More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor hotels

[JohnM]

Re: More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor ho

A truly epic TR, Rooflyer:!:.

 

[RooFlyer]

Re: More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor ho

The Sapsan САПСАН is a high speed train, taking 4 hours between St Petersburg and Moscow, including 3 stops (very short). Top speed is about 200km/hr. Economy is about $125, Business about $200 and Premium about $440. I chose Business, which included a hot meal, free wi fi and soft drinks and newspapers.

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Through security at St Petersburg (pretty casual!) and boarding was easy (the pre purchased ticket was IDed by my passport number, so needed that available) and available about ½ an hour before departure. Seats in 2-2 configuration, and much like the seat and space on Australian domestic business airline seats.

I was on the 7:00am service and after the first stop (8am), breakfast came round. A little meagre; one glass of juice, one cup of coffee, cold cuts to start then a couple of party-pie like things (but not as nice , as they had run out of omelettes. Note the Lurpak butter !

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The line is pretty straight between the two cities and the scenery is pretty monotonous, being green fields, birch forest or marshes/lakes with the occasional settlement and a couple of larger towns.

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I was pleased I listened to the on-board announcements (Russian and scratchy English). I heard that you could book a taxi for Moscow on board. In St Petersburg I had called the Moscow hotel and asked then what a taxi should cost and if it was metred etc. Reply was that one had to negotiate fare beforehand, but it would cost between 1,000 ($30) or 1,200 roubles ($36). So I told the concierge on the train my destination, and she came back with a printed quote, which was 600 roubles ($17) and the driver would meet me on the platform! Yes, please!

Sure enough, as I stepped onto the platform in Moscow, the driver was there, with my name on a sign and he helped me with my bags to the car, a clean shiny Yellow Cab. (On the walk out, I think I saw a taxi booking booth at the end of the platform.) Best rail to taxi experience ever . Straightforward 20 minute trip to the hotel. Generous tip to the driver. Memo to self – no tip for hotel concierge.

 

[RooFlyer]

Re: More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor ho

OK, let me introduce you to the land of the $60 breakfast. :shock: Don’t worry, there is a cheaper option – Continental breakfast for $45. :shock: :shock: The Hotel Baltschug Kempinski, Moscow.

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Let me explain. On the extended trips I do with my regular travelling friends, we’ve gotten into the habit of splurging a bit on our last stay, thinking that we’d all probably be pretty tired, and maybe a bit argumentative by that time, so let’s do luxury to unwind. OK, it’s just a bit of an excuse to lash out

Even though by this time I was on my own, I kept up the fiction (actually it was true that I was feeling the pace by this time) so I booked this five star hotel, right on the Moscow River, with direct views across to St Basil’s and the Kremlin. If you’ve see the new film ‘Jack Ryan – Junior Recruit’ (or something like that), this is the Moscow hotel where he checks into and makes unusual use of the bath (it’s not the actual check in area in the film, but is the Baltschug room). I hasten to say I didn’t pay for or get a room facing St Basil’s, but I got a bit of a view to a nearby Church.

It is a very nice hotel. When checking in, the lady took me through the various features and mentioned breakfast in the breakfast room for 2,000 roubles (quick mental calculation – that’s $60). I didn’t say anything but my eyes must have screamed “$60 for breakfast? Are you freak’n kidding me!?” as she quickly went on to say that there was a continental breakfast for 1,500 roubles ($45). Here’s the menu to prove it (as I didn’t believe it initially), and the view from my room. St Basil's lite.

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Reeling, I went up to the room. I thought it only appropriate to relinquish my bags on arrival (which I never usually do) and I was surprised to find them already delivered to the room, without a hand being held out. Room was very nice. Large, without being huge (I could see from the fire evacuation plan on the door that many rooms were twice the size of mine). Very good desk/working area, comfy bed, good aircon and bathroom. I liked the foyer bit where you could put some things out of the way. Also, you could open the windows if you wanted.

