Perfect ending to a perfect trip - Happy Birthday Moscow!

Today being Moscow's birthday the "big street" that runs from our area down to the Kremlin was totally closed - all accesses were blocked with street-sweepers or big city trucks - the citizens, mostly young, took advantage all day and tonight the city was "hopping". The weather co-operated and we got to see the Tattoo without wind or rain, although from our perch high up in the center stand it got very cool towards the end - fortunately we had packed our thermal underwear before we left and it came in very handy, besides surreptiously pinching the blankets off our beds which kept us reasonably warm. The tattoo was everything we expected, ending up with the 1812 overture complete with real cannon and bells, followed by fireworks over St Basil`s cathedral. Really a fantastic encore to our trip. Tomorrow we head inside the Kremlin before we set out to overnight in the airport and the start of a 24 hour travel day back home.
That`s it for us. Hope you enjoyed the trip vicariously as much as we did in real-time.

Getting comfortable in Moscow

Looking north into Red Square - The Kremlin walls are on the left, St Basil's Church on the right and the stands for the Military Tattoo in the centre.

The palatial exterior of GUM the Harrods of Moscow - GUM stands for Glavny Universalny Magazin (or bloody big department store!) Unlike former pre-perestroika times it is now very upscale.

After yesterday's frantic arrival throes, we have begn to feel much more at ease in this city. There are essentially two rings around the city above ground - the inner "garden" and the outer "boulevard" ring (we are nicely headquartered in between these rings) and a third underground ring served by the Metro (line # 5) the Brown line. We have found it easisest to come and go from a station on the Green line from the "M" station, that goes via 4 stops to Paveletsky station where we will catch the AeroportExpress train to Domodevodo Airport - Actually, being super-uptight about these things since our flight home leaves at 05:00 am, we did a dry run this morning - very smooth. Domodevodo has been upgraded and looks like any other large airport (a nice change from St Petersburg!). Afterward we returned to town getting off at the Bolshoi Theatre stop whence we circumvented the Kremlin, about a 3K walk, ending up at Red Square where we watched some of the Tattoos performers rehearsing. You can see a trailer of the tattoo here www.kremlin-military-tattoo.ru/en/video Unfortunately it rained again - now that would put a damper on things tomorrow night! To get out of the rain we dodged into GUM - the Harrods of Moscow - It has come a very long way since the old days, as has all of Russia it seems - we are amazed by the large number of high-end cars from "The West", especially Range-Rover Vogues, HSEs and Sport models. Along with high-rollers come sexily clad "young things" whose uniform consists of fitted black leather jackets, plus your choice of drain-pipe jeans or micro-skirts finished off with seriously high heels (5"-6") including 2" platforms - it is quite interesting watching them negotiate the cobblestones and uneven pavements. Sortalike Victoria Beckham is their role model! Gottagonow - it's happy hour!

Arrival in Moscow

Arriving in Moscow on The Red Arrow Express.

We enjoyed the sleeper trip but it was over way too fast - on board by 11:15 pm, asleep by 00:15, and waking up at 07:15 am for a hasty (not very good) breakfast, then off the train into the sights of the Wonderful Moscow metro - just one problem - all the signs are in Old Russian cyrillic. But, like everywhere else the muscovites have uniformly been very warm, smiling and helpful. Next challenge was to find our accommodation - Unfortunately one end of our street was closed for construction, and to make things worse we couldn't see the street sign, also in cyrillic, so it probably wouldn't have helped if we could see it! But, again with the aid of passers, by we made it. We then set out to get tickets for Saturday's Military Tattoo, after which we headed into town for our first look at The Kremlin and surrounds - more on that later. Right now (8:00 pm) it's teeming down - glad we are inside! TTFN

Fifth and Last Day in St Petersburg

To follow

First Impressions of The Hermitage - Winter Palace

Help! - How do we find our way to the stairs or lift? Here we are, just through the (internet) voucher exchange process that went very smoothly. We have the map of the layout over three floors, and we want to get to the top floor to see the French Impressionists.There are mobs of people coming hither and thither, but eventually we find a lift, but wouldn't you know - it's out of order! So we keep on trecking for some distance and finally come across another lift in the area that takes right into the heart of the Impressionists. There is a Sisley ot two, a couple of Toulouse-Lautrecs, some Monets (but the largest collection is housed in The Musee Marmottan in Paris), but no Manets, Degas, Morrisot etc. Lots of post impressionists - Matissse, Gaugin, Van Gogh, Pisarro, Seurat though and a large special exhibit of Picasso. Then it's off to The Flemish, Dutch and Italian sections, all the while housed in "over-the-top" palace rooms - makes one wonder why it took the workers so long to revolt - it's quite fankly obscene that so much art was amassed by so few!

