The Journey Begins
Thanks for joining me! This is the follow-up to the original, “alexandriacardinals.wordpress.com,” which overwhelmed the system’s ability to handle it any more. Thus, this is “Part 2.” As the original was initially described:
10-26-07-4
“It all began in a 5,000 watt radio station in Fresno, California” . . . wait a minute, that was Ted Baxter on the Mary Tyler Moore Show! Let’s see . . . oh yeah, it all began in 2003 when retirees, i.e., old people, in Alexandria, Minnesota, who had no desire to become snow birds, went looking for mid-winter entertainment here in the frozen tundra of West Central Minnesota. We discovered girls’ high school hockey, fell in love immediately, and it remains our favorite spectator sport to this day. Initially, and for several years, reports on these games were e-mailed to those who were actually snowbirds but wanted to keep abreast of things “back home.” It was ultimately decided a blog would be more efficient, and it evolved into a personal diary of many things that attracts tens of readers on occasion. It remains a source of personal mental therapy and has yet to elicit any lawsuits.
~ The Editor, May 9, 2014
p.s. The photo border around the blog is the Cardinal girls’ hockey team after just beating Breck for the state championship in 2008. It’s of the all-tournament team. The visible Breck player on the left is Milica McMillen, then an 8th-grader – she is now an All-American for the Gophers. The Roseau player in the stocking cap I believe is Mary Loken, who went on to play for UND; and the Cardinal player on the right, No. 3, is Abby Williams, the player we blame most for making us girls’ hockey fans who went on to play for Bemidji State.
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Photos contained herein are available for personal use. All you have to do is double click on any of the photos and they will become full screen size. You can then save them into your personal “My Pictures” file. They make lovely parting or hostess gifts, or holiday gifts for such as Uncle Ernie who wants to see how his grand niece is doing on the hockey team. If any are sold for personal profit, however, to, for example, the Audubon Society, National Geographic, Sven’s Home Workshop Monthly, Curling By The Numbers, or the World Wrestling Federation, I only request that you make a donation to the charitable organization of your choice. You have two hours and fifteen minutes. Pencils ready? Begin!
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[Continuing our first day in Barcelona, strolling about on Montjuic Hill . . . ]
[Appears to be a dead tree – oh, and the towers of the Palau Nacional (National Palace), a/k/a, home of the National Art Museum of Catalonia since 1934 . . . ]
[Basically, the view 90 degrees to the right of our first views of the city from the top of Montjuic . . . ]
[Looking back to where we were and where we returned in the following photos . . . ]
[Above and below, the hilltop views of Barcelona . . . ]
[This is the place . . . ]
[From which to get this view . . . ]
[The guy played terrific classical guitar. When I went to drop a few Euros in his case, he was gone. We ran across several excellent street guitar players on the trip . . . ]
[All this excitement created thirsts . . . ]
[I held the table while the others beverage shopped . . . ]
[And then you just keep coming back to this view . . . ]
[Did you notice the gull make an ever growing three-photo appearance?]
[We are so enjoying this . . . ]
[We too!]
[OK, Bill and I had a beer; Anne and the Super had gelato . . . ]
[And then we switched positions so they could be in the sun . . . ]
[Now we’re heading off to see what’s on the other side of the museum . . . ]
[We didn’t get far before I needed another rest . . . ]
[I am me; the statue is unknown . . . ]
[A nice tree-lined street . . . ]
[And now from the other side . . . ]
[At least this one is identified . . . ]
[This Olympic Bell was a gift of several German families and the German state government of Baden-Württemberg to Barcelona during the 1992 Olympic Games (waymarking.com).]
[Barcelona Olympic stadium (1992) . . . ]
[Barcelona Olympic Stadium Esplanade at Montjuic hill . . . ]
[Olympic spire . . . ]
[Again, the stadium . . . ]
[Then we walked around the stadium . . . ]
[But first looking back at where we came into the Olympic zone . . . ]
[Were any of you here?]
[So, we’ve circle around the stadium. It was a warm day, we’ve walked a long way, and starting to feel pooped . . . ]
[And now we’re heading downhill in search of the funicular for the final downhill dash. Along the way, there are breaks in the trees for views of the city . . . ]
[In the middle here is Sagrada Familia, where we would be the following mornig . . . ]
[A cable car – we would take a ride in a following day . . . ]
[Where the cable car alights . . . ]
[A garden adjacent to . . . ]
[The funcular . . . ]
[Which we rode to the bottom of Montjuic on our multi-ride subway tickets . . . ]
[And then on the walk back to our hotel we stopped at an outdoor cafe for fine dining. In front of me was my first of several Spanish salads . . . ]
[And the restaurant was Vivo. It was nice – and handily walking distance from our hotel . . . ]
[Buenos noches, y’all. In the morning we walk to Sagrada Familia . . . ]
[And the last photo of a marathon walking day. Why yes, Halloween is a biggie in Spain.]
Travel makes one modest, you see what a tiny place you occupy in the world. ~ Gustave Flaubert
OK, I hear you say, you just finished blogging Russia yesterday – how’d you get to Spain today? Well, I’m just way behind. This Spain trip wasn’t even on the calendar when we left Russia in mid-June – but then it was. From October 21 – 31, with friends Anne and Bill Gross from northern Virginia, we visited Barcelona, Madrid, Grenada, Seville, Cordoba, and back to Madrid and Toledo . . .
