Moscow
We took a direct flight from Ulaanbaatar to Moscow with Aeroflot. Not the worst airline I’ve ever flown with but not exactly Emirates level of service and comfort.
The business class seats were big but reclined about 5 degrees but it was a 6 hour flight and I’m used to 24 so I can’t complain. The flight attendants could do with a refresher course in smiling and being nice. I don’t think it is still compulsory to have a stone faced grimace in Russia these days.
We arrived in Sheremetyevo airport and taxied up to the gate. As usual everyone is out of their seats and pulling their gear out of the overhead lockers whilst we are still moving. The airbridge came across to the plane but no doors opened. We waited and still no doors opened and people started getting impatient. Then the crew announced either the door or the airbridge wasn’t working properly and we wouldn’t be disembarking from the front but from the rear doors. So we do an about turn and we’re now facing the rear of the aircraft and of course the aisle is packed from front to back with 250 people and their hand luggage. The woman who had been in front of me and was now behind me was wearing a fur coat (which my wife assures me was genuine and very expensive) and started discussing how ‘those people in economy should sit down and let business class passengers off first.’ I honestly thought she was taking the piss. She wasn’t. Suddenly she starts shouting over my shoulder “all of you people in economy class, sit down and let business class passengers get off first.” I was gobsmacked. But she carried on giving everyone orders to sit down and let her go first. Some people laughed and some people told her where to go and what to do. I won’t put that in print. We disembarked quietly and distanced ourselves from Aeroflot’s most obnoxious passenger, hoping to slip unobtrusively by the long passport queue to the VIP queue. Some must have seen her stood next to me and thought we were with her – they just glared at us – if looks could kill!
My wife is also fluent in Russian so getting a taxi was easy, as were directions to the hotel. The drive into the city was past multiple drab grey apartment blocks, every one of them looked anonymous and depressing. My first impressions of Moscow – drab, grey, depressing – I was hoping it was going to pick up. We arrived at the Moscow Marriott Grand on the corner of Staropimenovskiy Pereulok and Tverskaya St and the uniformed concierge was straight out and unloading the bags and showing unnecessary deference towards, they promised us a 5 star welcome and didn’t disappoint. As we stepped forward to the reception desk the guy behind desk addressed me in Russian, I told him (in Russian) that I did not speak the language and my wife took over the conversation. He ignored her and continued to talk to me so I just turned round and walked away from the desk so he was forced to deal with Mrs L whether he liked it or not. That did disappoint.
No complaints about the room, bathroom or the hotel overall (I would hope not for the price). The pool, spa and gym were quite impressive. There was also quite a grand covered domed courtyard. There were two restaurants, both were OK and a lobby bar which had a good selection of vodka.
We dumped the gear and then did what we always did and hit the pavement to find something to eat and drink and chill out for a while – it had been a long day. Not far away we found a café which was comfortable, the food was good, the beer was cold and the service was efficient and friendly so we were off to a good start. After we were fed and watered, we spent another hour or so doing what it seemed a lot of couples do in Moscow, just wander round hand in hand looking at the architecture and the trees in beautiful mid-summer foliage. It was a warm sunny evening and it was good to be in the company of the one you love.
The following morning we got breakfast in the hotel and my only advice here would be – don’t try and negotiate the tight, steep, spiral staircase if you’ve been drinking. I hadn’t and I didn’t fall, but if I had been on the turps I could pretty much guarantee the outcome. Take the lift instead.
We were about 1.2km from Red Square where so many ‘almost world-ending’ decisions were taken. It was a nice sunny day and all downhill so we took a walk to see some real-world shaping history and tick off another bucket list item. There were quite a few men around d in different uniforms with those large hats you could land a Harrier on, they were police, security, whatever, they were openly watching everyone, not one of them seemed relaxed.
We walked through the archway into Red Square with the Kremlin on the right, the Senate on the left.
We stood for a while and took in all that was in front of us. Gorbachev the peacemaker came at the right time, he saved every one of us from things I’d rather not contemplate. The heavily fortified Kremlin [which we were told means ‘Fortress within a city’] is an imposing structure. It is more than 500 years old and Catherine the Great had some input to it. Within are palaces and cathedrals including the Grand Palace that was once the home of the Russian Tsars. In 1812 some of the buildings were destroyed following the invasion of Russia by Napoleon. Czar Nicholas I had some of the buildings rebuilt or repaired in the 1820’s and the building remained unchanged until the Russian Revolution. It is currently the home of President Vladimir Putin. It’s as big as it looks, the external walls are more than 2km long and it covers approximately 70 acres. There is a museum inside so if you want to go in and around the Kremlin, allocate a full day.
There was a long queue of people outside waiting to enter a building [it was Lenin’s tomb]. We walked past them and I waited until I heard someone speaking English then asked them what they were queueing for. The man replied “to see Lenin.” I replied “my favourite song was ‘Imagine’.” The Russian bloke next to him was fluent in English, he was highly offended. I don’t recommend taking the piss out of previous soviet leaders in front of current day Marxists / communists.
We walked through Red Square [Krasnaya Ploshchad] and you could feel the history around you and it conjured up the names: Ivan the Terrible; Peter the Great; Catherine the Great; Tsar Nicholas II; Karl Marx; Bolsheviks; Lenin; Cossacks; Stalin; Khrushchev. They ruled a country which was once almost 8,000,000 square miles and spanned 11 timezones. It’s now ‘only’ about 6.5 million square miles or to make it easier it is more than twice the size of Australia!
