forthcoming, so we just went with the flow and began looking around. There was no monitoring of our time inside, so the strict 1 hour inside was also flexible. We spent 2 awestruck hours there.

Unfortunately no pics allowed. So what can I say? We thought the treasures at the Hermitage in St Petersburg were awesome, but we soon learned that the Russians kept 'the good stuff' at the Moscow Kremlin Armoury!!! Have you seen the Crown Jewel exhibited at the Tower of London? A poor show indeed. All that velvet in the crowns. None of that old tat here. The crowns here are solid with gold and diamonds etc. Velvet! Pshaw!

But first there were the fabled Faberge eggs of course. Exquisite delicacy combined with lots of diamonds, gold, platinum and other stuff for the Tsar and Tsarina's pleasure.

Then the State regalia of Tsars going back to the 14th Century. :shock::shock::shock: Google the Crown of Monomachas ; and a number of other Crowns and other bits and pieces. with chunky gold and diamonds.

The throne of Ivan the Terrible - a nice number in carved ivory. Bunch of other thrones, dating back to the late 15th Century.

Weapons; chain mail; armour; saddles; grand Court clothing worn by the Tsarinas and Empresses.

A room of about a dozen grand coaches, from 16th to 18th Century, several as ornate as the British State Coach we see occasionally.

But my favorite was the hall containing the world's largest collection of western European silverware from the 13th to the 19th Century. When a diplomat got an audience with the Tsar or Emperor, they had to being a 'present'. And of course the better the present, the better the audience. Oh good grief, these guys must have had the silversmiths on permanent commission. Such delicacy, artwork, skill and, er , SIZE to this stuff beggars belief. Yes, there are the odd tray and goblet, but much is like the "wine fountain" I think from Sweden, standing about a meter tall on the dinner table and consisting of several layers where wine fountained down. Of the incense burner - a miniature mountain (of silver) a foot or so across and high, where resembled a volcano, burning incense. And so on. Cabinet after cabinet of the stuff, from all over Europe. Not to mention all the gold table-wear and religious ornaments such as goblets, testament covers, icons and so on.

Anyway, that's enough for stuff I can't show you.

We lurched out of the Armoury and began our walk around the Kremlin. A 'Kremlin' is generally just a fort of some type. So the 'Moscow Kremlin' is just a special case, which I at least associated mainly with the Soviet Government, high secrecy and intrigue.

Today the Kremlin is collection of Cathedral museums with beautiful architecture and inside decoration, a number of government buildings, the 'Kremlin State Palace' (new-ish, which used to house meetings of the Supreme Soviet) surrounded by a fortress wall and towers of huge dimensions.

The Kremlin was first mentioned in 1147; the Cathedrals were built mostly in the 15th and 16th Century; the current red brick defensive walls and huge towers built between 1485 and mid 1500s.

Here are some odds-and-sods:

General view of the Kremlin from nearby bridge; an outer wall; couple of the Cathedrals with domes (there's 7 or more cathedrals and churches in total); the Kremlin Large Palace dominating the left.



This is the 'Trinity Gate' - the main entrance to the Kremlin, on the other side to the view above. Not bad, eh?



We saw the 'changing of the guard' (on the hour) at Trinity Gate. It was the full goose-stepping performance, which I videotaped rather than photographed, but here's a poor shot of the crew:



There's the 'Tsar's Bell'. It was cast in 1735, and is 200 tons (imperial). In 1736, when being decorated, the building covering it caught fire, and debris fell onto the bell. The cold water used to put the fire out cracked the hot bell and an 11.5 ton piece broke off. Bug*er.



Move on to the 'Tsar's cannon'. The world's biggest cannon (naturally) - 890mm caliber and 40 tons of gun tube (probably a mortar). It was cast in bronze in1586. the cannon balls in the pic are actually not for the Tsar's cannon.

 

[RooFlyer]

I can assure everybody that the end IS in sight.

Its just that I've been sorting and naming photos and keep being reminded of the experiences and sights ...

Besides the Armoury and general walking round, the main attraction at the Kremlin are the Cathedrals with their gold domes and exotic ornamentations, and the Ivan the Great Bell-tower, in which you can be taken up the tower for great views of Moscow (separate ticket).

One of the views from the Bell-tower




And the Bell-tower itself, with tsar's bell at the front




Magnificent decorations:




Before they became museums after the Revolution, the Cathedrals were some of the most important religious sites in Russia. The heads of the Russian orthodox church, going back many centuries, are entombed in the Archangel
Cathedral, which of course is beautifully and intricately decorated.




This street was off-limits. Just to the right of the pic was a very serious-looking guard. I couldn't understand the Russian he was speaking, but his meaning when he called out to me was very clear!

 

[RooFlyer]

Moscow is a great place to visit by night; in fact we went to many places twice just to see them lit up.

Walking round near the Bolshoi one evening, we came across a great 'restaurant strip' at Kamergerskiy St:




We lucked in by sitting down at some outside tables that turned out to be for a place called 'Kebab City' :shock: Had we know that, we probably would have moved on and would have missed out at a great Azerbaijani meal. Although some of the items could be skipped over with confidence (but who knows)



At least the red was good:



Back past the Bolshoi Theatre (unfortunately there was only some provincial kids show on at the time, so didn't get to attend inside)





And onto Red Square, where the GUM department store was terrific:

 

[jukebox333]

I was wondering if "Tobacco Chicken" wasn't a mangled translation for some sort of "smoked chicken"?

(but then I read this recipe... apparently not?)

Really enjoying your report - great photos. Thx for posting.