October 19
[Word from our “early bird” was to get packing . . . ]
October 20
[The new Executive Express terminal in St. Cloud – on the way to Barcelona . . . ]
[Stage 2. Made it to MSP – we were ‘TSA pre’ so it only took 3 1/2 days to get to our gate . . . ]
[Stage 3. Hotlanta. We may have hit some flying reindeer on the way down but otherwise an uneventful flight. See you in Barcelona in the morning . . . ]
[OK, it wasn’t all smooth – many people tried to board with carry-ons as big as a Buick – and NO peanuts on board because of an allergic passenger. The boarding gate only required you stand facing a “face identifier” – no ticket or passport necessary. This was way too complicated for the “adults in the room.” In spite of a very large sign at the entry point, many did not stand “behind the line” waiting their turn for the check-in prcedure. It was like herding kindergarteners. The gate attendant was getting frustrated. And so it goes . . . ]
October 21
[Something like three movies later, we were over Barcelona . . . ]
[Arriving at 8:30 am . . . ]
[Barcelona, we are here!]
[Where we were going and how we were going to get there . . . ]
[Stage 4. Arrived at our hotel, Olivia Balmas, where we jumped on some mimosas! Woo-woo!]
[Planning the rest of the day . . . ]
[Weather courtesy of our hotel – it was going to be lovely . . . ]
[We heard there was a pool on the roof . . . ]
[Bill leads the way to it . . . ]
[Hey, this is nice!]
[Horizon pool with a view . . . ]
[But somehow in our four days at the Olivia Balmas, we couldn’t find time to come up here again . . . ]
[I believe the Super appreciated the tanning prospects . . . ]
[Buenos dias, Barcelona!]
[Just across the street – Jami could have come with us!]
[This was our room. We had three English-language channels – CNBC, Bloomberg, and RT. Not exactly exciting entertainment . . . ]
[The view from our window. We were right downtown . . . ]
[Lest you were wondering?]
[We’d probably been up for 20 hours. But it was a beautiful morning – so we set off to see the excitement that is Barcelona . . . ]
[A civilized city – an easy to use and efficient subway system . . . ]
[And now I have some Euros . . . ]
[Our train arrives in 54 seconds . . . ]
[Looks like mostly locals . . . ]
[Our stop would be Espanya . . . ]
[Courtesy of the internet, this is where we were and where we were going – to the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC), the National Art Museum of Catalonia, on Montjuic hill at the end of Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina, near Plaza Espanya . . . ]
[Venetian Towers on Plaza Espanya leading the way to MNAC . . . ]
[Catalonia Hotel (background) of the monument fountain in Plaza Espanya . . . ]
[Las Arenas, a new shopping centre . . . ]
[An unidentified small statue on the plaza . . . ]
[Walk this way for the MNAC . . . ]
[Up the grand avenue – note the guy in the white tee shirt hanging on the lamp post, he will appear again . . . ]
[Fira de Montjuïc is the convention center . . . ]
[There’s the white tee shirt guy again . . . ]
[We’re closing in on our goal . . . ]
[And finally photobombed by white tee shirt guy. I gave him a thumbs-up . . . ]
[The Magic Fountain in the foreground – though it’s not fountaining . . . ]
[A look back from whence we came . . . ]
[The Four Columns (“Les Quatre Columnes” in Catalan) are four Ionic columns originally created by Josep Puig i Cadafalch. They were erected in 1919, where the Magic Fountain of Montjuic now stands. A replica of the columns was erected in 2010 very close to the original site and following the original plans (Wikipedia).]
[Are you taking my picture, mister?]
[The classic first-day-of-vacation photo of tourists, standing in front of an iconic setting, on a beautiful day, with the guys in matching outfits . . . ]
[Looking down now on the Magic Fountain of Montjuic and the Venetian Towers . . . ]
[A triad of photos of Anne leaving the scene of the crime . . . ]
[Why yes, this is beautiful . . . ]
[Why yes, this is beautiful . . . ]
[Still a climb to our final objective . . . ]
[And we made it to the top. Part 2 of day 1 will be our fun time on Montjuic Hill and our excursion back to our Diagonal subway stop hotel – hopefully published soon.]
There is no night life in Spain. They stay up late but they get up late. That is not night life. That is delaying the day. ~ Ernest Hemingway
[As we were leaving the ship for the last time, I turned to our crew and said, “do svidaniya.” It’s a phrase I’ve heard many times in movies involving Russians. It’s a polite way of saying “until we meet again” instead of the more final “good bye.” I then heard one of the crew say to another, “Where’d that come from?” Ha!]
[Alexey guided us one last time, helping us navigate through the airport procedures to get to our gate. It was a piece of cake, easier than any other airport we’ve been through . . . ]
[We came home via Paris . . . ]
[The Super lined up a little extra leg room for us . . . ]
[I don’t sleep and now can’t recall all the movies I watched over and back . . . ]
[I believe one was Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri . . . ]
[Little did we realize while winging our way home . . . ]
[That four months later we would be taking our third overseas junket of the year – to Spain. Well, it would be four if Wisconsin counted as being overseas.]
Adventure, yeah. I guess that’s what you call it when everybody comes back alive. ~ Mercedes Lackey
[We’ve finished lunch, now it was time to finish our stroll through Zaryadye Park and ahead is the “floating bridge” . . .]
[View of the floating bridge, the Moskva River, and the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building . . . ]
[“Green” landscaping abounds . . . ]
[And what’s a park without flowers?]
[Including a flower hosting a bee . . . ]
[We approach the floating bridge . . . ]
[A glimpse of the park’s amphitheater over the berm . . . ]
[The walkway to the floating bridge . . . ]
[The floating bridge is a thin air structure in the form of the letter “V” with a large outward extension above the water. It towers over the embankment and seems to hover over the Moscow River. The bridge is unique in Russia: it is a 70 meter structure without a single support. The bearing structure of the bridge is made of concrete, and the decorative elements are made of metal. The deck is wooden; the construction withstands a load of 240 tons corresponding to 3–4 thousand people (Wikipedia).]
