Our hotel is in Presnya, one of the oldest neighbourhoods in town. Each day as we leave the hotel, we catch a glimpse of a golden dome and today we are going to take a look Church of the Grand Ascension, quite a smart church where Alexander Pushkin and Natalya Goncharova married – I said we would hear more about them. He died six years later defending her honour in a dual – such passion, such romance! The couple are together forever in the Rotunda Fountain, erected to celebrate the poet’s 100th birthday.
The house of Maxim Gorky interested me more as it was advertised as an art noveeau treasure than because it was his house, but the trees outside obscured the tiling and we were too early for it to be open …
Next on the literary trail is Patriarch Ponds which is just a pretty little park with swings for children, a pond to push prams round and benches to linger. It also featured in the beginning of The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov which I started reading … but seem unable to get along with.
I usually try and find something relevant to read when we travel … but just didn’t fancy Pushkin, Tolstoy Dostoyevsky, Maxim Gorky or even Pasternak among a whole listing of authors, many I’d not heard of. I’m obviously not doing any better with Bulgakov! I had more success with books not by Russian authors, just about Russia like the Madonnas of Leningrad about a woman who helped in the evacuation of art from the Hermitage in WWII, and The Siege and The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore telling of Anna and Anton’s struggle trapped inside the besieged city of of Leningrad in 1941 and later how danger in Stalin’s Russia was never more than a twist of fate away, with Anton being sent to the Lubyanka Prison. Other books on my reading list include Zoo about the official food-taster for the leader of the Soviet Union and The Bear and the Nightingale, a Russian fairytale but there never seems to be enough time!
Next we took a bus up to the Garden Ring, the road circling the centre of Moscow, where we saw a far more recent addition to Stalin’s sisters and another Soviet mural, this time the 17 Heroes of Moscow.
We have noticed in our wandering around the city what seems to be a very enthusiastic road cleaning programme and pedestrians beware – until one stops to think how much good it is to spray a fine mist of water with no sweeping …
I asked google to explain the phenomenon of the road and pavement spraying vehicles, which only seem to get everywhere slightly wet rather than actually washing the surfaces and there seems to be a possibility this is done with the intention of reducing heat in the city or maybe being a scheme that would prove a good employer – see what you think …
http://www.businessinsider.com/russian-cleaning-trucks-spray-water-microclimates-2015-9
… then to the Museum of Decorative & Folk Art, which was a little disappointing, but we enjoyed their collection of bears!
The temperature was hitting 30 in a mini-heatwave and we decided to pace ourselves especially as we have a big day tomorrow. Instead, we did a little metro hopping on the way back, stopping at Mayakovskaya where the Art Deco design was based on a Soviet future as envisioned by the poet Mayakovsky. It also has 34 ceiling mosaics with the theme ’24 Hours in the Land of The Soviets’ …
… and Ploschad Revolyutsii, a dramatic gallery of bronze sculptures showing the roles of people in the revolution and in the world after. Apparently touching the dog’s nose is good luck!
It was Saturday evening and very lively as we wandered down the Arbat …
… and ate at Varenichnaya No1, decorated in retro Soviet style which seems all the rage in Moscow. They specialise in different types of dumplings, vareniki and pelmeni but also a some dishes with buckwheat and mine was so good, we might return so Chris can try the mushroom one.
Off Travelling Together 