Moscow photos, January 2014

[MrMann]

Inspired by regina's fantastic photos of St Petersburg I thought I'd share some of my photos of Moscow.

I actually meant to post these back in January after we returned but ended up very busy with work and am only just getting around to it now! They might serve as a slight distraction from the political posts which have been dominating the forum recently.

We arrived on New Year's Eve to find that there was a mild winter, very disappointing for me but less so for my girlfriend. Unfortunately that meant no snow so the view from the apartment was less than picturesque.



In the evening we had dinner in the apartment with my girlfriend's family. We could just see the Red Square fireworks out of the window.



Usually we'd go skating on New Year's Day, but there was no ice at the local park (Taganaskiy Park) so we went for an evening walk with my girlfriend's dad instead.





There was a little bit of snow over the next few days, but nothing to write home about. We arranged with one of my girlfriend's friends (and her husband) to visit the New Tretyakov Gallery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tretyakov_Gallery). On the way there we passed through an underpass that was full of people selling paintings, quite a bizarre sight.





The Tretyakov Gallery is opposite the grand entrance to Gorky park.



This is the entrance to the gallery.



Some of the artworks contained within that caught my eye.



































The building itself is quite impressive.











Next to the gallery is a space where lots of old Soviet sculptures have been collected. We'd been here before, it was cold and dark and the others were hungry so I only had a moment to snap a couple of shots.





A path leads away through the trees to join up with a path running along the side of the Moskva river.



From where there's a great view of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Christ_the_Saviour) with the amazing statue of Peter the Great (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_the_Great_Statue) in the foreground.







A bit further along and across the river is the Kremlin.



We went for dinner at a vegetarian restaurant called Sok. Afterwards we walked to the end of the street where there's an 18th century building containing the Scientific Pedagogical Library KD Ushinsky (http://www.gnpbu.ru).

[PBRstreetg]

Thanks for the links. Awesome trip Mr. Mann

[mhr7]

Nice photos, thanks for sharing.

[sashathecat]

Great pics and wonderful artwork. Thanks for sharing.

[mendeleyev]

Beautiful!

[Jeffery]

Great photos! Thanks for that.

Did you have to take the gallery photos on the sly or do they allow the public to take photos inside?

I know it's a policy of many galleries and museums not to allow photos to be taken.

[Millaa]

Great photos! Thanks for that.

Did you have to take the gallery photos on the sly or do they allow the public to take photos inside?

I know it's a policy of many galleries and museums not to allow photos to be taken.

No problems with taken photos in Tretyakovsky Gallery or State Museum of Arts, probably there was not allowed in Armory only.

[Millaa]

We were in Moscow at the same time. My daughter visited her country capital for first time in her life, so it was a great educational program.


she wanted Russian hat and scarf being in NY last winter.


Moscow city




view from our apartments window


one more again - before NY holidays

[mendeleyev]

I love that City Centre photo, Millaa!

Had Leonid Brezhnev still been alive, here is how that would have looked the previous summer from his spacious apartment at 26 Kutuzovskiy Prospekt.





Some years ago I lived on Studencheskaya, just a few blocks behind the house that had been the Brezhnev residence. This was the summer view of City Centre construction from my old neighborhood.

[mendeleyev]

Many Russian galleries and museums prohibit private photographing however Tretyakov allows it provided that the camera is consumer grade and does not use a flash or any professional extended lens. A 200 ruble fee is charged for taking photos as part of the entry fee. Accepting that fee constitutes a contract that the photos cannot be reproduced or distributed professionally.

These days with digital cameras it would be difficult to truly call something as consumer grade...

[MrMann]

Thanks for the comments and photos everyone.

Did you have to take the gallery photos on the sly or do they allow the public to take photos inside?