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Oh, the mini bar. You know you are in Russia when there is a full size bottle of vodka there, and also 2 bottles of Salmon Billycart champagne available. I didn’t dare look at the prices of those, but the small bottle of coke was $12.

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However, there was a large bottle of still, and also one of sparking water every day, complimentary and these were very welcome, as the days were hot and my walks long.

 

[RooFlyer]

Re: More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor ho

I head out immediately for a high priority site that we missed out on going to last time – the Cosmonautics Museum which is immediately adjacent to the VDNKh metro station. The initials of the station represents the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy at the All Russia Exhibition Centre and it would be this wider site that really set the eyeballs popping out by the end of the day.

But first to science. Like their war dead, the Russians do their space program heroes proud. The first thing you come across is ‘Cosmonauts Alley’, not an alley at all but a nice flower lined terrace with memorials to highlights of the Soviet space program (only in Russian, unfortunately) and busts of the main characters. Yuri Gagarin is there of course.

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Cosmonauts Alley ends at a monument built in 1962 ‘To the Conquerors of Space’, commemorating the launch of Sputnik in 1957. Its 100m tall and titanium clad, and except for good old Vlad Lenin pointing the way on the Workers frieze across the base, its stunning. See the person at the bottom RH corner for scale. The RH pic shows the Ostankino TV tower, built in 1967 and then the tallest free standing structure in the world (I think it’s still in the top 3 or 5). I think you can go up it. Again, person on the right for scale of the 2 statues; not sure who these guys are.

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The cosmonautics Museum is under the memorial, and you just go down some steps. Oh, oh. Who parked their Cruise Missile amongst the flower beds? At the rear, we get a peek into Soviet Disneyland.

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There’s a small admittance fee and the museum is very good. It was recently extended to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight. The LH pic is about half of the front exhibition space (earliest space missions), while the RH pic is about a quarter of the larger and higher gallery (later missions, including missile replicas, space ships and even some American stuff). Not quite as stunning as the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, but a great place to visit.

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[RooFlyer]

Re: More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor ho

There is a lot about Yuri Gagarin (first human in space, in April 1961; he died in 1968 in a crash of his MiG-15 training jet). Here are some of his personal note books, and some cases with medals and other personal memorabilia. Many of what you might call the ‘most popular’ exhibits in the museum have full English explanations alongside the Russian; unfortunately the majority of the exhibits don’t.

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Unfortunately of course many of the main Russian accomplishments were in hardware that didn’t come back to earth. Here is a model of the original Sputnik 1, expanded out of its simple sphere shape (’Sputnik’ simply means ‘satellite' ), which achieved earth orbit in October 1957, surprising the Americans (and everyone else!) and sparking the Space Race. It broadcast a bleep, detectable by amateur radio hams for 22 days before falling back to earth three months later, burning in the atmosphere.

On the right is the actual ejection/landing capsule for the dogs Belka and Strelka who, together with a rabbit, 42 mice, two rats and some flies were the first creatures to be sent into space (August 1960) and survive (Laika the dog was the first creature to be sent to space, but as expected, did not survive). I think that’s the actual Belka and Strelka there too.

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On the left, a 1:1 model of Lunokhod 1 (‘moon walker’), the first lunar rover and therefore the first controlled machine on another celestial body. It arrived on the moon in November 1970 and operated for just over 300 days. It travelled just over 10km, broadcast tens of thousands of images back to earth and performed 25 soil analyses. You (or at least I) tend to forget all the 'firsts' accomplished by the Russians early on.

On the right, a scale model of the Russian space shuttle Buran (‘snowstorm’) which flew once (unmanned), in 1988 – I had forgotten completely that the thing actually flew. The second, also unmanned journey was planned in 1993 but was cancelled when the Soviet Union collapsed and broke up. The shuttle which flew was destroyed in 2002, when the hangar it was stored at in Kazakhstan collapsed in a massive storm, killing a number of people.

