Moscow -- Scenes and Activities

On the embankment across from the Kremlin.  It and Red Square will be featured in a post to follow.

A monument to PTG.  But why is it in Moscow, which PTG rejected to build his own city, St. Peterburg?  Most likely because it is so UGLY.

The Novodevichy Women's Monastery

In the adjoining park, a tribute to Robert McCloskey's "Make Way for Ducklings"

The adjoining Novodevichy Cemetery is the most exclusive cemetery (in Russia?).  Only the famous and important are here, such as....

....Nikita Khrushchev

Andrei Topolov (our guide actually started quizzing us to try and figure out the name before telling us because of our growing ability to read Cyrillic)

Raisa Gorbechev

And of course, Boris Yeltsin would have something so ostentatious.

Our city tour continues with a stop at the Sparrow's Hill lookout from which we can see Moscow's new commercial downtown skyline.

A skijump?

And Moscow State University.

These "skyscrapers", of which there are seven scattered throughout Moscow, were built by Stalin to "raise" the skyline of the city.  Now some of them are hotels and others are state ministries.

The "White House" isn't actually the resident of the president, but the location of the offices of the Prime Minister, at this point Medvedev.

Do any thermometers in the United States go down to -40 Celsius?

On our free day, D and I found ourselves at the main entrance of Gorky Park.

Gorky Park, hard along the Moscow River is about 3km downstream from the Kremlin.

Gorky Park, famous in the lyrics of "Winds of Change" by the Scorpions, was until just a few years ago, a cheesy rundown amusement park with not so great rides.  But in the past year, it has been turned into a true "central" park for Muscovites.

D and I grabbed a beanbag, had lunch and she was able to check WIFI on her iPhone.

On this free day of exploration, D and I split up for a few hours as I headed over to the Sandunovsky Baths.  Here's the men's entrance, luckily I didn't try and enter into the women's, which I was standing in front of before I started reading the entrance sign.

Too busy to take pictures, the baths are actually more of a Finnish Sauna.  But the crazy thing is that you grab some birch branches and leaves and slap yourself while in the sauna.  I followed the lead of others, but other than just making the heat more intense, I wasn't able to determine the benefit of the birch leaves.  It was a nice two hours, I got in a NICE scrub down shower before boarding the train the next day.

The evening of our free day?  The NIKULIN State Circus.

Posing with the famous Russian clown, Nikulin.  We found out about the circus because we visited his grave in the Novodevichy cemetery the day before.

Uh, yup, Row 2 seats.

This is how close we were, and YES, I've finally changed my shirt.

Dinner on our free day?  Pushkin Cafe.

It was the best meal we've had so far in Russia.  However, other than being named "Cafe Pushkin", the building had no connection with the great Russian Poet.

Here's the view from our hotel.  It looks like it might be VEGAS?  The "Excalibur" looking building in the distance is the Ismailovo Kremlin, but basically it's a rundown park. 

Our hotel was at the Ismailovo complex which was the 1980 Summer Olympics Athlete Village.  I remember having a "Mischa" bear.  I bet it's worth some money if I could locate it.

On weekends, the Ismailovo Kremlin becomes a HUGE, crazy flee market with everything Russian.

You want a full bear rug?  You've got it.

Market Capitalism has come to Russia in force.  I bought a few t-shirts (I don't need to carry anymore stuff in my move) while D bought gifts for her family.  Alas, my family knows not to expect gifts from me.