roadwarrier

The Zebra pelt at JNB looks far better that this......

ironmanjt

Touché! Since I'm unexpectedly heading BACK to JNB again next month, I may have to buy that pelt for my living room....

makin'miles

It seems like it might better suit a bedroom?

TPJ

Do I see plastic glasses in C?

Have they been sent to AA & UA for training

ironmanjt

Haha apparently. Funny, I didn't even notice it at the time my expectations were so low from them.

That said, the novelty of the china and service really won me over. In this globalized era we live in, it was really cool to be on an airline that really carried a local flavour with them. Plus, the fare was outrageously good!

palmjet

Great report so far. Thanks for posting. Uzbekistan don't fly to Manchester or Birmingham as far as I am aware - Heathrow is their only UK destination / usually flown with a mix of the 788 / 767. Love their logo and colour scheme!

ironmanjt

Hmmm, I could swear I read at one time that they did - and that was the rationale for the route to Amritsar, but maybe that was a long time ago.

Makes total sense then why nobody went to the lounge, because the London flight was the same 767.

ironmanjt

Landed at Domodedovo, immigration was a snap: "you are visiting a lot this year, what is the reason?" me: "our countries are great friends now." him: "why do you speak such good russian" me: "I"m sure you speak even better english my friend." ...and that was that. Foreshadowing, but amusing.....

Was originally going to grab an Uber into the city given it was already late, but just in case there was traffic, and because I think the Moscow Metro is one of the best tourist sites in the world, I decided to hop the AeroExpress train. Arrived in the station with two minutes until the next train, quickly got my ticket, and settled into a completely empty business class car. Put in the earbuds, and hit shuffle, and my iPhone spits out "Back in the U.S.S.R." The irony was absolutely delicious. I had the feeling this was going to be a great end to the trip.

Train, metro, and a 10 minute walk, and soon I was at my hotel. About five years ago, I stayed at the Sheraton on my first visit back to Moscow since the late 1980s, and had a fantastic experience. Since then, I've been staying at the St. Regis which is much better located, has an amazing breakfast, but is a but stuffy for my taste overall. This time, the Sheraton was an absolute bargain at barely 7,000 rubles, so I couldn't say no.

Upgraded to a very nice one bedroom suite with way more room than I needed, and promptly proceeded to pass out given it was like 4am in Australia, where my body clock was still set to. Woke up in the morning, grabbed a quick bite in the executive lounge (where I was the only person there - guess there's not much business travel in August) and headed out for a walk. I wasn't sure where I was going, but decided to just head out and wander. Rain was in the forecast, so we'll see how far I get.

Down Tverskaya Ul. towards Red Square, statue of Mayakovsky in front of the Tchakovsky Concert Hall:



It was cool out for mid-August (barely 10 degrees) but still lots of people out enjoying the swings in front of the concert hall:



Kept walking and walking, and soon I was at Red Square. I think. I've never seen Red Square like this before. Set up for a giant military tattoo, the whole square was full of booths selling things, and parade stands for the night's show. I debated getting tickets, and it would have probably been a fascinating show, but I just wasn't in the mood for what was being billed as a four hour extravaganza.

So, amid the thousands of tourists (mainly Chinese) I went into GUM. I've seriously never seen so many tourists in Moscow before. Is this an August thing, or a 2017 thing?

Clearly, someone in GUM was smoking some good stuff, because they had filled one of the fountains with melons as an art display. Uhhhh....sure? I like to think I have a pretty good window into the Russian national psyche, but this was beyond even my understanding...as is most modern art, to be fair.



Best part of GUM: the obligatory 50 ruble pistachio ice cream cone! Enjoyed outside, where it had gotten quite a bit warmer, in front of the Kazan Cathedral.



Walking off the jetlag was feeling great, so I kept going, until I got to Lubyanka. Lots of people were taking pics of this car, so I had to too. Felix would be rolling over in his grave at this ostentatious display of capitalism.



Felix is watching...



Meanwhile, the local Mexican restaurant across the street was trying to win over customers...this isn't your grandfather's Lubyanka anymore!



Right about this point I was tired...so I grabbed a Starbucks. As I exited, the skies began to get super dark and it was only about 2:30, so I decided to google "what to do in Moscow on a rainy day." Remember how I mentioned above that I love the metro? Well, one of the first things that came up was a self-guided walking tour of the metro. Sold!

I'm going to do this up front and plug Moscow360's self-guided metro tour. Go to their site. Click on the ads. I've been to Moscow dozens of times now, and this is seriously some of the best tourist advice I've gotten. Lots of history about the stations and the country, and a great introduction to the city. You must see it! No, I'm not affiliated with them at all, but they put out a damn fine tour!

So, since you can read all about it on their site, just the highlights.

Ploschad Revolutsii Station. Note the hammer and sickle, the years 1917 and 1947. This was the starting station of the tour...yes, this is the ticket hall. Imagine that in DC or New York!



What makes this station notable is the 76 bronze statues, in four sets of 19, of various professions of the "new Soviet Man." If you know anything about Russians, they are super superstitious. All sorts of things, like having to touch certain objects they pass every day for good luck. We'll come back to that in a second.

An athlete:



A student of some sort:



This guy? Well you might notice the bronze on his leg is a big rubbed off. It's obviously been polished more evenly lately, but in the past supposedly his...well-endowed statue used to be noticeably touched over and over in the same place. I'll let you guys why people were touching him, but given superstition, chances are it had something to do with either fertility or....bringing the magic back.



Moving onto Kurskaya Station, which was one of the first place there were designated capitalist busking stations set up. This band "C-Jam" was's pretty unusual, but not bad!



