The wet wanderer

As a Dutch girl living in London I am certainly no stranger to a bit of rain. Normally I try to stay away from the wet weather if I can though, hiding in the warm and dry comforts of my house. Hiding out in a hotel room on my only free weekend in Moscow, however, seemed like a silly idea. After all, it is not every day that I get to play tourist in a city like this. So despite my trepidation to go out in the absolute pouring rain, this weekend I wandered through the wet streets of Moscow.

Saturday was pleasantly spent in the company of a Moscovite friend. It sure is nice to be able to travel to an unknown city and have your own personal tour guide! We spent the morning in the State Tretyakov Gallery, admiring the portraits of some of Russia's finest as well as the collection of golden shiny icons. The St Basil's cathedral proved as crazy on the inside as it is on the outside, full of twists and turns. In the afternoon I strolled down to the controversial hate-it-or-love-it skyline defining Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. This mammoth was blasted into a million marble pieces by Stalin and eventually replaced by world's largest swimming pool. After the fall of communism, however, the church was rebuilt on the same site. The debris from the original church has been incorporated into the Kropotkinskaya metro station. The Moscow metro system is an attraction itself. Completely unlike the drab stations here in London, the Moscovian stations are gorgeous spacious halls filled with statues, mosaics and marble. It certainly gives an artistic twist to your daily commute!


On Sunday the weather was even more miserable than the day before, with relentless rain and thunder storms. Hoping to wait out the rain I treated myself to breakfast at ГҮМ shopping centre that is guaranteed to blast any thoughts of the communist days straight into the past. It did, however, not obliterate the rain. Soaking in my shoes I then squished through the Kremlin grounds to gawk at the Assumption Cathedral, the Archangel Cathedral, the Ivan the Great Bell Tower and more. This time I skipped a visit to the Armoury and Diamond Fund rooms for lack of time. I took a quick stroll through the State Historical Museum, more to get a chance to dry up than anything else as the all-Russian signs in this Red Square situated museum are distinctly tourist unfriendly.


There is so much more to do in Moscow that I did not get around to. I would have loved to visit the Sculpture Park, a resting place for many of the statues of Russia's fallen heroes. The modern art collection at the New Tretyakov Gallery is also still on my wish list, as is a visit to the famous Bolshoi theatre. And although I still think it is a bit creepy, I should perhaps take a peek at Lenin before they finally lay him to rest. I guess I will just have to come back here some time. Hopefully it will be dry then.

Moscow 3 July - 6 July 2008