[In the foreground, folks coming off the bridge . . . ]
[And coming on from the other side . . . ]
[A collective WOW from the Super and Tom . . . ]
[Again, the view of Moskva river and Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building . . . ]
[And here looking directly across the river . . . ]
[And in the other direction, the Kremlin . . . ]
[This looks like one of the Google posted photos . . . ]
[Sightseeing boats (remember our Moscow by night adventure?) . . . ]
[Just, the view . . . ]
[From the tip of the vee, looking back into the park . . . ]
[The Super rises above the throngs for a shot of the Kremlin . . . ]
[Straight down the river on the city side . . . ]
[In 2018, Time magazine put Zaryadye Park . . . ]
[On 2018 list of World’s Greatest Places.]
[Yup, it’s gotta be right up there . . . ]
[The glass crust cover of the amphitheater . . . ]
[Think I’ll hop up on this bench . . . ]
[I do not know who photobombed behind the soccer ball . . . ]
[Now it’s time to walk to the Kremlin for our scheduled tour . . . ]
[Along the way this woman asked us if we were Americans. Is it that obvious?]
[So she chatted with us along way. She was a Russian journalist here to cover the World Cup. I think her name was Maria. We should have visited longer . . . ]
[And photo by Pam . . . ]
[OK, here’s the Kremlin wall. Now, how do we get in?]
[It turned out to be a longer hike than we thought. Here Tom stops to ponder the efficacy of climbing over the wall – either that or he’s playing the role of a prison escapee.]
[Ah, we found Vladimir again . . . ]
[Emperor Alexander I of Russia . . . ]
[The staging area for the assault on the Kremlin entrance gate. Tom taking advantage of one of the few places to take a load off . . . ]
[Pam going ISO our guided tour group . . . ]
[The assault has begun . . . ]
[And here’s our lollipop leader . . . ]
[Amidst other lollipop group leaders. Yes, we’re going enmasse up those steps. I believe it would take forever to try to buy a ticket and go through solo. Even with this many people, the groups actually entered rather quickly . . . ]
[And, we’re in!]
[Looking back at where we came in, and to know the way out . . . ]
[Familiar sightings ahead from the Red Square side – the clock tower and St. Basil’s.]
[The entrance/exit gate . . . ]
[Annunciation Cathedral in the background . . . ]
[Our statuesque guide had to stop and gather her slower moving minions on occasion . . . ]
[Now that’s a spired tower.]
[Kremlin arsenal . . . ]
[Cathedral of the Archangel . . . ]
[Putin’s office is the one under the central arch. I was amazed at the visible lack of security?]
[The Tsar cannon with the Annunciation Cathedral in the background . . . ]
[The Tsar Cannon is a large early modern periodartillery piece (known as a bombarda in Russian). It is a monument of Russian artillery casting art, cast in bronze in 1586 in Moscow. Mostly of symbolic impact, it was never used in a war. However, the cannon bears traces of at least one firing. Per the Guinness Book of Records it is the largest bombard by caliber in the world, and it is a major tourist attraction in the ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin (Wikipedia).]
[Annunciation Cathedral in the background; Assumption Cathedral in the foreground . . . ]
[Looking down the barrel, Assumption Cathedral on the left; Patriarch’s Palace (Church of the 12 Apostles) on the right . . . ]
[The Tsar (or Royal) Bell is located between the Ivan the Great Bell Tower and the Kremlin Wall. Made of bronze, the bell cracked during a fire after being completed and has never been rung. The bell is the largest bell in the world, weighing 201,924 kilograms (445,166 lb), with a height of 6.14 metres (20.1 ft) and diameter of 6.6 metres (22 ft), and thickness of up to 61 centimetres (24 in). The broken piece weighs 11,500 kilograms (25,400 lb) (Wikipedia).]
[Honestly, I didn’t break it!]
[That’s some bell!]
[Now entering Cathedral Square, most of the cathedrals we have already seen from outside the square . . . ]
[This way in – Moscow, the city, on the far side . . . ]
[Assumption and Patriarch’s . . . ]
[And lots of tourists just generally milling around . . . ]
[Annunciation and the Super . . . ]
[360 degrees of photo ops (Archangel Cathedral in the backgound) . . . ]
[Our guide readies us for an assault on Archangel Cathedral . . . ]
[The Super and I decided to sit outside in the great weather . . . ]
[And these two young ladies made folly of the usual static selfie!]
[With a vertical free standing selfie-stick . . . ]
[The door to Assumption Cathedral . . . ]
[A great photo op backdrop . . . ]
[Amongst the cathedrals was this building. I know it was discussed – maybe something to do with the exterior design or material. But I couldn’t find anything on it?]
[Back to the unique Assumption door . . . ]
[On the right, Ivan the Great Bell Tower, the tallest structure on the square . . . ]
[And here comes our group . . . ]
[And now back out through the gardens . . . ]
[Leaving Ivan the Great Bell Tower and the Tsar bell . . . ]
[Way out, you know, the exit. Our guide is either shooting us . . . ]
[Or maybe a selfie . . . ]
[We’re on the bus heading back to the ship, past some familiar sights . . . ]
[And back on board, the last supper . . . ]
[“Weakie,” it’s only appropriate we wrap up with foodies. We head for Minnesota via Paris in the morning . . . ]
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. ~ Mark Twain
The last full day in Russia. We would leave Moscow the next morning . . .
[And what a beautiful sight to wake up to . . . ]
[Now on our way for a day at the Kremlin. Likely a statue of some important Russian. Or a monument to KFC?]
