Day #179 - Moscow, Russia

GUM Department Store

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

Tretyakov Gallery

Peter the Great Monument

Russian hats

Thursday, September 9th

I spent the day touring the southern part of the City of Moscow. I first crossed the Moskva River just south of the Kremlin to begin my journey.

My first target was the Tretyakov Gallery. This is one of the most famous art galleries in all of Russia. It's home to the world's largest and most important collection of 19th and 20th century Russian art. The assemblage of art was given to Moscow by the wealthy merchant P.M. Tretyakov in 1892. I enjoyed spending time in this place. It was predominantly made up of paintings. Impressive. Many of which were large scale. They covered entire walls. It took a couple minutes to grasp each display. I could really appreciate the talents required to complete such work. And, because all the artists are Russian, it's easy to see why this is a national treasure.

I continued my walk to the southwest of the city until I came upon the Monument to Peter the Great. I'm including the picture. This was no ordinary monument. Immense. It stood at a fork in the river where a canal separated itself from the main Moskva River. As a side-note, what's up with the use of 'Great' and 'Terrible' in Russia. All the former czars or leaders have names like: Catherine the Great, Peter the Great, Alexander the Great, Ivan the Terrible. Is there no middle ground here in Russia?

I crossed back over the River and headed toward the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. This place was architecturally amazing. It reminded me a little of such places like Notre Dame in Paris because of all the elaborate statues on the exterior of the building.

I worked my way back into the central city. Right next to Red Sqaure is a famous store complex called GUM - whose initials stand for State Department Store. It looks like like an old train station with a glass dome overhead. I strolled through the maze of stores - you could literally buy anything here.

My dumb-dumb move of the day was not being able to gain access into the Kremlin. When I came to Moscow, I had planned to spend some of today touring around the museums inside the Kremlin walls after doing other things on Tuesday-Wednesday. I actually found out yesterday when it was too late to do anything about it - however, tickets to the Kremlin are sold every day except Thursday. I did not get lucky on this occasion. It was foolish of me not to check on this earlier. That's OK - I've circled the Kremlin about 4 times now and have read everything I can explaining it. My level of understanding is significantly higher than when I came here.

Tomorrow I'll be taking an early train back to St. Petersburg where I'll get on a bus headed to western Europe. I didn't want to mess with flying out of Russia, so I opted for the bus route. I could either go south through Ukraine or north through Estonia. (I had to bypass Belarus because I do not have a VISA to enter this country). Since I have plans to vist Ukraine later, I'm taking a bus from St. Petersburg through Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania - and will be in Warsaw, Poland first thing in the morning on Sunday, September 12th. I will not likely have internet access tomorrow but should regain form on the 11th - where I'll be spending most of the day in Lithuania.

I'll write more of a summary on Russia later, but here's to facing my fears and experiencing an interesting, unique culture that was well worth the effort to get here.