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At left, a mock-up of the central module of the Mir (‘Peace’) Space Station, which flew in orbit between 1986 and 2001. It was used for very long space stays, with the record being 437 days by Valeri Polyakov and it was occupied uninterrupted for almost 10 years to 2010.

On the right, a mock-up of two modules from the Soyuz (‘Union’) space craft series. At the top, the orbital module (accommodation - for up to three!) and below that, the re-entry module and not seen at the bottom, the service module which contained instruments and a solar array. It’s tiny – living space 5 cubic metres!

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One of the things I was really interested in in the visit to learn more about the ‘Designer-General’ Sergei Pavlovich Korlov. Virtually to completely unknown in the West during much of the space race, he was the ‘mastermind’ and one of, if not the leading designer/engineer in the Soviet space program; his identity was considered to be a state secret by the Soviet government and he was generally only referred to by his initials ‘SP’ or ‘Chief Designer’ or similar. There were a number of exhibits in his name, but unfortunately most of them were only annotated in Russian. This was apparently his office, and from this I recognised his statue in Cosmonaut’s Alley. He died suddenly in 1966 and received the rare honour of being buried by the Kremlin wall in Red Square, behind Lenin’s Tomb, near the likes of Brezhnev. I‘ve been wanting to know more about him for years . On the right is the actual space suit worn by Michael Collins in the Apollo 11 mission.

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Lots and lots of other excellent stuff, including artworks, meteorites, missile scale models and many bits and pieces. Great place for kids, who may need reminding that all this ancient history once held the world in thrall.

 

[RooFlyer]

Re: More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor ho

This bit is what I’ve been dying to share for the past couple of weeks . So, just when you think you’ve seen it all – from Red Square and the Kremlin palaces, Peterhof, Catherine Palace, the Hermitage, let alone the Vatican, Versailles and even the obscenely large basilica in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast – along comes the All Russia Exhibition Centre and the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy (known in English by the acronym as VDNKh). All I knew beforehand was that the site was large (a couple of square kilometres) and was built in the 1930s by Stalin with pavilions to exhibit the best of the Soviet Union categorised by Republics and Industries. I now describe this as the Soviets meet Las Vegas, or Soviet Disneyland . I only saw part of the site; there is also an amusement type park area and loads more gardens, statues etc. There were lots of people visiting - but not crowded.

You enter from the direction of the Cosmonautics Museum under a suitably bombastic and gigantic Soviet archway, a Propylaea, topped by the inevitable tractor driver and female sovkhoz (communal farm) worker bearing a sheaf of wheat:

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… and are immediately confronted with the Central Pavilion, with Vlad of course.

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You go round the Central Pavilion and are met with a scene that frankly made me stop, gather my jaw off the ground, and just stare and wonder at. The ‘Friendship of Nations’ fountain with a number of pavilions around it (Pavilion of Armenia left in the RH pic and the Pavilion of Atomic Energy at far right). Sixteen gold plated female figures represent the Soviet republics.

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Going further down the central boulevard, you come to fountains straight out of Versailles, called the Stone Flower Fountain in front of the Ukraine Pavilion (oops). It was quite a hot day so some people were sensible and cooled off in the fountain.

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[JohnM]

Re: More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor ho

Extraordinary :!::shock:.

 

[RooFlyer]

Re: More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor ho

Wouldn’t be a decent park without a Tupolev Tu-154, let alone a full sized Vostok rocket of the type Yuri Gagarin flew in in 1961. The building behind was originally the ‘Pavilion of Farm Machinery’ but in the ‘70s it was sexed up to become the ‘Space Pavilion’ .

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At least some humour is alive and well. Check out the car and the kennel at the, um, top. And an attempt at an arty photo.

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Couple of parting panoramas. Like I said, the whole site is a few square kilometres and all I did was go up the central axis and back; I didn't even go into any of the pavilions (many are closed for ... renovation ...). The park is now owned by a stock exchange listed company.