[Vladimir Mayakovsky, a poet, playwright, artist, and actor who committed suicide in 1930 . . . ]
[Apparently not a tourist worthy fountain though I found it cute . . . ]
[The only identifier I could find was “Moscow fountain with drinking water” . . . ]
[The forever popular Pushkin . . . ]
[Not to mention St. Vladimir – and the Kremlin is in sight . . . ]
[As you’ll recall from a previous post, the Russian State Library . . . ]
[And Alexander Gardens at the Kremlin . . . ]
[An example of the ubiquitous American tourist . . . ]
[An example of ubiquitous American tourists . . . ]
[And Pam and Tom, more American tourists . . . ]
[No, we do not know the photobombing lady . . . ]
[Patriarch Hermogenes in Alexander Garden . . . ]
[Four Seasons Fountain . . . ]
[Modeling with the FIFA World Cup Model . . . ]
[This, of course, is Mother Russia . . . ]
[Tom with an in the neighborhood photo op . . . ]
[“Seeking shelter from the storm?”]
[And two from Pam . . . ]
[Well, Pam did a camera handoff to get this shot of the four of us . . . ]
[We’re in the land of the cosmonaut . . . ]
[Two can model with the model . . . ]
[No, we do not know the photobombing man . . . ]
[And the four horses in the Four Seasons . . . ]
[Another Russian model?]
[All part of Alexander Garden . . . ]
[Photo by Pam – we look a little chilled . . . ]
[And back at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers . . . ]
[Did you know my birth year is 1945?]
[We actually watched quite a bit of RT in Spain (a later trip) . . . ]
[The classic photo of the main entrance to the Kremlin . . . ]
[As I recall, this is when we dropped in on the Four Seasons Hotel for a rest, a hot drink, and a WC . . . ]
[Yeah, it’s a pretty nice place . . . ]
[The WC!]
[Back outside to find a volleyball game in progress . . . ]
[Are there bad wine bars?]
[This may be the Four Seasons?]
[The Super captures Lenin in all his glory . . . ]
[ . . . and the pigeon on his head . . . ]
[The Metropol Hotel – we were told it had a rooftop restaurant with good views. I don’t recall why we didn’t partake?]
[So, we were heading to the Bolshoi Ballet anyway . . . ]
[Where we stumbled into another modeling session . . . ]
[But first the Super shoots the theatre . . . ]
[And then Pam moved in for a modeling close-up . . . ]
[OK, so did I!]
[But we couldn’t go in – another venue closed during FIFA . . . ]
[A distance shot of the Super, Pam, and Tom in front of this landmark theatre . . . ]
[A Hyatt in the distance . . . ]
[The Bolshoi area looking back to Manezhnaya Square . . . ]
[Russian State Academical Maly Theatre . . . ]
[The Metropol . . . ]
[Streets too busy and/or wide to cross? So, walk under . . . ]
[Almost like a subway for walkers . . . ]
[As I recall, this was in the Metropol?]
[Never pass up a WC – or a selfie op . . . ]
[Pretty good friends . . . ]
[Back outside (obviously) . . . ]
[With comrade Lenin . . . ]
[We’re on the move again and stopping for photo ops along the way . . . ]
[Photo op by Pam . . . ]
[The State Duma – the lower house of the Federal Assembly (the upper house is the Council of the Federation. The Duma headquarters are located a few steps from Manege Square. Its members are referred to as deputies. The State Duma replaced the Supreme Soviet as a result of the new constitution introduced by Boris Yeltsin in the aftermath of the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993, and approved by the Russian public in a referendum (Wikipedia).]
[Moscow Hotel . . . ]
[So, here’s where we are!]
[Looking into Red Square from “across the street” . . . ]
[Entering the Moscow Hotel . . . ]
[That never pass up a selfie op again . . . ]
[And back under the people tunnel . . . ]
[Coming back up at the Kremlin’s main gate . . . ]
[Stand by for news!]
[Cool door . . . ]
[And back on the Super’s street of lights . . . ]
[Hi! Here I am again! And the sun is shining!]
[Getting our bearings . . . ]
[Kazan Church in Red Square . . . ]
[These guys didn’t make the tourist information list?]
[Walking along parallel to Red Square, which would be on our right here . . . ]
[To get to Red Square, I had to breech this barrier probably in violation of multiple security codes (photo by Pam) . . . ]
[So now we are tracking right toward Red Square . . . ]
[Where we start running into people of a FIFA international flavor . . . ]
[And you can’t help shooting St. Basil from every angle . . . ]
[The Kremlin’s outer wall . . . ]
[The view 90 degrees to the left of the Kremlin wall shot. I believe this is Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge, a concrete arch bridge that spans the Moskva River immediately east of the Kremlin. The bridge was built 1936-1937 and connects Red Square with Bolshaya Ordynka street in Zamoskvorechye (Wikipedia).]
[A FIFA information booth . . . ]
[Seriously, the only thing I could find was “small church on Red Square.” It deserves better . . . ]
[To know it is to love it . . . ]
[And now we’re ambling into Zaryadye Park, Moscow’s first new green space in 50 years, designed by the American architects Diller Scofidio & Renfro, and one of the most ambitious and expensive architectural projects in Russia in decades. It opened September 2017 (nytimes.com)]
[That selfie thing again . . . ]
[Natural is becoming the new normal in modernity . . . ]
[Oh, and they have this outer space restaurant. So, why not have a farout lunch here?]
[And we did!]
[Unique place . . . ]
[Very large indicating they likely host large events . . . ]
[A large table dining room in the back . . . ]
[I’ll have what the cosmonauts eat. Nyet!]
