Downtown!

Very impressive day. We toured the major sites: Red Square and Kremlin as well as a “country house” of one of the old aristocratic families. The weather was such as it is in March (rainy, a kind of on and off drizzle) but the truth is that is much easier to take than bright sunshine of Istanbul in July.

The hotel breakfast this morning certainly had variety – but I’d say the Istanbul comparison might play the other way. I slept like the dead last night, about ten hours solid. So, I feel pretty much caught up with the local time. That was easy this trip. Around eleven Irena, one of our student guides, met us, along with Karina (from last night) and we were ferried off for a day of the sights.

This morning we went to an old county estate of one of the aristocratic families – Sheremetov. Interesting place. It was really an estate designed mostly around hosting large balls. At least the central hall seemed that way. I gather the family lived in some of the smaller building around the estate. There were chapels and various houses, orangeries, lodges clustered around immense gardens and landscaped ponds. The interior of the main house was especially nice for its parquet floors (amazing designs out of contrasting woods), and some other really nice pieces of furniture. The gardens and landscaping – again, this is a sloppy time in March – were left more to the imagination, but those were beautifully set out.

I’d have to say Red Square was the most impressive thing today. Perhaps that is because the pictures I’ve seen of it lowered my expectations. In reality the size of it and the way it is anchored by these spectacular buildings, each of which more or less command their own space and need a big setting, all made it enormously impressive. For example, St. Basil’s – the multi domed colorful church we’ve all seen in pictures – it’s really a spectacular building not only in its details but also its overall shape, it fills up a space like Red Square very nicely.

The Kremlin wall runs down one side. This is the place that we know from the old photographs of the politburo lined up near the wall by Lenin’s tomb for the May Day parades. The other side is dominated by the GUM (pronounced “goom”) or State Department Store. Amazing place. I’ve seen these very old glassed covered arcade malls before, but never on this scale. There are three tiers of stores rising up on mezzanines joined by arched iron work scrolled bridges covering two long arcades of high end shops and cafes. We stopped there for a coffee and pastry late in the morning – very nice.

After wandering by St. Basil’s Cathedral, Lenin’s Tomb , a perpetual flame monument for the World War II dead, and a kind of flowing pool filled with sculptures depicting various Russian folk tales and fables, we got to the Kremlin around four in the afternoon. That gave us some time to explore some of the sites there – particularly the Church of the Annunciation used by the old royal family. This was an intensely decorated, although rather small, interior crammed floor to dome with beautiful wall paintings and an enormous iconostasis of old and beautiful icons. In the church of the Archangel, across the way, you have the tombs of many of the Czars and other Russian royals.

We had dinner at a buffet place just off Red Square which offered a chance to try a variety of different dishes, which was nice. I am very impressed with what the Russians do with dumplings – all kinds of filling and sauces.

On the way home I got my first glimpse of the impressive – both by reputation AND (I can now say) in fact – Moscow subway. The stop by Red Square (Kruschkaya?) was lined with marble and filled with bronze sculptures (mostly military themes).

So – as you can tell – today was a rush of new sights and impressions, an excellent way to start. Again, it makes a huge difference to have these students helping us around. I don’t get the sense that Moscow makes a point to cater to tourists, so having someone to point out how to make it through the subway, etc. is a big help. The guide books say it makes a big difference to learn a little about Cyrillic letters before coming here, and unless you have guides like these, that does make a big difference. The little Greek I once studied helps with some of the letters (think “rho” not “p”) but that only goes so far. In most strange places the sound and spelling of the words is usually all to clue you need to get by, but here – without familiar letters – that doesn’t work. The help has been essential.

Tomorrow will be nice in a different way. We finally get over to the college and get a chance to talk to some students and teachers in their classes – and that will be fun.

Photos: The top picture is of the interior of the GUM arcade (built in the 1890s) just below that are some of the domes of St. Basil's Cathedral.