A FEW MORE PORTS OF CALL BEFORE MOSCOW -Chapter 6




Another stop. We moored in Yaroslavl, a very picturesque town with numerous ancient churches and fortresses. Another guided tour, more tourist stalls and things to buy… Another walking tour, bells to listen to and a bear to keep us safe!
Yaroslavl - A church built and decorated by
 a wealthy family
I have never seen something so baroque





The first what looked like a modern sculpture


This looked modern too...but
















Before this we listened to a choral with 5 men. THAT was beautiful!
The bear is the symbol




                                                                      The following day we arrived in Uglich. This was the last port of call before Moscow. The town was founded in the 12th century and is famous for the manufacture of clocks and watches. But why? I asked a few guides but no luck or not a clear answer maybe a better way of putting it. Another walking tour, bells to listen to and a bear to look over.
Arriving in fog...

Finally Moscow.  We spent the morning cruising along what is called the Moscow Canal. After lunch a bus tour to show us the main sites and the dramatic contrasts between the old and new. My goodness I was impressed. A little Shanghai had shot up in the middle of the city. 
 
A horizon of modern buildings



The Ipad tells me this is the airport building - it maybe wrong!
Pierrette went off to see some other sites but this time I stayed in the coach…next stop we would be the Kremlin. I was surprised to see see how small it was.


Red Square


Red Square and Kremlin wall

The Red Square to see the coloured domes of St Basil’s Cathedral and get a glimpse inside of the GUM department store. Now that’s a word I wont forget. 

The Gum department store giving onto the Red Square
Inside
Coming back to the Kremlin which is the seat of th Russian government. It’s hard to believe the the Kremlin was once a small, wooden walled enclosure that surrounded the city in the middle ages. It was also the centre of the Russian Orthodox Church until 1918 and since has become the heart of the political power.

 
Saint-Basil's Cathedral







Looks like a Fairy  cake


Red Square
A somewhat touching moment before we arrived in Moscow was the farewell cocktail party with those who had followed us along with the Captain who spoke no English. The two girls, Katya, (you see with the Captain) and Nathalie spoke three or four languages - and well. This could not be said for the men. 




In the evening it was a visit to see the illuminations before a final moment in the Russian Metro. Each station seems to be a museum. For many of us, a subway journey means speeding from one drab station to the next, surrounded by too many uncomfortable, impatient bodies. But on the Moscow Metro, taking the subway is akin to walking through a national heritage site.

Depending on where you get off, you'll receive a crash course in such diverse architectural movements as Baroque, Art Deco or Futurism, and face stained glass windows, marble columns, crystal chandeliers, gilded mosaics and painted scenes from Russian history.  Strangely enough I had stopped taking photos yesterday at the Kremlin so here are a few of the Moscow Underground, taken from Internet…







Pierrette was quite right when I grumbled about the trip - this was just a glimpse of what Russia is … we were shown what should be seen but had in fact  no real opportunity to see the other side. The Gum department store mad me gasp by it’s luxurious galleries and shops which were surely there for rich tourists and the Russian Oligarch. This demonstration of wealth does not seem to worry the Russians. Perhaps they are proud of it? If there was one city I would return to for a weekend it would be Moscow. But not in a group… 

Commentaires

Michael Keane a dit…
How different and yet surprisingly similar does Moscow appear now compared with when we saw it in 1970. Driving in from the airport, we well remember the wooden houses along the route, arriving at the Number One Hotel and having to surrender our passports at reception, then walking around Red Square and visiting the massive GUM department store which resembled a market for second-hand goods. Being approached by a young man who wanted to buy our clothes, and another person who was willing to pay an extraordinary amount for a packet of chewing gum - which we didn't have. At dinner that night, everyone sang and danced and seemed very happy. We loved Moscow.
26/10/17 09:19
Enregistrer un commentaire

Posts les plus consultés de ce blog

CONFLICTS AND ENCOUNTERS OF MULTIPLE HISTORIES

Image
Over the years, I have gone on discovering Wifredo Lam. He has been mentioned in different Blog chapters but always within permanent collections. I have to admit today that in the early years, I took one of his paintings for a Picasso….and seeing certain paintings of his today, it didn’t really surprise me. Especially as I learnt that he knew Picasso…This though was a retrospective of his work at the Beaubourg. Wifredo Lam (1902-1982) was a precursor of a cross-cultural style of painting, infusing Western modernism with African and Caribbean symbolism. He must have been one of the very rare artists who was in contact with all the movements of his time …and all those that I follow. Cubism, surrealism, CoBrA…but he never lost sight of the world around him and took on the struggle to paint the drama of his own country, Cuba. The above photo plunges us at once into the exhibition. Was he an attractive man? I think there are later photos which make him look less brutal….but in my book,
Lire la suite

MY BELOVED PICASSO -I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS -

Image
After 25 years as a museum, it was time to renovate the Picasso site. The « Hotel » as we call it, has quite a history. It is probably, as Bruno Foucart wrote in 1985,  (he is an art historian of 19th century architecture) “the grandest, most extraordinary, if not the most extravagant, of the Parisian houses of the 17th century”. Hotel Salé The Main stair case Another coming down "Picasso" would have liked these lights The building has seen many occupants come and go over the centuries. However, paradoxically, before the place was entrusted to the museum, it was rarely “inhabited”, but instead leased out to various private individuals, prestigious hosts and institutions. And so it became the Picasso museum. The renovations began in 2009 and quite obviously went well over budget and should have opened before the holidays started this year. The political arguments too had to be contended with not to mention the changes in Directors and the big question bei
Lire la suite

THE CHOICE OF ONE OF THE RICHEST WOMEN IN THE WORLD

Image
The exhibition season is very full between January and the French holiday period. I make less and less effort to go and see the « block-busters » and there are some museums which are not easy to get around. The Jacquemart André is one of them. The rooms are so small and when a couple of groups move in, it is virtually impossible to see a picture or move at all. Still I was interested to go and see the Alicia Koplowitz collection. Now I come to think of it, there have been quite a few private collections shown to the public since the end of last year.  Naturally I knew nothing about this woman.  Alicia Koplowitz is very well known in her home country, Spain. Thanks to her company, the Capital Omega Group  a comprehensive financial services company , she has become an important collect er Alicia is is a Spanish business magnate. When her father died, she and her sister inherited Construcciones y Contratas, S.A. (CYCSA), a company founded by her father. She  sold her part of the comp
Lire la suite