Out and about in Moscow

These were taken out and around Moscow, the first few pictures where taken when I was out on a bike ride along the rive.

 These next pictures were taken on a walk Jolene and I took in the Southern part of the city.  First up: Tzar Alexei's Palace.  This is a 700,000,000 Ruble (approx $2.2 million) reconstruction of what was once called the 8th wonder of the world.  I have pictures of the inside on the online Picasa album.

Below is John the Baptist Church at Dyakovo and the surrounding grounds.  This church was built in the mid 16th century, commissioned by Ivan the Terrible

Click on the picture... how many crosses do you see?

... and around the corner, down the path, then down a few stairs...

And then up a similar stairway...

To the Ascension Church, built in 1532 to mark the birth of Tzar Vasily III son, Ivan.  Better known as Ivan the Terrible

 You can't see it here but there is a throne on the balcony that allows for a view of the river and the country side.

Not far away is the blue-domed Church of Our Lady of Kazan

and a short jaunt through the woods will take you to Peter the Great's log cabin.

I should have offered to buy that painting right then...

Oh well maybe some other time...

Spring Is Here

Okay it's official Spring is here and we are really enjoying it.  Jolene and I took a walk down through Gorky Park and here are some pics from there...

This is one of the entrances to Gorky Park

Fountains

There were several places with hammocks or swings that people just kicked back and relaxed.

The Russian Shuttle that never went to space

Okay this is one of my favorites.  To the left is the a bridge, and the blue sign on the side of the building is the street sign.... Lot of good it does there.  This is how most of the street names are posted in Moscow.  You have to look very closely at the buildings.

So after Gorky park, we walked across the street to the left, actually we walked under the street in one of the переход, pronounced "perihoot"  (literal translation is "transition").  These are crosswalks, tunnels or bridges over roads.  They are also the transfer points at train and metro stations.  Anyway, this particular переход, was lined with art for sale.  Some good some bad, and some really good, guess there was some really bad stuff to, but hey it's art so it's probably good to someone right?

So on the other side of the street we wound up in a sculpture garden/area.  Lots of cool art here too...

There are many more pictures out on our online photo gallery click on the St Basil's Cathedral Picture on the top right of the blog.

So continuing on our walk around the city, we came on this big ship like statue thing... best way to describe it is to post the pic...

And finally after that we made our way to Christ the Savior Cathedral.  Unfortunately we are not allowed to take pictures in churches here.  I think I need to order a little spy cam pen or something so we can show everyone the beautiful art and architecture.  But here's the outside.

and the side garden.

Well that concludes our little tour this time around.  Good Night.

Out for a Walk

Recently Jolene and I took a stroll through the woods near our house.  In these woods there are a few, for lack of a better word, springs.  All hours of the day there are people walking to the springs to fill their empty water jugs, and tow them away on their little carts.  It was a nice walk along a stream part of the way, and at the apex of the trip we strolled along a few little lakes.  We fed the ducks and watched the little finches eat from homemade bird feeders that were hung throughout the woods.  This is the same area I usually go to ski.  The trails are kept up nicely and there are street lights on the main walking paths.  Here are the pics from our little excursion.

Cross Country Skiing

So with the winter upon us and hopefully on the downward side, I've taken up cross country skiing.  It was a little rough at first.  It's amazing how hard the ground is even covered with snow.  But with a few trips out I can usually manage to stay upright.  Once I figured out the correct way to ski, (thanks youtube.com) it is quite enjoyable.  I can cover a lot of ground, take in the scenery and still get a decent workout.  I must say after the first couple times out, I had muscles hurting that hadn't been sore since I was in the Army.

Well this most recent trip out I thought I would go ski the canal.  There are paths along the side and well the canal is frozen about 6" down with another 6 inches of snow on top.  Plenty solid for skiing or sledding or ice fishing as you can see in these pictures.

Here is the canal not frozen

River Cruise

So recently Jolene and I went of a river cruise on the Moscow River.  Yes it is the middle of winter so yep we were on an ice breaker ship.  It was pretty cool, no pun intend.. okay well maybe it was.  Anyway we had a good time.

This was the type of boat we were on.

The cruise was about two hours long, substantially shorter than the summer cruises, but breaking ice takes a bit more time so the trip isn't as far as the others.  As the boats break the ice, the water starts to freeze again and a low fog also forms above the river.  The effect is pretty cool.

The beer selection was not all that great so I went with a local Russian beer.  Kinda reminded me of Budweiser.  Oh well I was there for the experience, not the beer.  The experience was pretty cool  We plan on taking the cruise again at night when it's warmer.  Looking forward to getting some pictures of the city then.

Is it me or is she looking more Russian?

As we approached Gorky Park, we turned around and headed back.  You can see how thick the fog had gotten.  If you look close you can see the Russian Buran (shuttle).  This is in Gorky Park.  I still need to make it there, but we're going to wait till it gets warmer and nicer out.

We actually went with a group of other first or second tour diplomats, some from other embassies.

And as the cruise headed back you can see the sun trying to peak through the heavy cloud cover.  Just another winter wonderland weekend in Moscow.