[A large and diverse menu . . . ]
[Now we have some “foodie” shots, especially for FOB (friend of the blog) “Weakie” who wanted more food shots and less shots of churchs, buildings, bridges, and other such stuff . . . ]
[And we thought the food surprisingly good . . . ]
[The private dining room . . . ]
[The fancified WC’s . . . ]
[7 lunch shots from the Super . . . ]
[They say you can be subject to large amounts of radiation in Russia . . . ]
[And the ladies’ WC . . . ]
[And a couple lunch shots from Pam . . . ]
[Part 2 will be the Kremlin, up next . . . ]
[And here’s a little report on the place by CBS Sunday Morning . . . ]
A cruise ship is a floating town of lazy people. ~ Garrison Keillor
As the title indicates, this next event would totally challenge our natural circadian rhythms. Raised with a solid (if not godly) midwestern mentality of “early to bed, early to rise,” Moscow by Night is particularly daunting when you realize how late night arrives in Moscow at this time of year . . .
[Boarding the bus . . . ]
[For the ride downtown . . . ]
[Again past the Radisson Royal Hotel on the Moskva River . . . ]
[To Victory Park, the Obelisk on Poklonnaya Hill . . . ]
[Chapel of St. George on Poklonnaya Hill . . . ]
[Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War, Victory Park . . . ]
[Victory Park: In the 1960s, the Soviet authorities decided to put the area to use as an open-air museum dedicated to the Russian victory over Napoleon. The New Triumphal Arch was reconstructed here in 1968. The huge panorama “Battle of Borodino” was installed here in 1962. The Victory Park and the Square of Victors are important parts of the outdoor museum. In 1987 the hill was leveled to the ground and in the 1990s an obelisk was added with a statue of Nike and a monument of St. George slaying the dragon. The obelisk’s height is exactly 141.8 metres (465 ft), which is 10 centimetres (3.9 in) for every day of the War. A golden-domed Orthodox church was erected on the hilltop in 1993-95, followed by a memorial mosque and the Holocaust Memorial Synagogue. At the 60th V-day celebrations in 2005, President Vladimir Putin inaugurated 15 extravagant bronze columns, symbolizing main fronts and navies of the Red Army during World War II (Wikipedia)].
[Moscow State University in the background . . . ]
[The Putin columns . . . ]
[About as close as we ever got to modern skyscraper Moscow . . . ]
[Memorial Complex Honoring Cities of Military Glory . . . ]
[Here we come; Walkin’ down the street; We get the funniest looks from; Everyone we meet; Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees . . . ]
[Hale and farewell, obelisk . . . ]
[On the road again. This appears to be some sort of building under a black light?]
[It’s 10:24 pm – do you know where your children are?]
[Ahhh, back to Red Square – and GUM . . . ]
[Almost looks Las Vegasy, eh?]
[The ‘U’?]
[And now, you’ve seen them in daylight – now see them at night. First up, the ever popular St. Basil’s . . . ]
[And the ever popular Kremlin clock tower . . . ]
[And GUM . . . ]
[FIFA is taking over . . . ]
[Not your everyday department store. Well, unless you’re Russian . . . ]
[Quite the setting . . . ]
[The Super lines herself up with St. Basil . . . ]
[The Super’s selfie . . . ]
[And us by Pam . . . ]
[Of course, night shots are mainly just about being artsy-fartsy . . . ]
[To the boat! We would now commence our midnight cruise . . . ]
[And Pam’s lovin’ it!]
[Turning a corner and under a bridge, our first sighting of some really amazing . . . sights!]
[Unknown (or maybe previously identified?) yellow buildings on the Moskva . . . ]
[Just cruisin’, soaking it all up . . . ]
[The tall one is the Swissotel Krasnye Holmy, a luxury hotel . . . ]
[Moscow International House of Music . . . ]
[Yup, the Radisson again . . . ]
[Previously known as the Ukraine Hotel . . . ]
[Zaryadye Park sits atop the territory of Moscow’s oldest neighborhood outside the Kremlin . . . ]
[Zaryadye Park is a landscape urban park located adjacent to Red Square on the site of the former Rossiya Hotel. Zaryadye Park is the first public park built in Moscow for over 50 years, the last being the Soviet Friendship Park built for the 1957 Festival of Youth and Students. The park was inaugurated on 9 September 2017 by Vladimir Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin. ‘Time’ magazine puts Zaryadye Park on 2018 list of World’s Greatest Places (Wikipedia). We were here again the next day, so stay tuned . . . ]
[Continuing on . . . ]
[To St. Basil’s and . . . ]
[The Kremlin . . . ]
[And bridges . . . ]
[To more Kremlin stuff . . . ]
[The Great Kremlin Palace . . . ]
[And the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour . . .]
[The aforementioned (and visited) Zaryadye Park with the “floating bridge” on the way back . . . ]
[And the previously visited Moscow International House of Music . . . ]
[Let’s call it a night at the hostel . . . ]
[We’re chilly, and damp, and . . . happy!]
[See you again tomorrow for our last full day in Russia (photo by Pam).]
Yesterday I bought my first pair of American shoes. They were made in Italy. ~ Vladimir Ivanoff
Our second day in Moscow would begin, in the afternoon, with a shore excursion to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts . . .
[This is the view from out boat’s “parking lot” . . . ]
[De-boating to board buses for the trip to the museum . . . ]
[It was a Sunday afternoon, the traffic was light . . . ]
[A reminder of soccer (futbol) games to come . . . ]
[We’re downtown now . . . ]
[And now a series of statues as we roll along – I believe this is Pushkin . . . ]
[Dunno . . . ]
[Dunno . . . ]
[Should know?]