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And to close off the reel, a couple more of the Cosmonauts Memorial, because I think its one of the coolest memorials around.

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[TomVexille]

Re: More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor ho

Looks sensational

 

[RooFlyer]

Re: More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor ho

Back on the Metro to Tretykovskaya station, with the intention of heading back to the hotel. But a few blocks from it, you get a glimpse of St Basils amongst the peak hour traffic, and re-energised, decide to press on! To the right as you cross the Moscow River is one of Stalin’s ‘Seven Sisters’ These are seven skyscrapers built by Stalin between 1947 and 1953 in a distinctive ‘Stalinist/Gothic style’. In the RH pic is the Kotelnicheskaya Apartment building.

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Over the bridge and you are in Red Square where it’s a case of just stop, drink it in again and imagine all the events that have occurred here – the May Day parades, Soviet leaders on the parapets of the Kremlin, ICBMs trundling past. St Basil’s itself is of course a wonder. Can’t get enough of those domes, and in the late afternoon light, the colours are amazing.

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Pivoting left from the above perspective is the GUM department store. Formerly the shop for the Soviet era elites, now its simply the shops for the deep-pocketed. The rest of us go in and gawk.

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Lots of high end stores, in a thoroughly renovated, air conditioned environment. It’s the middle of summer and the flower displays are great, both inside and out. The aircon is pretty welcome too

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Lots of nice detail in the mall. On the walk back a Radisson cruise boat glides under the bridge – I’ll be on that tomorrow.

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[boomy]

Re: More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor ho

Amazing photos!

 

[RooFlyer]

Re: More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor ho

Next day. Gosh, am I back in Red Square ? (sort of like in Sydney where visitors are always drawn back to the Opera House environs). Take some more pictures . St Basils, Kremlin walls on the left.

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Lenin’s Tomb on the left (more of that later), State History Museum at the front (ditto) and GUM on the right.

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State History Museum, and then looking back at St Basil’s. Note the relative lack of people. Early photographer gets the uncrowded picture.

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On the Metro, off at Smolenskaya station and it’s a bit of a walk to and over the river at Novoarbatsky Prospect, where we see the Radisson Hotel on the left (one of Stalin’s Seven Sisters, now VERY swish digs) and the Russian White House (‘House of Soviets’) on the right. The White House is the seat of the Russian Parliament. It initially took over the role of the Supreme Soviet from the Kremlin in 1981, and continues in the role today.

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Who remembers during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, where there was a battle ‘to the death’ between Yeltsin and the Supreme Soviet legislature, where Yeltsin was effectively dismantling the old Communist regime? Yeltsin eventually got the army on side (lower ranks first) and mobilised tanks against the legislators and shelled the building, scoring direct explosive hits in the front. I remember seeing it on TV - amazing stuff. The stranglehold of the Communist apparatus on Russia ended.

From the riverfront near the Radisson there is a great view to the modern centre of Moscow – again, quite unexpected. And more on the Radisson itself; its very 5 star inside, with quite heavy security on the door. I went in for lunch past at least 3 guys with guns on the front revolving doors; x ray machine etc. Never did figure out who the statue was of.

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[RB]

Re: More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor ho

Never did figure out who the statue was of.

Maybe Taras Shevchenko?

 

[kpc]

Re: More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor ho

RooFlyer...thank you!! We will be in St Petersburg for 7 nights and Moscow for 6 nights in a month's time! Looking at your photos has me salivating with anticipation!! We have booked the same Sapsan train as you from St Petersburg to Moscow. For Moscow, where little English is spoken, would you recommend a private guide for day 1 to get a "feel" of the place. and then explore on our own on subsequent days?

