Tuesday, September 6 ~ Moscow Tour

We are staying at the Metropol Hotel which has quite the history. Heads of state and other dignitaries have stayed here over the years. Currently there is a world military event happening this week in Moscow. The West African delegates from Mali and Niger are wearing dark suits. Others are dressed in full uniform. http://metropol-moscow.ru/en/

 

It was a beautiful warm sunny day all day. We met our city guide, Sophia. We first took a walking tour to Red Square in the sunshine. She pointed out the Kremlin. Next we took a bus tour of the important sites in Moscow that aren’t close to our hotel. We stopped where we could view the convent where a czar would send a rejected wife instead of killing her. The picturesque lake is called Swan Lake because there used to be lots of swans there. Tchaikovsky lived nearby, and he composed the first two parts of the ballet, Swan Lake, while he was living there.  

In the park we saw a little boy named Sasha sitting on every duckling statue. Barbara Bush presented the gift from the American children to the Russian children of some bronze ducklings from the book, MAKE WAY FOR DUCKLINGS. We also stopped to walk through Cathedral of Christ the Savior which may be the world’s largest Orthodox Church. 

We stopped at a graveyard where very famous people are buried. Many statues marked the graves. There were movie stars, politicians, and a doctor who performed heart transplants among the grave sites. Some cost as much as a million dollars.  

 

We also stopped to take pictures overlooking the city. Then we stopped for lunch for some more Russian food with sausages and some kind of grape pudding-like dessert.

After lunch Sophia expertly guided us through Tretyakov Gallery. She took us through many collections painted by famous Russian painters. Then we had another adventure. We took the metro during rush hour back to the hotel via two trains and long escalators. We saw three stations which were works of art. One station had been used as a hospital and meeting area during WWII. Each station was decorated differently. Some of the artistic techniques were jasper walls, mosaic ceilings, bronze statues, and porcelain decorations on the ceilings and walls depicting people wearing traditional folk costumes. Nine million people ride it daily.