[And back to the ever popular Vladimir . . . ]
[And now, we’re in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. I did not shoot the exterior of the building until we left – so it will be at the end of this missive . . . ]
[So we begin a long series of what’s called “art” . . . ]
[I do not know much about “art” other than I take lots of photos of it . . . ]
[So commentary will be little befitting my knowledge . . . ]
[Just know that I shoot what ever captures the attention of the windmills of my mind . . . ]
[Our guide, obviously, with the Viking lollipop . . . ]
[This is generically called a “bust” . . . ]
[This is generically called a “painting” . . . ]
[And I have heard of such, so far, as Rodin (pronounced row-dan), Manet (man-ay), and Degas (day-gah) . . . ]
[And Renoir (wren-wha) – plus I think “Jeanne” is really cute . . . ]
[And this is “sculpture” . . . ]
[And this is called a “nude” – I know that because it’s the title of the “painting” . . . ]
[And Monet (mow-nay), not to be confused with Manet . . . ]
[This is called a “kiss” . . . ]
[Another bust, of Cezanne (say-zon) . . . ]
[Particularly partial to bald guys with beards . . . ]
[The best thing about works by the old masters, it’s not difficult to guess the titles. Here is a man smoking a pipe, so logicically enough it’s titled “Man Smoking a Pipe” . . . ]
[By now, after having perused Part 1, I’m sure you realize that Moscow is not the gray, monolithic, dreary place we were always told it was. We knew going over that St. Petersburg was a universally admired cultural and arts center, but Moscow was a surprise. Of course, we just visited the highlights over three days, but this city of 12 million denizens was a big hit with our tour group. So picking up where last we left off, in Manezhnaya Square . . . ]
[And here’s General Zhukov again . . . ]
[Studying the heretofore little known Manezhnaya Square insect population . . . ]
[And now hiking along the Kremlin’s outer wall . . . ]
[Patriarch Hermogenes Monument in Alexandrovsky Garden. Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia from 1606. It was he who inspired the popular uprising that put an end to the Tine of Troubles. Hermogenes was glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1913 (revolvy.com).]
[Romanovskiy Obelisk in the Alexander Garden . . . ]
[Spire of the main tourist entrance to the Kremlin . . . ]
[Alexander Garden . . . ]
[Kremlin tourist entrance . . . ]
[Strolling Alexander Garden . . . ]
[‘WC’ – universally, the most important initials to know in foreign travel . . . ]
[As noted, Moscow Kremlin Museums . . . ]
[Oh, you know . . . ]
[Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who wrote a few rather famous novels, outside the state libary . . . ]
[Russian State Library . . . ]
[Old building of the Russian State Library . . . ]
[The view from the old library . . . ]
[The old library . . . ]
[Another view from the old library, the Monument to St. Vladimir, in the center of Moscow, in Borovitskaya Square, with the Kremlin in the background . . . ]
[St. Vlad, closer-upper . . . ]
[Well, he is a central figure . . . ]
[Looking back at the old library . . . ]
[Sorry, don’t read Cyrillic . . . ]
[Appears to be adjacent to or part of the following photo . . . ]
[First sighting of (more to follow) of The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the tallest Orthodox Christian church in the world . . . ]
[Pushkin Museum, where we would go on the following day . . . ]
[Yvgeny and Natalia? Or not?]
[Christ the Saviour and . . . ]
[The grounds around it . . . ]
[I believe we had the option to go in but were churched out and just wanted to sit in the sun . . . ]
[Notice the top of a “ship” in the left background?]
[Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and Patriarshy Bridge over Moskva River . . . ]
[A view from the bridge . . . ]
[Patriarshy Bridge is a steel pedestrian box girder bridge that spans Moskva River and Vodootvodny Canal, connecting Cathedral of Christ the Saviour with Bersenevka in downtown (0.6 kilometers west from the Kremlin). It was built in 2004; the second part of the bridge spanning Vidiitvodny Canal was opened in September 2007 (Wikipedia).]
[The Peter the Great Statue is a 98-metre-high (322 ft) monument to Peter the Great, located at the western confluence of the Moskva River and the Vodootvodny Canal in central Moscow. It was designed by the Georgian designer Zurab Tsereteli to commemorate 300 years of the Russian Navy, which Peter the Great established. It was erected in 1997 and is the 8th-tallest statue in the world. It weighs around 1,000 tons and contains 600 tons of stainless steel, bronze and copper (Wikipedia).]
[The bridge view opposite Peter the Great includes the Kremlin, et al . . . ]
[A chilly wind was blowing . . . ]
[Impressive!]
[Impressive!]
[In the center background appears to be the Old Building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs . . . ]
[Possibly an oligarch roaring by in a blue Porsche . . . ]
[Another World Cup reminder . . . ]
[A new tall building . . . ]
[Another new tall building . . . ]
[With the three preceding pictures, we were on our way to a classical folklore concert. So, I believe this a view from Sparrow Hills (Vorobyovy Gory) and Moscow State University – a scenic overlook of the city as we’re riding in the bus. It would have been nice to stop along here to enjoy the view, but there was no where to park . . . ]
[More FIFA Fanfest . . . ]
[Another overlook shot while on the go – kind of a “hello, young lovers” spot . . . ]
We finally made it to the capital city – hoping for high tea with Vladimir . . .
[The outskirts of the city – a tight squeeze, but both boats made it . . . ]
[The Moscow Canal, named the Moskva-Volga Canal until 1947, is a canal that connects the Moskva River with the Volga River. It is located in Moscow itself and in the Moscow Oblast (Wikipedia).]
