To Russia in a wheelchair
(This is the best symbol of Stalinism - University of Moscow Building)
The trip was planned a year earlier and nobody could have foreseen pushing Sandee around in a wheelchair through airports, hotels, Red Square etc etc.
(Isn’t she colorful)
(Sandee all alone - We all went to the bathroom)
(Posing with Zhanna - ok enough about her misfortunes)
Today, as I start writing this blog, we just returned from the Emergency Room for a third time, because she landed on her butt during a walk on a park trail and she now flaunts a splint, awaiting a next visit to her now best friend the orthopedic surgeon. (For those that did not know: she fell at home and broke a scaphoid bone in her left hand a week before we were leaving for Amsterdam, where she proceeded to fall at night tearing tendons in her right foot just before we were leaving for Russia. (It must be admitted here that I fell in Amsterdam, missing a curb and dragged her with me to the cobblestones below)
(The most glorified St Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow surrounded by cranes and tents)
(Kazan Cathedral in Red Square, a beautiful survivor since 1636)
Ah well let’s start writing about Russia. Getting to Russia requires visa, and in our case this required us to list every trip we made in the last 10 years with dates and locations. The electronic form refused further entries after we listed the preceding 4/5 years as it did not allow for more than 30 entries.
(Left a gate to the Red Square flanked by the Revolution Museum)
The unsmiling environment in the consulate forebode a climate of “big brother” surveillance while visiting. And yes, you need to list every lodging location by name and dates on your application. And when leaving the listed hotel you need to receive an affidavit that you stayed there.
(Night picture with in the far distance the lit Kremlin)
Not speaking the language does not help in overcoming this big brother watches you feeling. We, that is my sister and brother in law and the two of us, were lucky to have a Russian “guide” in Zhanna the widow of my friend Hans, who steered us away from the pitfalls of being independent travelers, who are not being met and shephered around by organized tour operators, as it is with most tourists we saw all around Moscow and St Petersburg.
(We saw this often, construction sites covered
with sheets already showing finished product)
(The Yuro Platonov Russian Academy of Science
building dated 1968 now empty, funding stopped)
First troublesome adventure: getting a reasonably priced cab from the airport to Moscow city center. The official cab company at the curb sported laminated price lists for the 45 minute ride to town, requiring us to pay over 100 euro for the trip and because of Sandee being in a wheelchair for us about 200 euro for a van, later “just for us” lowered to 150.
(The Kremlin wall on the quiet Volga river side)
A phone call to Zhanna, who was waiting at the Metropol hotel downtown, an ordered Uber type van arrived an hour later from the city to get us there for 35 euro.
Zhanna getting us tickets, taxis, booking restaurants etc. kept us from many a pitfall we could have wandered into. So, Zhanna thank you for all you did these two weeks.
(National Emblem of the Federation: The 3 crowned double headed eagle, the sign of dominion and power)
It may at this moment be illuminating for you the reader to know, that the average income in the major cities such as Moscow is about 1000 euro a month and for the country as a whole 500 euro a month.
Talking about statistics: Russia today covers 17% of the worlds landmass and has just under 150 million citizens, comprising of 200 nationalities that share the Russian language as the common denominator.
(Bronze Guinness book of record largest cannon cast in 1586, fired once)
(largest bell in the world weighing 201,924 kilograms (445,166 lb)
and that broken piece weighing 11,500 kilograms (25,400 lb) was the result of Kremlin fire in 1737 that engulfed the wooden shack that housed the unfinished bell)
The country spreads out over 9 time zones and flying from one end of the country to the other end, takes the same time as flying from Moscow to New York City: 8 hours.
(My Brother in Law showing off)
I learned a lot about Russia during the 2 weeks we were there:
4 full days in Moscow, an 8 day cruise from Moscow to St Petersburg and a 5 day stay in St Petersburg, well documented with the affidavits supplied by hotel and cruiseship and our host Zhanna who registered our stay in her apartment at the post office.
(The public side of the Kremlin houses the churches complex)
(Former Monastery at the Kremlin)
(Typical example of inside the churches)
(Iconic Kremlin wall tower facing the Volga side of the Kremlin)
(I wonder is it real gold leaf or paint)
We needed to have these documents on us in case officials like police officers inquired, we were told. We also should never have our passports on us, but only copies, to not possibly, eventually or accidentally having to “buy” back our passports.
It is however appropriate at this stage in this story to mention that we never felt threatened or unsafe. People are friendly and helpful if they speak English and when you are in need of information or direction.
It took 44 years to complete, then destroyed by Stalin killing priests who refused to leave in it,
for one of his Stalinist buildings, which was never realized. The Church was rebuilt and finished in 2000)
(A city view from the city side of the Kremlin)
It is just that Russians have never lived without “authority”. They always joke: you can ask me anything and I will tell you about us even the bad things “as long as you do not report me to the KGB”. And everybody laughs at this stage knowing full well that there is no KGB anymore, but then again there is the FSB, the new KGB.
(Bolshoi Theater)
(A Volga River view towards the Kremlin)
(Czar Peter I monument in the Volga river installed 1997, voted ugliest monument and allegedly cast to commemorate Christopher Columbus, but no American investor could be found)
And surveillance is still around and officials can still without much ado investigate anybody anytime anywhere. Russians admire strong leadership. Putin is popular as he creates the image of Russia being an important country on the worldscene. And many older Russians crave for the old days and many admire Stalin for his strong leadership even at the expense of the millions who disappeared to Siberia or were offered up as cannon fodder in World War II. After all Russia defeated Germany and won the war and expanded the empire westwards creating the much lauded and now sorely missed USSR, as some of them say.
