Oh man…I wish I had a pedometer on this trip! Joe is still in contact with a friend from language training who was born and raised in Moscow. He was our personal tour guide, showed us everything we wanted to see, a few things we didn’t, and everything in between. The three of us walked our tails off!!

St. Basil’s Cathedral and Red Square are obviously the icons of Moscow, so there are plenty of pictures of them here, as well as a few other gems! We took over 700 pictures during our 3.5 days in Moscow, so this is nowhere near a comprehensive display of the capitol of the largest country in the world!

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour – This is the tallest Orthodox Christian church in the world and it seems to always be visible, no matter where you are in Moscow. It has quite a history. In 1882 Tchaikovsky premiered the 1812 Overture here, the church was destroyed in 1931 and turned into the world’s largest open air swimming pool, and then it was finally rebuilt/reopened in 2000.

Fallen Monument Park – This is a really interesting park, which belongs to a museum, but is open to the public for free. The park contains sculptures that were removed from their original locations and probably doomed to a sad fate. There is everything from 16^th century lions to Josef Stalin.

One corner of the park with the controversial Peter the Great monument and Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in the background.

Ancient sculptures and the ever-present hammer and sickle.

Damaged Stalin

The Kremlin & Red Square – The Kremlin is striking, whether from the outside or inside the walls. Sadly, the Bell Tower was closed for renovations, but we still got to see the amazing Armoury, many of the cathedrals, and even the paraffin-covered Lenin himself.

Red Square

St. Basil’s Cathedral through the State Historical Museum Gate.

The Armoury, Savior’s Tower, and Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

Rooftop behind the Church of the Deposition of the Robe

The Kremlin is still an active military installation.

Savior Tower at sunset

Archangel Cathedral, Tsar Bell, and Ivan the Great Bell Tower

St. Basil’s Cathedral – Moscow’s icon! This building is gorgeous from the outside, but surprisingly dark and cramped on the inside. There is no main hall, but several individual cathedrals on the second floor that can’t hold more than a dozen people. They are elaborately decorated, but nothing like the inside of the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg.

Ok…I have to go recover now. I seem to have misplaced my feet.

We made it! After a successful visa process, several months of fretting over the Crimea crisis, an 18-hour overnight train from the Arctic Circle, and a half a dozen document checks…we were in Russia!! It was pretty surreal for us!

Here are just a few of our favorite stops.

St. Isaac’s Cathedral – This was actually my favorite cathedral in St. Petersburg. The outside doesn’t look too impressive, but the inside is absolutely gorgeous and the views from the top of the cupola were worth the easy climb. Special ships and a railway had to be built to transport the granite from Finland to make the huge pillars, which still hold scars from WWII. Our hotel was really close to St. Isaac’s so we got to know it really well. We saw it from every angle, during the day, at night, in sunshine, in the rain. When I reflect on our time in St. Petersburg, St. Isaac’s is what I see.

St. Isaac’s Cathedral

Inside St. Isaac’s

St. Peter’s Lutheran Church – This was also a fun church because during the time of communism (official religion: atheism) it was used as a swimming pool. It has since been converted back into a place of worship, but still retains a very aquatic look. There was actually German written everywhere and is more commonly called the German Church, as most of the members are German speakers.

St. Peter’s Church

Inside St. Peter’s

St. Peter’s as a swimming pool.

Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood – Based on St. Basil’s in Moscow, this church is where Alexander II was assassinated in 1881 and is dedicated to him (hence the icky name!). The interior is completely covered in mosaics…over 7,000 m²! During communism, this church was used as a storage space for stage settings from the Maly Opera Theatre.

Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood

Inside the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood

Inside the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood

The Hermitage – Can’t forget the Hermitage. It is actually the second largest museum in the world…behind the Louvre.

Palace Square and the Alexander Column from inside the Hermitage.

Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad – The Siege of Leningrad lasted from January 18, 1943 to January 27, 1944 and was the deadliest siege in history. Honestly, I knew very little about these 872 days, being American and living in Germany. A bit of conflict of interest there! However, the bottom line is that when innocent people die in atrocious ways on account of war, it doesn’t matter whose “side” they are on.

The city of Leningrad (now named St. Petersburg) was encircled by the Germans for more than 2 years and completely cut off from supplies. Citizens of Leningrad sustained themselves on bread made of sawdust and cannibalism actually became a problem. The defenders of Leningrad actually managed to push back the German forces, but at the horrible cost of over a million lives.

The memorial includes a 48m obelisk, a 40m ring symbolizing the city’s encirclement, a dozen statues, an “eternal flame” and a museum. It is also a traffic circle! Here is an aerial picture from the St. Petersburg website, which shows how large the monument is…something I couldn’t capture myself. We visited as the sun went down, and were totally alone, which made this dramatic memorial even more somber.

We also got to visit with the scholar who was preparing his move to St. Petersburg, and sample some local food and drink (horseradish vodka and salmon caviar blinis)! 2.5 days were definitely not enough in St. Petersburg. We walked our tails off and saw a ton of stuff, but there was so much more we would have gladly done! Maybe next time.

Next stop: Moscow!