Russia Trip Report, Day 8: Novodevichy monastery, Moscow

August 3, Friday, 2012

SAPSAN RIDE BAACK TO MOSCOW:

Collected the ample breakfast from our hotel Roses at 5.30 AM and walked to the Moskva station. As we were entering the station, a security guard stopped us and asked for our passport/visa (he maintained a polite distance and asked in a courteous voice). We were surprised at this request so early in the morning –6am-- there were 3 young men with huge backpacks who had been stopped as well and were standing around. . . Our passport was easily accessible as I had it handy for Sapsan verification (we had carried around only a photocopy on other days)—the guard waved us on at the sight of our documents. 

We caught the 6.45 AM Sapsan without any further incidents. Our seats did not have the huge windows this time(seat nos 27, 28 now versus seats 3, 4 in coach no 4 on the previous journey)—we noticed that the seats that face each other around the table have hardly any leg space and people were sitting cramped, conscious their knee should not knock into the person sitting opposite. 

When we booked online, we could not select seats—probably missed a step. So probably some research is needed to get preferable seats. We had our breakfast and dozed off till we reached Leningradsky in 4 hours flat.

I did not fancy lugging my bag through the central metro line to reach our Moscow hotel Katerina near Paveletskaya. I had not done any research on taking a taxi from the railway station, so we rang up our Moscow hotel from Petersburg the previous evening and accepted their offer of 900 rubles cash for sending us a cab to meet the Sapsan. As we got down from the Sapsan, there were uniformed drivers holding plaque TAXI right at the platform, looking for passengers. Don’t know what rates they may have quoted. We looked for our cab and found him holding our name and got to the hotel after a short drive of 6km. The driver asked for 1000 rubles saying 100 ruble was for parking and we paid up. When we entered the hotel, the girl at the reception was a little miffed that we had paid the driver ourselves and she was running to the entrance to meet the driver who had left by then. We were sure there had been a big markup and hefty commission involved but could not care less as we just wanted to wind up our stay

We checked into our room early by 11.30, repacked bags so that I was ready to leave for New Delhi by the 7.30 PM flight from SVO while son left the next morning for Houston by 10.30 AM flight from DME. Both of us had our return aeroexpress ticket we had bought for 590 rubles.

Novodevichy monastery, Moscow:

We walked to the central line and traveled to Park kul’tury and changed to the red line. Got down at Sportivnaya and walked the familiar 3 blocks and reached Novodevichy Monastyr (New Maidens' Convent).

Located near the Moskva River, this peaceful retreat includes a spectacular 16th-century convent and a cemetery where writers, poets, politicians and public figures are buried. We had been to the cemetery on our previous visit, so visited all the chapels here this time. 

Founded in 1524, the Convent contains the Sobor Smolensk Bogomateri (Cathedral of the Virgin of Smolensk), with its golden onion domes and tiered bell tower dating from 1690. 

The cathedral features 16th-century frescoes, as well as magnificent 17th-century iconostasis. The red and white Church of the Assumption and the neighboring refectory, the soaring bell-tower and the north and south gate churches, are from the later period. All display Moscow Baroque style and the interiors are lovely.

The convent was a place of exile for noblewomen in mourning or disfavor--powerful Regent Sophia, Peter the Great's half-sister, who did much to rebuild the convent in the 1680's was confined here after a revolt in support of her in 1698!

The Convent's original function was as one of the ring of fortresses that guarded the outskirts of the medieval city and it was positioned strategically to protect the main southern access road to the city at the point where it crossed the Moskva. 

Novodevichy managed to weather French army siege also and has remained intact making it one of the best preserved historical complexes in Moscow. (Napoleon’s army had captured Moscow and laid seige on it... however, the French army could not withstand the harsh Russian winter and the constant guerrilla warfare by the locals... they had to retreat...The retreating army was leaving a trail of devastation behind by setting fire as they left a place. They had set bombs at this convent complex and ignited them... but the nuns managed to extinguish the fuses on casks of gunpowder by throwing water and thus saved the convent!!)

We bought the tickets and paid the small fee for the camera also.

 There was a wedding ceremony with soulful music at the main chapel and we felt privileged to stand unobtrusively and witness it for some 10 minutes. 

There was a nice exhibition as well and we were almost the only people walking through the several chapels admiring the frescoes--it was a thoroughly fitting end to our Moscow trip

There had been many misses on this trip as we could not schedule time for the lovely art museums. Our logic was to give priority to Typical Russian architecture as we have been to some great global art museums. No regrets…we had a soul enriching experience at all the places we visited and savored every moment.