 

[RooFlyer]

Re: More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor ho

RooFlyer...thank you!! We will be in St Petersburg for 7 nights and Moscow for 6 nights in a month's time! Looking at your photos has me salivating with anticipation!! We have booked the same Sapsan train as you from St Petersburg to Moscow. For Moscow, where little English is spoken, would you recommend a private guide for day 1 to get a "feel" of the place. and then explore on our own on subsequent days?

Good lengths of time to visit; its taken me two visits to do the same. I certainly wouldn't think a guide is necessary in Moscow, especially if you have a week in St Petersburg first. You'll get the hang of things Russian there

Don't forget to book your cab in Moscow whilst on board the Sapsan train.

Russians are used to visitors not speaking the language, and them not able to speak much English - everyone gets by. In Moscow, the tourist sights, like anywhere, have ticket explanations etc in English. Numbers are of course the same. The Kremlin ticket office is especially user friendly (I'm talking about that in the next post). And in Moscow, there is so much you can do and see for free .. walk around Red Square, St Basil's, Alexander Gardens, the Bolshoi, GUM and the river front the first morning. All free of traffic, so little stress. Have lunch at a café (there are 'western' style ones at Alexander gardens - including an Italian pizza joint and a MacDonald's! Nearly all cafes have picture menus, so just point! Buying a ticket at a museum is usually a matter of speaking slowly and holding up fingers. Sometimes you have to specify something particular, but then just point.

The main tricky thing in Moscow is the Metro. Newer signs have Roman script words, but old ones just have Cyrillic. Have a map, and just look at the words of the stations; the lines and signs are all clearly colour coded. No need to jump aboard a train if you are not totally sure - they come along every 5 minutes or less. In St Petersburg, you get brass tokens; one per trip at 28 roubles (about a dollar). Insert at the entry gate, nothing at the exit gate. To buy, just go to the ticket office (at every station) and hold up the number of fingers for the number of tokens; buy a bunch up front.

In Moscow however, they give you a cardboard card electronic ticket, size of a credit card. It can be for 1-5 journeys, so if you ask for 6 tickets, there will be one with 5 journeys on it, and one with one journey. Press against the thing at the entry gate and it tells you how many journeys left on that card. Nothing at the exits. Throw it away when used up.

In Moscow, many metro stations are works of art in themselves - do a hop off, hop on tour! Mentioned in my TR for the previous visit here.

You'll be fine

 

[RooFlyer]

Re: More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor ho

Oops – got myself out of order. The reason I was up early and walking around Red Square again was that I was visiting the Kremlin Armoury again. Did a thorough Kremlin tour last time (see here) but I wanted to go back to the Armoury (where the ‘Treasures’ are on display) and also see the ‘Diamond Fund of Russia’, which I missed last time and where the REAL good stuff is.

Tickets for the Kremlin are at a ticket office centre in the Alexander Garden, off Manezhnaya ul. An exit of the Bibloteka metro station comes out immediately in front of the ticket office. The ticket office opens at least half an hour before the Kremlin gates open, which is at 9:30am. Maybe an hour before.

You buy tickets for the sights you want to see. There is simple ‘general admission’ where you can just walk around; another for the multiple Cathedral interiors (the ‘Architectural Ensemble’), another for the Ivan the Great Bell Tower and another for the Armoury. Absolutely go for the lot. Armoury tickets specify entry at a particular time (eg 10:00am, noon, 2:30pm, 4:00pm), but see comment below. Note – you do not buy Diamond Fund tickets here, but at the actual exhibition, inside the Armoury.

Except for the Armoury, you enter via the grand entrance adjacent to the ticket office, the Trinity Gate Tower. Goose stepping guards change here on the hour.

Both times I have visited the Armoury first, and the entrance for this is to the right of the ticket office, as you face the building. The scheduled opening time is 10:00am, and queues start about 9:30am, but not many people. Both times I visited they have let people in before 10:00am – this time it was 9:50am. Through security (like airports, and taken seriously), when up a short footpath to enter the Armoury area. Toilets and cloakrooms there, as well as a book shop. Then though the ticket scanner, up the stairs and you begin.

