Moscow: 7-11 May
My short trip to Moscow was really great! It was my first visit to Russia, so I decided to start with a visit to the capital, even though most people said that St. Petersburg is better. I spend five days there - at the time there were several national holidays in France, so I had a few free days of holiday and a good priced ticket to Moscow.
Before going I had to get the visa which prooved less difficult than I had expected. It takes seven days and costs around €40, but the paperwork is quite straightforward.
I left Paris very early on the morning of 7 May and took the first train to the airport. I took advantage of a few spare minutes to take some very early morning photos around Notre Dame and St. Michel:
I arrived in Moscow in the late afternoon - just time to go to the apartment where I stayed for my first twoo nights and go out for a walk downtown. One of the first landmarks I saw was St. Basil's cathedral near the Kremlin... very impressive:
On the other side of Red Square from St. Basil's is the State History Museum. I didn't have time to visit it as I was too busy seeing the city - and it's good to something to see on my next visit:
All around Moscow you can see the domes of the Orthodox churches. They look so nice, shining in the sun:
The best way to get around Moscow is by metro. It's one of the few things that is still cheap in Moscow. The architecture of the stations is impressive - if a bit dated. There are references to the country's Communist past everywhere - statues and images of Soviet workers and soldiers as well as the occasional Lenin, red stars, hammers & sickles...
Not far from the State History Museum is the State Duma - the lower house of the Russian parliament:
On May 9 Russia celebrates victory day (the German surrender in 1945 was signed on 9 May Russian time - and 8 May in western Europe). There were plenty of events and lots of military to be seen. At the grave of the unknown soldier there is a very smart honour guard:
As part of the celebrations there were several military exhibits - here's a Russian armoured personnel carrier:
Near to the tomb of the unknown soldier there are memorials for all the great battles at which the Red Army fought - here's the one for Stalingrad:
This is the apartment where I stayed for my first two nights in Moscow - it reminded me of my time in Moldova:
There are some really nice streets just on the south bank of the river Moskva with plenty of little shops and cafés. Here is one of the churches in the neighbourhood:
On 9 May Russia celebrated Victory Day - it is widely celebrated with lots of parades and official events. There were banners and posters everywhere with the black and orange colours of the Russian Order of St. George.
The city was full of veterans dressed in their old uniforms with rows of red-ribboned medals:
The highlight of the day was the military parade on Red Square. The main part of the parade on Red Square was restricted to officials and veterans, but the columns of vehicles travelled along Tverskaya, one of the main streets in Moscow. I even saw this huge nuclear missile launcher:
After the main parade, the Communist PArty of the Russian Federation held a big flag-waving parade.. it was like October 1918 all over again...
The Military Police or Militsia were on hand to maintain the order but I'm not so sure about the law - these were the police who beat up and arrested opposition supporters in the run-up to the Russian presidential elections in March.
I followed the parade down to Red Square - it's huge...
On my third day in Moscow I moved to the suburbs - to a place called Podlipki-Dachnye where the Russian space programme has its main control centre - a bit like Houston for Nasa.
This is the impressively stalinistic main building of the Moscow State University. I went there to watch the Victory Day fireworks...
The fireworks were amont the most impressive I have ever seen - big bangs that shook the ground and bright gunpowder supernova's !!
The following day I visited the Kremlin. The Kremlin is a big complex containing the official residence of the President. There are four palaces and four catherdals. There is also an impressive garden full of tulips:
Just next to the Kremlin is Red Square and St. Basil's cathedral as well as Lenin's mausoleum. The Spasskaya tower with a red star at the top is quite well known as it features on some Russian banknotes:
On my way back to Paris I stopped in Frankfurt:
posted by James at Friday, May 16, 2008
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