As mendeleyev said a 200 rouble photography permit allows you to take photos. There were certain exhibits where no photography was allowed, unfortunately including the very impressive Pavel Korin's Requiem.

http://www.tretyakovgallerymagazine.com/articles/2-2014-43/pavel-korins-requiem-tretyakov-gallery

[Orchid]

Millaa!
You daughter is soooooooo beautiful!!!
Looking at her I forgot about Moscow and NY together.
I feel sorry for gentlemen. I think they forgot their names....

[Manny]

As requested, a topic has been split off: RUA Members: Where we live

[MrMann]

Russians celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_in_Russia) and those who are religious attend a church service on the night of the 6th. So just before midnight we stepped out into the cold and walked the short distance to a fortified monastery close to my girlfriend's mum's flat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andronikov_Monastery).

It was dark (obviously) and a bit misty - challenging conditions without a tripod. I'd really like to take my tripod to Moscow some day but our suitcases are always full to the brim with clothes and presents....







The next day we met up with one of my girlfriend's friends to go to the theatre. We had a pre-theatre dinner at Fresh (see this thread) then went to the show, which consisted of a lot of singing. Not my cup of tea really. I managed to make a security guard's night though just by being foreign, he enjoyed speaking to me in English the couple of times that he encountered me.



Afterwards we had a wander around and went to a Christmas market at Stoleshnikov Lane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoleshnikov_Lane) which was quite cool.


























A stall selling valenki.


A Christmas Cheburashka.

Since my girlfriend hadn't seen her friend for a year we went in search of somewhere interesting to have a drink, and the friend decided on the Time Out bar at the top of the Peking Hotel. On the way we passed the State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia (http://eng.sovr.ru).




The Peking Hotel.

The view from the bar was pretty spectacular, especially from the toilet (poor quality iPhone photo as I thought it would be odd to take my big camera in with me!).





We went home via Mayakovskaya metro station which is pretty cool.

[mendeleyev]

Awesome! 

These turned out so nice at night Mr. Mann. Which model of camera did you use?

[MrMann]

Thanks mendy. I use a Canon EOS 400D (called the Digital Rebel XTi in the USA) with a Tamron 17-50 f2.8 lens, a steady hand and whatever I can lean against.

[Orchid]

Amazing pictures!
I feel like I visited home. Thank you.

[MrMann]

Thanks Orchid. Are you from Moscow originally?

The day after Russian Christmas we were back out exploring, fuelled by piroshki bought from this delightful shop on the way to the Metro.



The Moscow Metro is generally a pretty photogenic place, I love the variety from station to station.






Marksistskaya Metro station


Taganskaya Metro station


Komsomolskaya Metro station


Komsomolskaya Metro station


Komsomolskaya Metro station


Komsomolskaya Metro station

We were on our way to a pair of visotki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Sisters_(Moscow)). I have a bit of a visotka obsession and never tire of visiting them.

We had two on our list today, relatively close together. The Kudrinskaya Square Building used to contain luxury apartments for Soviet cultural leaders and stands on the Garden Ring road which encircles the city.


Kudrinskaya Square Building


The Garden Ring road


Krasnye Vorota Metro station

A short walk away is the Leningradskaya Hotel, now a Hilton. We asked if we could take some photos of the interior and the security guard looked at us like we'd just landed from Mars. However after looking us up and down he allowed it.


Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya


Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya


Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya

[mendeleyev]

Very nice!

[MrMann]

Another day another visotka. The Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotelnicheskaya_Embankment_Building) is a short-ish walk from my girlfriend's mum's flat, so we set off with her mum and niece in tow.


Mural on a building near the flat.


Church of St. Martin the Confessor (Храм святителя Мартина Исповедника).


Taganskaya Metro station, the Church of St. Nicholas and the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building in the background.


Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building.


Medical College of Clara Zetkin.


Yauzskie Gate Square (Площадь Яузские Ворота).


A plaque to the composer Anatoly Novikov on the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building.






The famous ballet dancer Galina Ulanova (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galina_Ulanova) lived in an apartment in the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building. I must confess I had never heard of her, but I'm not a ballet fan at all.