On our research before the trip, we had come across some comments which had created a few misgivings. (There had even been a poll which declared Russians the most unfriendly people and quite a few stories about the militia). Our experience was totally positive and we could not have asked for a better holiday. . 

We hope to return some day to this lovely country with its rich culture, great history, AWESOME palaces, museums and best of all, warm people we met from all walks of life!

The next post is the beginning of the report on our vacation in beautiful Brazil:
http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2016/12/brazil-trip-report-day-1-rio-de-janeiro.html

Russia Trip Report, Day 3: Armory, Diamond Fund, Christ the Savior Cathedral

DAY 3. July 29, 2012, Sunday

Our plan for this Sunday had been to go to Sergiev Posad—some 70 km north east of Moscow as the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius is said to be one of the loveliest in Russia.

Suburban Trains (electrichki) leave every 30 minutes from Yaroslavsky station and it’s 1 ½ hour trip. We had printed out the schedule of the 8.24 and the express 8.58 so that we can monitor which station we were passing—Semhoz is the penultimate station before Sergiev Posad.

But since we had missed visiting the Armoury the previous day, we decided to postpone Sergiev Posad trip to the afternoon and were on the metro to Kremlin in the morning.

I had read some reviews saying that they may not allow ladies wearing trousers in the Lavra, so was wearing a long skirt and a blouse with sleeves (I had a scarf as well to cover the head). Some one stepped on my skirt when I was on the escalator in the metro station and I moved quite close to the right edge… bad move…when I stepped off the escalator, my skirt got caught and I was being pulled back….. I screamed and thankfully grabbed a metal barrier. Tried to use one hand to free my skirt but I was being pulled with force and needed both hands to hold on…A gentleman behind me tried tugging to no avail… my son who was off the escalator turned to see me in distress and ran to the booth… there was a lady in control (who had not been aware of the problem probably due to the general crowds and noise at a busy time) and at my son’s request, she turned off the escalator. It took a few vigorous tugs to tear my skirt from the grinding machinery!! I felt several kind pats on my shoulder from fellow commuters and we thanked our lucky stars that I had not got hurt!!

Here’s a painting at the metro station...

Moscow and Petersburg metro stations are museums of art in themselves--each has its unique characteristics and is designed like a palace with expensive granite, sculptures, artwork etc...

(after a couple of days I witnessed a similar accident in St Petersburg –my son was taking a video of the escalator ride as it looks pretty awesome to see the people looking tilted as they go down the deee…p descent— some stations are 100 feet deep and somebody had timed the escalator ride almost 2 minutes--- we heard screams and a girl was bent down right in the middle on the opposite side … I yelled at my son to put off his stupid camera and turn the right way and watch his step… the blood curdling screams continued and I just kept my head down and sent out a prayer… felt so helpless… the poor girl was being dragged for a while with lots of people near her trying to help … sincerely hope she was not hurt—we did not know the outcome as the station was teeming with crowds! Ladies… mind your skirts when you are on these escalators!!)

I pinned the torn part of my skirt with the paper clips in our bag ...and took a pic to record the skirt with a black clip and tell tale grease stains at the hem.
 

We got out of Revolutski Ploshchad exit and reached the ticket counter by 8.30.

Sat around till it opened at 9.30 and bought tickets for Armoury (700 rubles—the lady did not give student discount for son this time as she could not read the bar code—the previous day the very same lady had given the discount—any way we paid up ).

 Armoury:

Were the first to enter the Armoury at 10AM and went straight up the stairs instead of doing the ground floor first. We bought tickets for the diamond fund timed at 12. Then we enjoyed the beautiful icons, gem studded gospels, and other silver craft pieces in the several rooms on the 1st floor. The Faberge eggs were of course the pick of the lot …no pics allowed (Houston museum has an exhibition of Faberge currently on for 6 months and we were allowed photography without flash… took videos to our heart’s content of the lovely master pieces but the best Faberge eggs we saw at the Armoury have not of course made their way to Houston; I'll make a separate post of Houston museum exhibits/treasures later).

Here are some pics from the official site...

  We then came to the ground floor and saw the royal carriages and the thrones and imperial ceremonial and coronation robes, gowns… again no pics… but we can kind of still see them in our mind’s eye. The carriages at Royal Mews, Buckingham Palace do pale in comparison--- but photography/ videos allowed there… anyways, it’s beside the point .. we loved the armoury—such an awesome collection. The official website: http://kreml.ru/en/museums/armoury/ has these pics

Diamond Fund:

At 12, went to the diamond fund and enjoyed the sight of all the precious stones in the 2 rooms with the help of the brochure they had given. Showcase 7 has the imperial crown, scepter and orb totally worthy of all the hype…

Here are the Patriarch crowns...