If you only buy tickets for the Armoury, notwithstanding you are within the Kremlin walls, you can’t keep walking within the walls – there is a ticket check to go on.

Basically the Armoury exhibition contains the ‘treasures’ of Russia (except for what’s in the Diamond Fund) and as usual, it’s completely overwhelming. No pictures . The collection of Faberge Easter eggs might be considered the highlight; Tsar and Trsarina cloths & gowns; a big room of carriages from the 1700s on (one took 23 horses at a time!); ancient icons and Kremlin silverware; armour, weapons, including from some of the characters of Russian history, 500 years old; a BIG room of chunky silver and gold wear gifts proffered by European ambassadors and visitors to the Tsar’s court over several hundred years; diamond encrusted thrones, gold and jewel encrusted crowns of the Tsars over several hundred years. Hopefully you get the picture.

I went through the Armoury just as a refresher (and it wasn’t crowded at all at 10:am – only 1 tour group and maybe a dozen others), then I went to the Diamond Fund exhibition, whose entrance is on the staircase up to the Armoury halls. They let people in in groups of about 20 at 20 minute intervals (but you can stay in there longer than 20 minutes); you buy tickets right there. Lots of guards! No pictures of course; there are no pictures of the Exhibition in any of the books on sale at the Kremlin and Wikipedia’s entry is also devoid of pictures! There is a picture gallery here. Check it out (you can download a video); the big crown is the Grand Imperial Crown (see below).

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There was a tour in Russian for our group (not sure if it’s ever in English) and as this was pretty useless to me, I was lucky that one of the guards gestured for me to walk on. The Exhibition consists of maybe 12 ‘showcases’ of gem exhibits, and a central walk-around exhibit of precious metals. It’s dark, with guys in suits and earpieces prowling about. All the signs and explanations are in Russian only, but at the ticket office they gave me a couple of pages of summaries in English - it would be detailed enough for most people.

Well, just wow. The Diamond Fund exhibition makes the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London look like a corner pawn shop. Truly. It was begun by Peter the Great (who else!) in 1719 and added to copiously by others since then.

In one showcase there are raw diamonds – literally small buckets of them, including ones almost the size of a golf ball. Thirty thousand carats, or 6kg in all! A map of Russia in raw diamonds.

Another case of 900 uncut diamonds, the largest called ‘The 26th Congress of the Communist Party’ :shock: is 342 carats; a carat is 0.2g so it weighs 68g or about 2 ounces. Now that's what you call bling! Some are almost perfect crystals – octahedrons, one still half embedded in the host rock. As a geologist, I am agog.

Next, brilliant cut diamonds. Talk about sparklers, dozens of them, all colours, up to the size of a pea.

Showcases of jewel encrusted military decorations; another couple with Imperial orders; another with various tiaras and the like; then, stunning on top of the spectacular, there is the ‘Regalia of Russia’ used in Coronations – including the Grand Imperial Crown made in 1762 of 500 diamonds, 75 big pearls etc etc. Orb, sceptre ‘small crown’ etc.

In the centre of one of the two rooms is the precious metal displays. Dozens and dozens of gold nuggets, many more than 10kg, the largest 36kg, about the size of a deflated Aussie Rules football. Move along and there are the 20 or so platinum nuggets. I’ve never seen one before. Largest is almost 8kg.

The Russian tour is going quite slowly, so I make another circle, then exit. Russia is a vast country, and its resources are equally vast. The State has always had control over the mineral wealth, so little surprise a huge quantity has ended up sticking to its pockets.

 

[RooFlyer]

Re: More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor ho

Maybe Taras Shevchenko?

Correct! Thanks

The Radisson hotel is also called the Hotel Ukraine, which links in with Shevchenko being a famous (unfortunately not to me ) Ukrainian poet, writer and artist.

