Every time we entered our Moscow
hotel we had to scan all out belongings and walk through a scanner.
Just one of those things these days!
Most Russian homes, especially
in the countryside have a ‘red corner’. Originally that is where
the religious icons were displayed. After the Bolshevik Revolution
the religious icons were replaced with busts of Lenin and Stalin.
Since the demise of the USSR in 1989 the religious icons again have a
place of honor.
Russian nesting dolls are
called matryoshka.
The brightly colored and decorated lacquered boxes are called palekh.
Conflicting
info was often given (bus numbers in Moscow, where things were
located)
Traffic
was heavy in the big cities. Pedestrian beware!
Infrastructure
often in need of repair.
Museums
are housed in old palaces.
In
spite of Stalin destroying half of the churches there are still many
many of them.
Payment
of $4-6 was required in nearly all places to use one’s own camera
inside.
Built
in 1825, the Bolshoi is Moscow’s oldest and best-known theater. Its
splendid external architecture sports a lavish façade with columns
and large bronze horses at its peak. The theater, known for its
world-famous opera and ballet companies seats 2000; only the La
Scala in Italy is larger. A large granite monument of Karl Marx,
looking at the Bolshoi stands in the square across the street from
the theater. Unfortunately the theater was under renovation when we
visited so we could not get inside---too bad!
Because
of ice on Lake Onega we were not able to make the next two scheduled
stops at Petrozavodsk and Kizhi Island. We laid to waiting for an
icebreaker to get us through the very southern portion of Lake
Ladoga. Rain did nothing to enhance the rather drab town of Vytegrn.
It was an unscheduled stop and one few tourists see. We maneuvered
around mud puddles on a dirt road from the pier to the town center
where we visited a church (1873) and a small but well done museum.
Individual wooden houses and log cabins lined the street, and in the
distant background were a couple of Stalin concrete apartments.
Our
final stop before St. Petersburg was Mandrogy.
The small village is a place for the new rich Russian to escape to.
The area is situated in deep dense forest. Steep metal roofs topped
wooden buildings and much wood carving was used as decoration. The
architecture was rather unique. After warming up a bit on a windy
cold day we walked to the ferry landing to board a hand turned cable
ferry for a five-minute crossing to Pushkin Island. Pushkin was a
famous Russian poet of fairy tales. Walking a well-packed path
through the woods we stopped every few meters to observe wood
carvings illustrating Pushkin fairy tales. We were well sheltered on
the island, but once across the river the wind hit us full force in
the face! It was fun to get somewhere few tourists do.
Christ
Our Savior Cathedral is the largest church in Moscow. It was started
in 1839 after the war of 1812 and it took 44 years and the reign of
four czars to complete. The first electric lights in the city were
installed in front of this church. Stalin destroyed it in 1931 and it
became a city swimming pool. The pool was covered up in 1994 and in
1995, financed with private monies, construction began on this new
church. It took four years to finish the exterior and two years to
finish the interior. The mosaics inside are beautiful. The church has
five domes with a big central and four angular turrets with 14 bells.
The church is so big that the main cathedral of the Kremlin can fit
inside.
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