July 20: Moscow

Dear Friends and Relatives,

I am finally catching up with the old blogs, as I have some time to call my own this evening.  The entry today will recount the events of July 20.  

It was the morning to leave SP, and I hated to depart.  However, our bus brought us to the train station and we had a 7 am departure.  I had a window seat and tons of leg room.  I worked on writing my blog of July 19 in longhand, as WiFi was spotty at best.  Every once in a while I would snap a photo of the landscape whizzing by at about 100 miles an hour; the trip took about 4 hours.  When we departed the train, we were picked up by a new bus and bus driver, who took us on a tour of some of the sites of this huge bulk of a city, via the Kremlevskaya Embankment along the Moscow River, where we had fine views of the State Kremlin Palace, the Kremlin Wall, the Arsenal, the Great Kremlin Palace, the Cathedral of the Annunciation, the Cathedral of the Archangel, the Church of the Deposition of the Robe, the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, Trinity Tower, the Alexander Gardens, and the Patriarch's Palace.  An impressive sight, to say the least., and we had enough time to get a few spectacular shots of all the buildings, especially the churches with their onion domes, gold-leafed and glistening in the sun.  Otherwise, we were stuck in traffic, which moved abysmally slowly due to the fact that President Vladimir Putin was coming and going to some event and whizzed by with a bunch of cars in attendance.  When we finally got through, we had a quick lunch at a Bulgarian restaurant before leaving for the Romanov House Museum and a bland lecture called "Getting to Know the Romanovs: Rise and Fall."  

The Romanov family ruled Russia  from 1613, when the 16-year-old Mikhail Romanov was abruptly transformed from a minor boyar into the leader of Russia.  The Romanov House Museum was restored in 1930 to commemorate 300 years of the Romanov dynasty.  Located not far from the Kremlin, and built in the style of 17th c. Russian architects, this house was where Mikhail Romanov, the first Russian tsar, spent his childhood.  It later became part of a monastery.  The buildings comprise a church, monks' cells, and the former Romanov Palace, now the museum.  The exhibition consists of clothes and furniture from the period and many other incredible artifacts.  Our trip leader, co-hosting with Olga, is named Lena, and she is a powerhouse of information.  Once we had finished going through the Romanov Museum, we walked through the amazing space of the shopping arcade GUM.  Before the Revolution, the building was known as the Upper Trading Rows after the covered market that used to stand on the site.  The current building was designed in 1889-1893 in the fashionable Russian Revival style.  During the Communist period, its shops were requisitioned as offices, but now it is an upscale shopping center.  

If you haven't guessed already, we were on Red Square, whose history is reflected in the paintings of Surikov and Repin.  It was the site of various public ceremonies, proclamations, and occasionally a coronation of Russian tsars.  It was the landing stage and trading center for Moscow, and was considered a sacred place, as various festive processions were held there, for instance when on Palm Sunday the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church arrived in procession sitting on a donkey, accompanied by the  Tsar and the people--a procession which took place from St. Basil's Cathedral, the multi-colored, onion-domed church on the site of Red Square.  

During the Soviet era, Red Square became a focal point for the new state, and was renowned for military parades, Lenin's Mausoleum, and as a grandstand for important dignitaries.  In 1990, the Kremlin and Red Square were among the first sites in the USSR to be added to the UNESCO World Heritage list.  Now it is a real gathering place for tourists and natives alike--quite the heartthrob of the nation.  Although the city is monumental and grand, I still prefer the natural elegance of St. Petersburg, and am very glad we visited it first.  

In the evening we had dinner, and then I wrote my blog for July 19, which took about 1 1/2 hours to complete.  I was going to try to take on this blog as well, but did not have the stamina.  Now I do. Fabulous day!  As ever, Sylvia V.  P.S. Write me back, please!  I wonder if anyone is reading me out there