[A beautiful morning for cruising the canal with Mimosa in hand . . . ]
[Looks like the final lock ahead . . . ]
[A bridge to somewhere under construction . . . ]
[The excitement builds among the passengers . . . ]
[A final lesson from our crack guides . . . ]
[Sasha is always a good one to warm up the crowd . . . ]
[We have to start teaching this again in our own country . . . ]
[Reaching the exurbs . . . ]
[If the Russian economy is struggling, it wasn’t apparent amidst all the new construction going on . . . ]
[Nice day, if a tad chilly for the 2nd week in June . . . ]
[Carb up before the march into the city . . . ]
[OK, a little vino doesn’t hurt either . . . ]
[We’ve docked and are now . . . ]
[Off and hiking to one of the world’s great subway systems . . . ]
[Passing a few artifacts along the way . . . ]
[We’re at the subway! ATM’s can be problematic anywhere . . . ]
[And here we go . . . ]
[Pam and Tom lead the way through the turnstiles . . . ]
[The Moscow Metro opened in 1935 with one 11-kilometre (6.8 mi) line and 13 stations, it was the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union. As of 2018, the Moscow Metro has 222 stations and its route length is 379.1 km (235.6 mi), making it the sixth longest in the world. The system is mostly underground, with the deepest section 84 metres (276 ft) underground at the Park Pobedy station, one of the world’s deepest (Wikipedia).]
[Long distances between stations have the positive effect of a high cruising speed of 41.7 kilometres per hour (25.9 mph). The minimum interval between trains is 90 seconds during the morning and evening rush hours. (This is amazing!) As of 2017 the system had an average daily ridership of 6.99 million passengers. Peak daily ridership of 9.71 million was recorded on 26 December 2014. Free Wi-Fi has been available on all lines of the Moscow Metro since 1 December 2014 (Wikipedia).]
[One train just left – but here comes another!]
[The downtown stations, of course, are also known for their artwork . . . ]
[Art museums themselves . . . ]
[As our guide explains it all to us . . . ]
[Mosaics . . . ]
[Amazing stuff . . . ]
[We weren’t in any hurry to leave the system . . . ]
[But tried not to get tampled by the 7 million daily riders . . . ]
[Another long escalator ride to . . . ]
[More art . . . ]
[The Super found a friend . . . ]
[Or two . . . ]
[And we’re up and out at – a beer restaurant?]
[Just outside our subway stop in the vicinity of Red Square. The building in the background to the right of the carousel is the Bolshoi Ballet Theatre . . . ]
[The Super found another friend . . . ]
[Gathering for our walkabout instructions. We would be free to wander wherever we wanted meeting later at a designated time and place . . . ]
[Ready, set, go . . . ]
[We would eventually make our way to the Bolshoi . . . ]
[But first, the Four Seasons Hotel . . . ]
[Though the Bolshoi never leaves our sight . . . ]
[Good Wine Bar – who’da thunk?]
[On Manezhnaya Square, the City Duma in the foreground; the State History Museum in the background . . . ]
[Resurrection Gate, the main gate into Red Square, between the Duma and the History Museum . . . ]
[The Duma (City Hall) . . . ]
[Panning Manezhnaya Square, the front of the Four Seasons Hotel on the right . . . ]
[The State History Museum at Manezhnaya Square . . . ]
[With the statue of Marshal Georgy Zhukov. In recognition of Zhukov’s role in World War II, he was chosen to personally take the German Instrument of Surrender and to inspect the Moscow Victory Parade of 1945 (Wikipedia).]
[The Super leads us toward Red Square . . . ]
[And we’re in! Here’s the Kazan Cathedral . . . ]
[In Red Square with GUM on the left. GUM is the main department store in many cities of the former Soviet Union, known as State Department Store. The most famous GUM is the large store in the Kitai-gorod part of Moscow facing Red Square. It is currently a shopping mall (Wikipedia).]
[On the right, the Kremlin wall. Reminder again – the FIFA World Cup was just days away so lots of contruction going on . . . ]
[Nikolskaya Street, next to GUM, with the hanging lights . . . ]
[Spasskaya Tower, the Kremlin’s clock tower . . . ]
[Apparently a tourist hotel on Red Square?]
[The Super enjoying Nikolskaya Street . . . ]
[As were many others . . . ]
[We entered GUM ISO ice cream!]
[Your guess is as good a mine?]
[Exiting GUM . . . ]
[Sidewalk cafes outside GUM . . . ]
[GUM has been around a while . . . ]
[And now the star attraction on Red Square – St. Basil’s Cathedral. The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed, commonly known as Saint Basil’s Cathedral, is one of the most popular symbols of the country. The building, now a museum, is officially known as the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat or Pokrovsky Cathedral. It was built from 1555–1561 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan. It was the city’s tallest building until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600 (Wikipedia).]
[A good backdrop for modeling . . . ]
[5 from the Super in Red Square . . . ]
[And 5 from me in Red Square . . . ]
[And the clock tower again . . . ]
[And GUM . . . ]
[Pam displays in front of St. Basil’s . . . ]
[The entranceway to the Red Square through the Resurrection Gate from the side of Tverskaya street and Manezhnaya Square is historically considered to be the front gate of the city. It is no exaggeration to say that any modern traveller to Moscow passes through this gate. The Resurrection Gate arch establishes a visual link between two other remarkable buildings – the State Historical Museum and the Museum of the War of 1812, while the small chapel by the gate houses one of the most venerated icons – the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God. Right in front of the gate there is the “Kilometer Zero sign“ – this is the centre of Moscow and the starting point for measuring all distances in Russia (moscovery.com).]
[And as the Super demonstrates, this is where tourists stop and make a wish throwing a coin over their shoulders . . . ]
[Strolling outside Red Square . . . ]
[Outside the Kremlin Wall . . . ]
[To the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier . . . ]
[The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a war memorial, dedicated to the Soviet soldiers killed during World War II. It is located at the Kremlin Wall in Alexander Garden (Wikipedia).]