 

[RooFlyer]

Re: More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor ho

So back to the Radisson Hotel, where my river cruise departs from; the hotel run the cruise. You can book on-line and also buy tickets from the ticket office by the wharf. Easy to do. There are several boat configurations and types of cruise, but the latter mostly runs from the Radisson hotel to the Kotelnicheskaya Apartment building, beyond the Kremlin, and back. Cruise lasts 2 hours, and there are regular tickets and first class tickets on some cruises. I bought a first class ticket (ir was only about $60, Vs about$50 for the regular ticket), but that was a mistake. A night cruise would be good to do.

Here is the cruiser; the ‘first class cabin’ is the enclosed one on the upper deck. All the rest, including the open part of the upper deck, is open to all. The best spot of course is around a table in the open at the front or back and that’s where I spent most of my time. You can get something to eat and drink everywhere, but in the first class cabin its better service. Don’t bother with it.

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We go past the White House, some parks, including Gorky Park, the Red October Chocolate Factory, a soccer stadium etc for the first 1/2 hour. But its nearer the centre of Moscow that it becomes more interesting.

Yo-ho-ho and a 100m high, 600 tonne statue of Peter the Great, erected in 1998 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Russian Navy by him. There is some irony with the statue being here. PtG hated Moscow, and moved his capital to St Petersburg.

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Back past the Kremlin. In Russia, a kremlin is more-or-less just a fort (apologies to Russians and experts!), so many towns have a kremlin. This is of course THE Kremlin and fortifications have been here for well over a thousand years. The present, impressive fortifications comprising massive walls, towers and other buildings were substantially begun in the 1400s. A number of cathedrals (the golden domes) were established within it, and they are of course stunning.

The white buildings seen here are the Great Kremlin Palace (700 rooms, built mid 1800s and housing the Armoury), the Assumption Cathedral (1400s) Annunciation Cathedral (1400s) close together and the Ivan the Great Belltower (1500s).

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The Kotelnicheskaya Apartment building, one of Stalins Seven Sisters, with some nice Soviet detail. I love the mobile phone units on the tower holding up the Soviet Star.

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Finally, a picture of the new and old Moscow. No-where else did I see the new city towers over the skyline of the old city. To the right in the Kremlin you can see the various clusters of domes, representing the 5 or so cathedrals in close proximity to each other.

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[RooFlyer]

Re: More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor ho

This is Lubyanka Square, not far from Red Square, with the infamous Lubyanka prison on the right (undergoing renovation, of course, as is the building on the left!) Lubyanka of course the home of the former KGB.

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Facing the square since 1990 is the Solovetsky Stone and memorial to the political prisoners of the USSR and especially the tens of thousands who were murdered by it. The stone comes from the Solovki Gulag, on the Solovki Islands, off northern Russia :shock:.

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Nearby Lubyanka Square, and also close to Red Square is the Bolshoi Threatre, which needs no explanation! … except maybe that it re-opened in 2011 after six years of renovation. I had planned to go to a performance, but unfortunately I got a call and had to do some work on the fly …

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This one is a bit hard to explain without about 6 pictures. Heading back to St Basils and the hotel, I went down Varvarka ul, which runs along the north boundary of a very large vacant area fronting the Moscow River and immediately east of St Basils. It’s apparently eventually going to be a sort of Civic Square complex. This is the Kitay Gorod district and along this stretch of road are about five or six churches, side by side, starting at the very far left of this panorama shot, and ending at the far right. The churches date from the 1600s to the 1800s and are gradually being restored, it appears.

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Finally in this stanza, a common sight on the streets of Moscow. A pair of water trucks, spraying powerful jets of water to help clean the streets. Passing cars (and the odd pedestrian) get a free partial clean.

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[JohnM]

Re: More Central and Eastern European bling (incl Transylvania); *A flights, Accor ho

Everything looks very clean - is that the case generally RF?

What's the general scene on the streets? Eg. beggars, gypsies, demeanour of the people, police presence and attitude - that sort of thing?