Having passed St Basils we went out the south end of Red Square across the Moskva river and Vodootvodny Canal. We gave the sculpture on ‘Children who are victims of adult evil’ a miss. The world can be a depressing enough place as it is at times.
We carried on into Yakimanka district and caught up with Meg and Jack, a couple we had known in Mongolia, she Mongolian and he Caucasian American but completely fluent in Russian (he said he worked in finance for the US Embassy so I accepted that and didn’t ask any questions.) They knew were there were loads of really cool cafes with art deco places and a funky vibe.
Unfortunately, we picked a café whose waitress was at best rude and insensitive, at worst outright racist. She looked like Brigitte Nielson in the Rocky IV film very tall, very athletic, very blonde but there was probably no need to emulate Nielsen’s character Ludmilla Drago towards our wives whilst being the very epitome of sweetness and light to us blokes. I never doubted my wife when she said she had suffered racism from Russians, I was just taken aback to sample it so openly and blatantly. Russia – you have work to do!
Russia can certainly do statues, in a big way. I would have to say that the statue of Peter the Great which is 100 metres high would have to be the most impressive statue I’ve seen anywhere in the world. It was built to commemorate 300 years of the Russian Navy which Peter established. In comparison the statue of Admiral Lord Nelson [Britain’s greatest Naval hero] in Trafalgar Square is 50 meters high. The statue is perched right on the confluence of the river and the canal and is impossible to miss.
It’s courted controversy in the past being voted amongst the ugliest buildings in the world and it’s location has been questioned as PtG didn’t like Moscow and moved the capital to St Petersburg. Leaving it’s actual aesthetics aside I think it’s a fairly impressive effort.
Leaving Peter the Controversial behind we headed off to Gorky Park, named after the political activist of the same name and made famous by The Scorpions in their classic song ‘Winds of Change’ there was a film about the place as well.
The great man himself – Lenin not me
To enter the park you pass under the main gate of magnificent sandstone colonnades. The park is huge +300 acres, with a couple of km stretching along the Moskva riverfront and it’s easy to see why the park is loved by Muscovites.
Apart from the usual grass and flower beds, there’s a huge ice skating rink. It’s a great place a family / kids day out as there is loads of activity areas for kids to play on. There were loads of kids skateboarding around the fountains and this is the type of place where lyrics were reflected by the actions of those in the park “and in the streets the children screamed, the lovers cried and the poets dreamed”….. There are many different faces of Gorky Park and parts of have retained an old fashioned quaint charm, there are woodlands, abandoned buildings coupled with quaint bridges over babbling streams. It’s the equivalent of Hyde Park to Londoners and Central Park to New Yorkers. Hard to believe the original site was once a rubbish dump.
By now it had been a long day with a lot of walking so we headed off home. Moscow Underground (or subway in some countries) stations are absolute ornate works of art. You won’t find graffiti on the walls and litter thrown everywhere, they are a photo’ opportunity in themselves.
If there is an iconic restaurant in Moscow not be missed, it has to be Café Pushkin. It’s named after the Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin and is like eating in a cross between a museum and an aristocrats mansion. The restaurant is located at Tverskoy Boulevard 26А, Pushkinskaya about 1.3km walk from Red Square and when the boulevard was first built in the late 1700’s Pushkin himself was often seen strolling there – allegedly.
As we entered we were shown down a narrow stone staircase to a cloakroom in the basement. Then back upstairs to the restaurant / bar area. It’s like stepping into a time warp. The painted ceilings of mythology reminded me of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, there is polished wood everywhere and antique artifacts and books adorn every wall, shelf and crevice. All of this is complimented by the most magnificent polished mahogany bar I have ever seen, complete with brass beer taps.
Originally the building was a mansion built by an aristocrat in the service of Catherine the Great. Then it changed hands eventually becoming a pharmacy. Some of the original pharmacy fixtures and fittings are still in place including the counter and numerous bottles with [what looked like] latin inscriptions on. The restaurant has four dining rooms spread across three floors so is not at all cramped.
Text from one of the antique books adorning the shelves. If I spoke German, I’m sure I’d be all over this.
The staff were immaculately turned out with the men in sharp white shirts and long aprons with contrasting red waistcoats and the ladies in long red skirts. Their manners, hospitality and service were impeccable. Although my wife could have translated the menu for me, the waiter insisted on doing it – in perfect English so the gastronomic terms were explained to me correctly. Russia – you have learned! I’m glad the food was explained so explicitly so I knew what to expect – and it was perfect, absolutely faultless in amount, content and presentation.
All around the various rooms placed at strategic points were all sorts of scientific instruments like microscopes, barometers, telescopes, sextants, large globes all framed by the volumes of journals (including the complete works of Pushkin, Dickens and Shakespeare) reaching up to the ceiling topped by branches of greenery below the skylights.
It’s easy to picture the Russian aristocracy of the 18th and 19th century complete in period costume dining under the greenery drape below the skylights. A date night here is not only a date with your love, but also a date with history. This is a classical place steeped in legend and history, an iconic 18th century place in Moscow brought back to life in the 21st century
Summary:
It’s no longer a city of repression, suspicion, communism, security and policing. It has always been classical, historical and cultured, it just needs to show its good points off a bit more. There are still negative attitudes here of blatant racism and homophobia, I’m sure there are others as well. But we had some great experiences here and like everywhere we go we made sure that our good experiences outweighed our bad. Moscow – we’re glad we came.
Next stop – Budapest, Hungary.