The apartment is now preserved as a museum and my girlfriend wanted to visit it, but we couldn't find anything much online about how to visit so we went and asked at the building's reception and booked a tour in a couple of days' time.




We decided to continue walking to Red Square, although our two extra companions were flagging a bit as they're not big walkers. Just across the Yauza River is the Moskvoretskaya Embankment which runs along the north bank of the Moskva River to Red Square. There was a huge convoy of police and / or military vehicles parked up, this is just a part of it.



As the road curves with the river you get a good view back across to the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building.



Looking in the opposite direction is the Kremlin.



We managed to coax our companions as far as the entrance to Red Square, but they refused to go any further so we didn't get beyond the corner of the Kremlin wall.





From there we took a trolley bus back to Taganka and had a meal at the vegetarian restaurant Jagannath (http://www.jagannath.ru), where the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building is visible from the front door.

[MrMann]

The following day we were dispatched to the far side of Moscow on an errand for my girlfriend's brother. We didn't particularly want to go as it was down to a problem of his own creation and it was pouring with rain, but being good souls we eventually relented. As a bonus it took us close to Petrovsky Palace (http://www.petroffpalace.mos.ru/en), built for Catherine the Great in the 1770s and now a hotel. It was designed by the architect Matvey Kazakov who was also responsible for the Kremlin Senate.



We took the Metro back to the city centre to visit the State Historical Museum (http://www.shm.ru/en/ / http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Historical_Museum) next to Red Square, somewhere neither of us had been before. It's the huge red building athe opposite end to St. Basil's Cathedral.

It really is a great museum, I can't recommend it highly enough. The rooms are arranged chronologically and take you through from the Stone Age to the present day.

















































By the time we left the museum it was dark outside, so we took a few photos in Red Square. Again, I really wish we had room to take a tripod to Moscow but we never do!







When we'd finished in Red Square we hit the Metro at rush hour.

[Orchid]

Amazing thread!!!  Beautiful fotonovela!!!

[Maxx]

Yes, very beautiful!  Thank you!     

[MrMann]

Glad you like the photos. There are some very photogenic places in Moscow.

Inspired by our earlier walk, a few days later we decided to walk to Red Square via some of the older parts of Moscow. There'd been a snowfall overnight (finally!) and there was a chill in the air when we set out, bliss for me after days of unseasonably warm weather (I like the cold).





We passed this sculpture on the way but didn't stop to see what it commemorated.



A bit further along the street we came to the the 16th century walls of Kitay-gorod, the old part of Moscow to the east of Red Square and the Kremlin. This section of the old city wall in the ancient Zaryadye district is to the south-east of Red Square and runs along the edge of the site of the old Rossiya Hotel.







From there we walked along ulitsa Varvarka which leads to the Kremlin. Dotted along it are various old buildings.









One of the buildings can be visited, the 16th century residence of the Romanov boyars (http://www.moscow.info/museums/palace-romanov-boyars.aspx). It's really quite an interesting place, and while the upper floors are very residential and domestic it has an older vaulted basement straight out of a castle.



















Further along the same street is the "Old English Embassy" or "Old English Court", also 16th century, a house given by Ivan the Terrible to English merchants who had been looking for a northern route to India. It can also be visited (http://www.russianmuseums.info/M425) although we didn't that day as it didn't seem to be open. Next time....





Towards the end of the street you get a view of St Basil's Cathedral before arriving at the south end of Red Square.



Click the image for a wider version of this panorama.
















We stopped off for a beer (a paint of Tinkoff http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinkoff_brewery) in the Burgermeister bar (a good option for non-Russian speakers http://www.burgermeister.ru), which is just opposite the Bolshoi.





After a few piroshki we headed into Ploshchad Revolyutsii Metro station, home to the famous lucky dog.

[Orchid]

Your pictures are like from luxury album.
You should publish them. Breathtaking!!!