[Looking back out at the Four Seasons Hotel . . . ]
[Leaving the Tomb of the Unknown . . . ]
[Back out onto Manezhnaya Square, where will next begin Part 2 of the same day . . . ]
[Boats on the river with the Transconfiguration Cathedral in the background . . . ]
[A double header of St. Dimitry on the Blood Cathedral and the Transconfiguration Cathedral . . . ]
[The Church of St. Dmitry on the Blood stands on a steep bank of the Volga, but initially at the same location there was a wooden chapel built in memory of the tsarevich. Later on, in 1603, the chapel was replaced by a wooden church, and only in 1692 a church of stone was erected in lieu of that wooden one. The templar part of the church has preserved ancient wall painting depicting the death of tsarevich Dmitry and a massacre of the crowd over the alleged killers. Stylistically, it looks like a monumental Yaroslavl and Kostroma painting of the XVII century, but is much inferior to it in grace and colors. The wall painting in the refectory was done later, in 1788, by Pyotr Khlebnikov. In a realistic manner, he depicted scenes of the traditional Biblical legend from the Old Testament “On the Creation of the World and the Fall of Adam and Eve”. Decorated with wrought metal plates, the refectory ancient painted door, extant from the time when the church was built is also of great interest in the interior design of the temple. In addition, the temple displays an infamous “exiled” bell – the very bell whose toll shook the world at the day of tsarevich death. The bell tongue was drawn and the bell itself was sent into exile, and only after a long time it was returned to Uglich. Today the Church of St. Dmitry on the Blood belongs to the local museum, the admission to it is paid (adventour.com).]
[A raw, ugly day in Uglich . . . ]
[Up close with St. Dimitry on the Blood . . . ]
[Prince Dmitry . . . ]
[Pam and the prince . . . ]
[Huddled masses . . . ]
[Readying for assault on the church . . . ]
[Pam’s shot of our guide. No, that is not a clown’s nose . . . ]
[The Transfiguration Cathedral was erected in 1485 in place of a dilapidated wooden church of the XIII century. The present building of the Transfiguration Cathedral was erected in the period from 1700 to 1713. The temple was built of stone by Yaroslavl masters, who decorated the magnificent five-domed building with lush platbands in baroque style. In 1730 an octagonal stone bell tower in “Naryshkin” style was attached to the cathedral. The remarkable fact is that the bell tower was built particularly on the spot, once occupied by the old wooden church bell tower, from which the bell ringer announced the death of Tsarevich Dmitry to the Uglich people by a peal of bell. After many years of exile, the bell was returned to Uglich and today it can be seen in the Church of St. Dimitry on the Blood. In 1809–1811, masters from the serf artist Medvedev workmen’s cooperative association painted the cathedral walls. Among the subjects of painting there is a copy of the works of Italian artistsGuido Reni, Guercino, Domenichino. The “Transfuguration” the main temple composition is a copy of the Raphael Sanzio’s painting, kept in the Vatican. The scenes of the painting also show the life of Christ and illustrate the Gospel parables. In 1853 the cathedral was fitted with a golden carved iconostasis filled with sixty ancient icons, dating back to the XVII-XVIII centuries (adventour.com).]
[Tom checks to see if we’re still on schedule . . . ]
[Transconfiguration Cathedral . . . ]
[Chapel of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky . . . ]
[A monument to the people of Uglich who died defending their homeland . . . ]
[Then onto the bus for a visit to a local family home . . . ]
[At the table of . . . ]
[Vladimir and Rita, who have been hosting such events for several years now . . . ]
[Snacks, water, and, of course, more than one shot of vodka!]
[Their family – the visits to local families provides a nice touch to these cruises . . . ]
[Photos by Pam of our hosts . . . ]
[Interesting characters . . . ]
[Further explanation three photos down . . . ]
[The Kalyazin Bell Tower is a Neoclassical campanile rising to a height of 74.5 metres (244 ft) over the waters of the Uglich Reservoir on the Volga River opposite the old town of Kalyazin in Tver Oblast. The steepled belfry was built in 1796—1800 as part of the Monastery of St. Nicholas, with a pentacupolar katholikon dating from 1694. Of its 12 bells, the largest weighed some 17,000 kg. It was cast in 1895 to commemorate the coronation of Nicholas II. When Joseph Stalin ordered the construction of the Uglich Dam in 1939 to form the Uglich Reservoir, the old parts of Kalyazin, including several medieval structures, were submerged under the reservoir’s waters. This included the Saint Nicholas Monastery and Troitsky Makariev Monastery. The katholikon was dismantled, while the campanile was left, a landmark towering above the water (Wikipedia).]
[This is not part of the campanile. ET, call home . . . ]
[OK, final shot of the campanile . . . ]
[How’d we get on Rainy Lake?]
[Strangely . . . ]
[Not identified in the Google machine . . . ]
[As we appear to be . . . ]
[Exiting a lock . . . ]
[To open water and a sculler . . . ]
[Back to school . . . ]
[This time with Alexey . . . ]
[Alexey thought Yeltsin was the most important leader of the Soviet era (he initiated a market-based economy); Sasha thought Gorbachev. I wonder if Yeltsin would have been able to do what he did if Gorbachev hadn’t preceded him?]
[Then it was time for another PAR-TAY . . . ]
[As the sun begins to set over the Volga . . . ]
[Moscow’s North River Terminal (this may be the next morning?) . . . ]
It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression, ‘As pretty as an airport.’ ~ Douglas Adams
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