(During our bus tour I took this picture of New Town, which we never visited. It is Moscow’s financial center)
A walking tour in Moscow with a 30 plus year old girl brought to the fore the “undemocratic” freedom that she enjoyed: being able to travel the world (if she had the money she would do it more often), the ability to tell us without bias about the world she was living in, its pitfalls and its blessings.
(Bolshoi Cafe, where royalty dined. We could only afford a drink)
(Above and below pastries for the Tea service)
Pittfalls: bureaucracies, low income, limited availability of goods and wares she finds outside the country but not in the local shops, housing in drab apartment housing on the outskirts of town, free health care that one needs to avoid because underpaid staff is not really providing care, so pay for private non governmental hospital or doctor care.
Blessings: YouTube, internet, Facebook, in short a more open society that can criticize, maybe not change it and which is fed print and tv fodder one does not necessarily believe, but they are not going to Siberia anymore for the sentiments they express.
(During our bus tour we often saw massive construction projects)
Oh, but then again, you were looking for a blog on what we did and what we saw, weren’t you? Well, we rode the double decker city tour bus and saw a lot of beautiful buildings, we walked in parks, rode the metro and visited the space museum, which tells aerospace stories from the Russian perspective.
(Cleaning is a daily chore with crews doing meticulous work)
(No grass allowed here)
(Back breaking work, hope they get a pension)
We unfortunately did not have an opportunity to go to the Bolshoi theater as it was still closed (the season opens mid September). However we visited the Bolshoi cafe where in the days before the revolution Tsars and Tsarinas had tea and we gawked at the timeless beauty there.
(Marx the guy that thought Britain would become a Communist Society one day,
with his slogan “proletariat of the world unite”)
We wandered around a very disappointing Red Square, where a festival was being set up. In the olden days when I did business in Moscow, you would not find mobile stalls with trinkets being peddled there. The square was empty, spacious and imposing. Not anymore. Another victim to commercialism. Talking about commercialism: We did buy tickets to get into the public area of the Kremlin.
(Red Square in preparation of a festival)
(Can you feel my disappointment)
(Lenin’s mausoleum behind the mess)
(Musicians preparing for the festival)
We took a day of riding the metro from one beautiful station to another, and yes, it is this clean.
(No notes, just marvel at the sights)
What many do not know is that Stalin expanded the metro system and bulldozed Moscow to lay out wide avenues, oversaw many details of beautifying the city, and in doing so, emptied many a museum to put artifacts in the public arena, such as in the metro stations.
(The Space Museum complex with the mighty needle)
(1962 and 605ft/184m high)
There are numerous stories about architects getting their marching orders on how to rebuild Moscow, but getting confused on what his final approved scribbles on the plans really meant and not daring to ask for clarifications, which resulted in details on buildings that are now delightful tour guide gleefully pointed out.
(The present Four seasons hotel near the Kremlin is one of those “what did comrade Stalin want architecturally left side or right side?”)
The hotel Metropol right outside the Kremlin walls is lauded to be the numero uno hotel in Moscow. It was the last stand of the Menshevik (translated minority party) against the Bolshevik (translated majority party) in the eight day battle to take Moscow and the residence of “A Gentleman in Moscow” book by Amor Towles, which everybody should read or wait otherwise for the movie starring Tom Hanks.
(Metropol hotel lobby)
My sister was specifically enamored to stay there because of a famous event to be had there, which features everyday a harpist providing a musical atmosphere during a morning feeding frenzies called breakfast, an event Sandee and I always try to avoid.
(Beautiful glass ceiling of the main Metropol dining room)
Well this time we succumbed and took a jam filled blini and decaf coffee, so that we could be witness to such a lauded phenomena.
Misser of the week in Moscow, was me booking a restaurant on the top floor of one of the highest buildings in Moscow, so that we could enjoy Moscow by night from high above. Well it turned out to be more like a very noisy bar scene attended by apparently well heeled mid thirty year old moscovites who enjoyed hookah pipes. The food was overpriced and of substandard quality and the lights above our tables were obscuring the city lights as they deflected our view into the window pane.
(Group photo during our bad dinner at the “60 bar restaurant” surrounded by Hookah pipes
(Not only hookah pipe smoke also our dishes smoked - This was gazpacho)
Highlight of the week there, dinner in a back alley “farm to table restaurant” with young staff speaking very good English showering us with very interesting menu items. In both places the noticeable surprise was that the majority of patrons were below 40 years old.
(Kremlin view from the tour bus)
Ok I have made this blog long enough to stop here and write another one about the Russian cruise to St Petersburg and the Royal city itself.
Worker and Kolkhoz Woman is a sculpture of two figures with a sickle and a hammer raised over their heads. It is 24.5 meters high, made from stainless steel by Vera Mukhina for the 1937 World's Fair in Paris, and subsequently moved to Moscow. Compliments of Wikipedia
Oh, one more anecdote as told by our walking tour guide: On the last day of January 1990 the first McDonald opened in the USSR right here in the center of Moscow to long lines of patrons hankering for hamburger and fries US style, 30,000 potential patrons to be precise. One very long line around several corners.
(Our guide’s pictures of the cold January 31 day)
Only the first 10,000 or so got to enjoy hamburgers the rest had to do it with fries only. The big issue to overcome was teaching the young girls behind the cash registers to smile and greet the customer as they placed their orders. A social grace till then uncommon in the Russian food and hospitality industry, where customers were considered a nuisance in those “good old days”.
Again may the pictures do the talking.
(What are you looking at? Haven’t seen pigeons before?)
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