The Sapsan type train from St Petersburg to Moscow was on time, clean and comfortable. I did notice that the speed was in excess of 230 k/h at times. On it was a restaurant, buffet car, plenty of luggage spaces and staff to book tours, train and airline tickets for the traveler. Places were available for disabled persons with straps for holding down wheelchairs and special disabled toilets as well. There were also special seats for those travelling with animals. though I don’t know what they looked like (the seats not the animals!) There was an office and conference room on board and a shoe cleaning machine. Playing on the overhead screens and available by wifi on the Russian phones was the film Finian's Rainbow, a 1968 Irish-American musical with Fred Astaire, Petula Clark and Tommy Steele. Some people were watching it!
I had not ordered a taxi for arrival at the Moscow station, just thought I would try my luck. Most taxis in the country are at the end of a phone as that is the way people work here. Anyway, there were taxis waiting with the first driver offering a price which I refused as being too much, reduced but I still said too much and walked off. The second taxi driver started off at half the price of the first so I thought it wasn’t going to get much better so agreed to that. This time in Moscow I had booked to stay in the Arbat House Hotel. This was because at this time of year hundreds of school children come into Moscow for the holidays (with their teachers) and a lot of hotels are booked out. Driving through the back street to the hotel I wondered where I was being taken but it worked out well as the hotel was good, the reception staff extremely helpful, plenty of shop and cafes nearby while the hotel itself was in easy walking distance of Red Square and the Kremlin Complex, where I went a number of times.
One thing about walking the back streets with all the snow and ice was that the safest place to walk was in the centre of the road. Snow fell off the roofs of buildings onto the pavement and sometimes men were on the roofs clearing off the snow with the pavements cordoned off and men below blowing whistles when people or cars had to pass. In some places parked cars were covered with thick sheets of plywood to stop them from being damaged. It looked like the council had workers going round the streets and any overhanging balcony or gutter with large icicles had people in cherry-pickers knocking the ice off. I do know that if any of the ice blocks would have hit someone then it’s likely they would be killed.
I did not see any rubbish in the streets either. It seemed that in all the places I visited so far people did not throw rubbish down anywhere.
Christmas in Russia is celebrated on 7 January as the Russian Orthodox Church uses the Gregorian calendar not the Julian calendar as used by the Anglican Church. It’s a major festival of the church and actually falls on the Anglican church’s Twelfth Night.
There is a second, less known Kremlin in the northeast part of the city. Located near the Serebryano-Vinogradny Pond, the Kremlin in the city’s Izmailovo District is an unexpected, fairy-tale like cultural wonderland.
Scenes of the Izmailovo Kremlin and the Church of St. Nicholas
Kremlin is the Russian word for citadel or fortress, and they are found in many Russian cities. But the Izmailovo Kremlin, a wooden complex completed in 2007, was not built for protection as its name suggests. It was established as a cultural center and marketplace loosely modeled after traditional Russian architecture and fairy-tale depictions of Old Russia. Inside there is the Romanov emblem of a crowned griffin and a pink statue of Lenin which has caused some mild outrage.
The colorful and bustling complex is home to several single-subject museums. One is dedicated to Russian folk art, another to bread, and yet another to vodka. It includes a wooden replica of the summer palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, where visitors can experience a traditional Russian meal. It is also home to the Church of St. Nicholas, named after the patron saint of crafts and trade, which at 151 feet in height is the tallest wooden church in the country.
Next to the Kremlin is the Izmailovo District’s landmark open-air market, which dates back to the 17th century, when it was an avant-garde market selling original paintings, crafts, and wares. The bazaar is attended by merchants from regions all over Russia and is a favored shopping destination for locals and tourists alike,with items ranging from books, baskets, retro toys and furniture to Soviet memorabilia, fur hats, nesting dolls, and traditional artwork.
Flower power painted guns
I went back to St Nicholas's church the last morning in Moscow thinking I would get different photos of the area as the sun was shining making it quite a different sight.
I met the travel agent for On The Go Tours here and he handed over the train tickets for the trip on the Trans Siberian Railway to Vladivostok which begins on 9 January. I’m to be picked up, taken to the station for this train (there are eight stations in Moscow), taken to the correct carriage and hopefully someone will be waiting for me at the first stop, Yekaterinburg, 26 hours away. Because I am starting another organised tour, only me on it, the agent arranged for me to stay in the Izmailovo Gamma Hotel. I was advised that hotel rooms were scarce at this time of year because school children (with their teachers) come into the city for the holidays.. There’s certainly hundreds of them in this hotel complex at the moment. If I had known where this hotel is situated, in the back of beyond (the hotel is good none-the less) I would have tried to stay at the Arbat House Hotel with it being central for most things. Certainly the metro is useful but I much prefer to walk as there’s more to be seen that way.
