Day 16 - Saturday, Sept 28 - Off the train and in Moscow

 This our last day on the train. This was a great way to visit cities along the way and see the Siberian countryside. I don’t know that I am a fan of rail travel. Although the beds are very comfortable, the train really rocks and bumps along at night with loud screeching and clanking sounds which make it difficult to sleep. We are fortunate to have an upgraded compartment with its own bathroom and shower but it still feels very cramped. Many in our group are in smaller compartments and need to use bathrooms and showers at the end of the car. They need to sign up for slots of shower time.

It is a little warmer this morning with temperatures around 40 degrees. There is a 50% chance of rain every day this week in Moscow – we are keeping our fingers crossed.

We arrived in Moscow at 11:30 and got off the train for the last time. We said goodbye to our train attendants Sergei and Nadia who took care of our room and would bring us tea or coffee in our room. Porters took our large luggage which will go directly to our hotel.

Sergei and Nadia

We had a bus tour of Moscow on our way to Red Square. I had been in Moscow in March, 1976 during the Soviet era when there were many restrictions on what you couldn’t take photos of (bridges, soldiers, government buildings, etc) and warnings that the rooms might be bugged so be careful of what you say. The huge hotel where I had stayed has been torn down and a very nice park created along the Moscow River. Moscow is surprisingly pretty, with many parks, wide avenues, fountains and Neo-classical buildings. Moscow was largely burned to the ground when it was attacked by Napoleon in 1812 and subsequently most building had to be made of brick or stone. Moscow had been evacuated before Napoleon arrived so there was nobody to conquer when he wanted the keys to the city.

In the Soviet era, many buildings were demolished to widen streets. New buildings in the early Soviet era were “form follows function”, i.e. ugly rectangular buildings with little ornamentation. After WWII, there a new “Stalin style” which was more decorative. There are 7 “Stalin hi-rises” in Moscow that serve different functions (hotel, university, administration).

Our first stop was Red Square which is famous for the colorful St. Basil Cathedral on one end, the Kremlin and Lenin’s tomb on one side and the GUM department store on the other side. The far side has a newly reconstructed church to replace the one demolished in the 1930s to make it easier to have military parades through Red Square. There had been a proposal to demolish St. Basil’s Cathedral but it wasn’t followed through. Although “Red” is associated with communism, the square had this name before then as “red” has the meaning “beautiful” in Russian.

St. Basil’s was constructed by Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible) to commemorate the Russian conquering of Kazan in the 1550s. There is a myth that he had the architect blinded so that he couldn’t build anything else as beautiful.

Behind St. Basil's Cathedral, Kremlin gate to the left

The earliest fortress was destroyed by the Mongols in 1237. It was replaced with an oak fortress in 1339 and by stone walls in the current location in 1366. The Kremlin contains numerous churches and administrative buildings used by the Tsar. It is now the official residence of the Russian president (Putin) and has several museums.

Crowd in Red Square outside Kremlin gate

The GUM department store was built in 1890 and was an architectural marvel with a wide glass domed roof the length of the building. The name “GUM” originally stood for “State Universal Store” but in order to keep the iconic “GUM” name after being converted to a private store, the name now is “Main Universal Store” which has the same abbreviation. When I was here in 1976, this was one of the few stores that had adequate quantities of basic food and clothing but there were very long lines. One thing I remembered was abacus being used to add up the cost at the check-out. GUM is now a very high-end shopping mall with stores like Cartier, Gucci, Prada, etc.

Inside GUM

After lunch at a local restaurant, we went to a park and the main building of Moscow University that is on a high rise with an expansive view of Moscow below. Motorcycle enthusiasts park their bikes along the edge to show them off and compare notes with other owners. There was also a WWII military motorcycle with a machine gun that you could pay 50 rubles to climb on and have your photo taken.

Moscow University - one of Stalin Hi-Rises

WWII Soviet motorcycle with machine gun

We checked into the Park Inn Sadhu where we would stay for 3 nights. It is on a quiet street a mile or so from Red Square. After dinner at the hotel, there was a tour back to Red Square to see it at night but my cold is gaining strength and I didn’t go,