Spectacular, Spectacular!

In front of The Church on Spilled Blood (of Czar Alexandr II) - As you can see it's wet (and cold).

The St Petersburg Male Voice Choir performed in the glassed-in Atrium of The Commandant's House at the Saint Peter and Paul Fortress, next to the church where most of the Romanoffs are buried, up until 1918 that is!

Today it was wet and cold, but there is no such thing as bad weather for touring - just bad clothing! Fortunately we are well prepared. We began walking down Nevsky-Prospekt to the Moskovya Train station to check out our departure for Moscow 2 nights from now - where is the left-luggage office? will it be open late enough and from which platform does it depart? There are many overnight sleepers - ours leaves at 11:55 pm (Train #1) which means that we will have a lot of time to fill in before we board. Oh well!

We return to the business of sight-seeing starting at the Kazansky Cathedral right around the corner from our hostel. It's undergoing sandblasting (as is half of St Petersburg - Like Mitterand'sParis "Grand Projects" in the 90s) but as we walk in there is a service in progress - a wedding is taking place. In fact since we have been here we have seen many, many weddings with young brides in beautiful gowns, often strapless in pretty cold weather, big American stretch limousines and visiting all the popular spots for post ceremony photo-shoots. The young women here are beautiful - the seniors not so much! We cross over Nevsky Prospekt again along the banks of the Grivoedova Canal to The Church on the Spilled Blood, the outside of which "blows your socks off", but that is nothing compared to the inside - Out of this world! Next we go around the corner to The Russian Museum where we view room after room of beautiful Russian paintings, as exciting to see as similar collections in Norway and Sweden were not. And we haven't even been to The Hermitage State Museum yet! Then we get tickets for a concert at The Saint Peter and Paul fortress across the Neva. In the process of getting there we take a promenade along the east bank of the Neva, cross over to the South bank and thence to our destination. The concert is by the St Petersburg Male voice choir. This was another "blow your socks off" experience - 16 voices that when singing in unison were perhaps a shade too loud, but when supporting the soloist(s) was just right. There were a counter-tenor, regular tenors, baritone and bass baritone and the most incredible double bass whose range was an octave or two below anything I have ever heard - One of the most enjoyable musical events we have ever experienced. It was now 9:00 pm. and we were somewhat peckish so we walked back across the river to "Zoom", a neat restaurant in a cellar filled with a young academic crowd, where we exceed the average age by over 30 years, but it makes us feel young again, where the food is sooo yummy - better get here early before the Beef Stroganoff is gone!

OK so now it's past our bedtime and we pour ourselves home the two blocks to the hostel - A great day. Tomorrow is our first visit to The Hermitage - can it be any better?

I wish I were the King!

One of many "Meteor" Hydrofoils that ply the waters around here - We've seen them before, on The Danube and in The Greek Isles.

The Grand Cascade of fountains in front of The Grand Palace at The Peterhof about a 30 minute hydrofoil ride fro St Petersburg across The Gulf of Finland

Several months ago we were sitting at home imagining ourselves in Peter The Great's domain, and here we are. We walked down to the Neva and got onboard a Meteor Hydrofoil that sped us down the Gulf of Finland for 30 minutes but back in time to the 18th century - to The Peterhof, to be precise. Peter the Great and his descendants' answer to Versaiiles, and it is! Despite the ravages of WW II, hereabouts referred to as "The Great Patriotic War", not all of the treasures were lost, stolen or damaged. They have done a remarkable job of restoring most of the palace to its former glory. When I say palace I should qualify that - there are several palaces to see, but it was a bitterly cold day, so we "petered out" (excuse the pun) early and headed back to the city, checking out the way to enter The Winter Palace on Tuesday and Wednesday for which we bought tickets before our departure - we were gratified to see no one standing in the pre-paid ticket line, so hopefully that will eliminate several hours wait!