There are quite a few rubies, emeralds, diamonds originally from our home country India here as well as in the Winter palace diamond room at St Petersburg and we are familiar with the stories behind them.

We were particularly fascinated by the Orlov diamond which is in the scepter—it is the eye of our prime deity Lord Sri Rangaraja at the renowned Hindu Temple in Sri Rangam.



The story goes that a French soldier ingratiated himself to the temple authorities for 5 years before gaining access to the sanctum santorum on a rainy dark night to remove the diamonds. He could only manage to pluck out one eye before a huge peal of thunder and lightning frightened him out of the temple… the 190 carat diamond passed hands before being bought by Count Orlov who presented it to Catherine the great (Orlov had been romantically involved with the Empress Consort of Russia when she was married to Peter III . Orlov led the way in Peter’s dethronement and the elevation of Catherine to power. Catherine eventually forsook Count Orlov --Count Orlov sought to rekindle their romance by offering her the diamond. While he failed to regain her affections, Catherine did bestow many gifts upon Count Orlov; these gifts included a marble palace in St. Petersburg. Catherine also named the diamond after the Count, and had her jeweller design a sceptre incorporating the Orlov.) We were awestruck at the sight of the pupil of the eye cut out in the Orlov diamond and could imagine its glory as our God’s eye in the 17th century... . as devout Hindus it was a heart wrenching sight to see it in a scepter!

The diamond fund is a guided tour but we chose to see it on our own with the help of the pamphlet they gave us with the ticket—we lingered on a little after our group has exited –the gold, platinum nuggets and the other loose diamonds and gems and tiaras had been fabulous. In the Armoury nobody hurries you on… we had assumed time slots will be observed, but we could pretty much stay on as long as we liked. We had other agenda for the day, so left reluctantly.

No camera allowed in the Armoury and Diamond Fund.. so had to be satisfied with no record of our tour.. the mental picture of all those gold and silver pieces studded with precious gems, the Faberege eggs, the ceremonial and coronation robes, and thrones and carriages will remain fresh in our mind's eye... as also the several beautiful diamonds we saw in the diamond room..Here are some pics from the official site.

We emerged into daylight and had our picnic lunch. Looked at the time… wondered if it was prudent to rush to the Yaroslavsky station now and take a 1 ½ hour trip to Sergiev Posad. We had planned to be part of a Sunday morning crowd, it was a little intimidating to go in the afternoon without being too sure about the timings of the church… with great sadness we decided to skip it and visit the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. We could have easily walked there from the Kremlin square but took the metro to Kropotinskaya.

 It took a while to figure out where the entrance was … we went round and round trying out various doors which were locked before finally arriving at the main entrance ironically right near the metro exit.

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour (Храм Христа Спасителя; Khram Khrista Spasitela):

This lovely church had been commissioned in 1812 after the defeat of Napoleon. Designed by St. Petersburg architect Konstantin Ton, who was also responsible for the Grand Kremlin Palace and the Kremlin Armoury and whose church designs pioneered the Byzantine-revival style, the cathedral was erected on the embankment only a few minutes' walk from the Kremlin. Sadly, this entailed the destruction of the medieval Alekseevskiy Convent.

 In 1931, it was blown to pieces by Stalin to make way for a proposed Palace of Soviets—the Second World War brought an abrupt end to that project. The site became an open-air swimming pool, the largest in the world, which was kept at a temperature of 27°C all year round. The result was a thick covering of fog that shrouded a number of gruesome deaths (and murders) among the swimmers—the pool had to be closed. Orthodox Church resurrected the cathedral in a US $360-million reconstruction project. It was completed in 2000. The interior was beautiful and we loved it.. Pic from the net here...

By the time we came out it was almost 5 pm.... we were taking the Sapsan to St Petersburg at 6.45 AM the next morning and we wanted to do a recce of which platform we should take. We reached Leningradskiy Rail Terminal by taking the red line from Kropotinskaya to Komsomolskaya. After a little confusion, we managed to find out the platform where Sapsan was leaving. We were glad that we were set for the morning trip. We took the circular line metro back to our hotel and had an early night as we had to check out by 5.30 AM the next day.

Our hotel room here...

View from our room window...

PECTOPAH in Cyrrilic is read as Restoran... restaurant

Quite a bit of disappointment that we could not make it to Sergiev Posad—may be there will be another trip!!

The next post covers our ride on the superfast train Sapsan to the lovely St Petersburg and our visit to the awesome St Isaac's Cathedral:

http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2016/12/russia-trip-report-day-4-sapsan-train.html