On the afternoon of the 9 January I was picked up as arranged and taken to the Kazanskaia railway station to catch the train to Yekaterinburg.
I had not ordered a taxi for arrival at the Moscow station, just thought I would try my luck. Most taxis in the country are at the end of a phone as that is the way people work here. Anyway, there were taxis waiting with the first driver offering a price which I refused as being too much, reduced but I still said too much and walked off. The second taxi driver started off at half the price of the first so I thought it wasn’t going to get much better so agreed to that. This time in Moscow I had booked to stay in the Arbat House Hotel. This was because at this time of year hundreds of school children come into Moscow for the holidays (with their teachers) and a lot of hotels are booked out. Driving through the back street to the hotel I wondered where I was being taken but it worked out well as the hotel was good, the reception staff extremely helpful, plenty of shop and cafes nearby while the hotel itself was in easy walking distance of Red Square and the Kremlin Complex, where I went a number of times.
One thing about walking the back streets with all the snow and ice was that the safest place to walk was in the centre of the road. Snow fell off the roofs of buildings onto the pavement and sometimes men were on the roofs clearing off the snow with the pavements cordoned off and men below blowing whistles when people or cars had to pass. In some places parked cars were covered with thick sheets of plywood to stop them from being damaged. It looked like the council had workers going round the streets and any overhanging balcony or gutter with large icicles had people in cherry-pickers knocking the ice off. I do know that if any of the ice blocks would have hit someone then it’s likely they would be killed.
I did not see any rubbish in the streets either. It seemed that in all the places I visited so far people did not throw rubbish down anywhere.
Christmas in Russia is celebrated on 7 January as the Russian Orthodox Church uses the Gregorian calendar not the Julian calendar as used by the Anglican Church. It’s a major festival of the church and actually falls on the Anglican church’s Twelfth Night.
There is a second, less known Kremlin in the northeast part of the city. Located near the Serebryano-Vinogradny Pond, the Kremlin in the city’s Izmailovo District is an unexpected, fairy-tale like cultural wonderland.
Scenes of the Izmailovo Kremlin and the Church of St. Nicholas
Kremlin is the Russian word for citadel or fortress, and they are found in many Russian cities. But the Izmailovo Kremlin, a wooden complex completed in 2007, was not built for protection as its name suggests. It was established as a cultural center and marketplace loosely modeled after traditional Russian architecture and fairy-tale depictions of Old Russia. Inside there is the Romanov emblem of a crowned griffin and a pink statue of Lenin which has caused some mild outrage.
The colorful and bustling complex is home to several single-subject museums. One is dedicated to Russian folk art, another to bread, and yet another to vodka. It includes a wooden replica of the summer palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, where visitors can experience a traditional Russian meal. It is also home to the Church of St. Nicholas, named after the patron saint of crafts and trade, which at 151 feet in height is the tallest wooden church in the country.
Next to the Kremlin is the Izmailovo District’s landmark open-air market, which dates back to the 17th century, when it was an avant-garde market selling original paintings, crafts, and wares. The bazaar is attended by merchants from regions all over Russia and is a favored shopping destination for locals and tourists alike,with items ranging from books, baskets, retro toys and furniture to Soviet memorabilia, fur hats, nesting dolls, and traditional artwork.
Flower power painted guns
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| Free parking and not used so it looked |
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| This is of Lenin and is not well liked |
I met the travel agent for On The Go Tours here and he handed over the train tickets for the trip on the Trans Siberian Railway to Vladivostok which begins on 9 January. I’m to be picked up, taken to the station for this train (there are eight stations in Moscow), taken to the correct carriage and hopefully someone will be waiting for me at the first stop, Yekaterinburg, 26 hours away. Because I am starting another organised tour, only me on it, the agent arranged for me to stay in the Izmailovo Gamma Hotel. I was advised that hotel rooms were scarce at this time of year because school children (with their teachers) come into the city for the holidays.. There’s certainly hundreds of them in this hotel complex at the moment. If I had known where this hotel is situated, in the back of beyond (the hotel is good none-the less) I would have tried to stay at the Arbat House Hotel with it being central for most things. Certainly the metro is useful but I much prefer to walk as there’s more to be seen that way.
On the afternoon of the 9 January I was picked up as arranged and taken to the Kazanskaia railway station to catch the train to Yekaterinburg.
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