Leaving Kurskaya station, the words to the Soviet National Anthem were inscribed in the rotunda. However, a while back under Comrade Kruschev, there was a verse erased from the anthem because...it mentioned Stalin. That meant it got erased from this rotunda as well...until Mr. Putin put it back a couple years ago. Basically translates to Stalin raising up the great deeds of the motherland.



Large sword on the wall of Kurskaya Station:



Wow, this hall in Kurskaya Station looks like it needs a statue...



Oh, look what used to be there. Another example of de-Stalinization.



Next up: Komsomolskaya Station. Look at the ornate ceilings - this could be a museum!



Comrade Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle and the end of the station:



Lenin mosaic on the ceiling....however, this didn't used to be Lenin...it featured Stalin 50 years ago as well.



Super Soviet athletic..."woman." Look at those biceps! Notice anyone missing from the reviewing stands of the Kremlin? Yup, Stalin used to be looking down on her...



Trampling out Nazis...



One more shot of Komsomolskaya, seriously, it felt more like a museum than a metro station.



Next station: Novoslobodskaya. I remember back on my first visit to Moscow in high school in the late 1980s, my classmates and I used to love riding the metro and imitating the announcer's voice. "Be careful! Doors closing! Next station...." it used to always draw grins from Muscovites, one of those rare moments of sunshine in Soviet times.

Novoslobodskaya was one of the last stations finished under Stalin, and oddly enough, looks the most like a church with all the stained glass. Ironic as Stalin destroyed 2/3 of the churches in Russia at the time....



Mother, son, and the.....holy doves?



...oh, wait, this was the original stained glass. Stalin-approved. Supposedly, the lady was supposed to originally have three kids as well, but they were running behind schedule. Fearing Stalin would show up any minute and it would be unfinished, they rushed it to completion with one kid. Plus, what ideal hard-working Soviet woman would have all that time to be making three babies?



Next up is Byelorusskaya Station (Belarus Station.) Look at those hard-working soviet belarussian women!



Monument to Byelorussian partisans who fended of the Nazis in World War II:



Final station on the tour was Mayakovskaya. This station was somewhat lighter and a bit airy feeling, with great artwork on the ceiling:



Paratrooper:



Despite being light and airy, it again felt like a museum:



Exit elevators in Mayakovskaya Station. This is one of the deepest stations in the system, Stalin used to deliver New Years addresses to the people from here in World War Two. Also, note the huge steel blast doors designed to seal off the station in case of bombardment. The metro stations often served as bomb shelters during the war, and can still serve that function:



After heading back to the hotel, grabbing a light dinner, I headed off to my favourite craft beer bar in Moscow for some great drinks. I've posted about it here before so won't go into too much detail, but Rule Taproom is a great place...as long as you don't mind feeling slightly old. The selection of tap handles alone is fantastic:



With that, it was time to get some sleep before getting up and catching the train onwards to Leningrad...I mean St. Petersburg! Does it count as a new city if you haven't been there since it changed names?

Vaterland

My 93 year old mother still refers to the city of her birth as Petrograd.

This was such a wonderfully enjoyable post, certainly one of my favorites on FT.

ironmanjt

Wow - Petrograd. That was a relatively short window of time indeed!

Glad you enjoyed....hope I can do Petrograd justice in the upcoming posts. (PS, saw you're in KSA from DC - next time you're in DC drinks are on me)

ironmanjt

Nice relaxing morning before I had to head to the train station to catch the train. I had left myself plenty of time, so was able to have some breakfast, grab some coffee, and go for a bit of a walk before heading to the train station.

It was a gorgeous sunny morning, so decided to walk the 10 minutes or so to Byelorusskaya Station to catch the metro to the train station where the trains to St. Petersburg leave from. Caught the metro to Komsomolskaya and when I came out of the station I was on what is known in Moscow as "three stations square" because there are three long-distance train stations here: Leningradsky, Kazansky, and Yaroslavsky. Not surprisingly, the train to St. Petersburg goes from Leningradsky Vokzal, and I had no trouble locating it.

I had more trouble resisting shopping at the Red Army Hockey store in the station, but somehow managed...



I had read there was a lounge in the train station, but had a bit of trouble locating it. When I did, it was confusing because it looked like it was also a coffeeshop. I asked the agent sitting in the front and she confirmed yes, half is a coffeeshop and the other half is the lounge....and can I bring you some coffee or tea?



Right on time, my train was ready to board. It was one of THREE trains to St. Petersburg in an hour, and they were all the SAPSAN high speed train. Forget priority boarding here, though, after getting your bags scanned by security it was a mad dash to the train:



First class was all the way in the front, which gave me a great excuse to grab a picture of the front of the train:



Extremely spacious seating in a 1-2 configuration:



The pair of seats on the other side would be great for people traveling together - and the RZD Russian Railways website is great about letting you pick your seats in advance, and the diagrams are completely accurate.



There were also a couple of sets of four seats facing each other:



Pre-departure champagne was offered, and I didn't have to be asked twice!



Wow, not only was there a choice of meals, but a printed menu! Sorry for the slightly blurry pics.





I went with option two, and got the "roastbeef rolls" to start followed by the rolled porn with bacon and potato croquettes. Overall, it was reasonably tasty, and much better than I would have expected on a train! Only wanted one glass of wine, so unfortunately can't report back if it was all you can drink or not.



First stop for the train was in Tver, where we were treated to the golden domes of an Orthodox Church while we waited less than 10 minutes for joining passengers.



Double cappuccino cake and black tea for dessert. The crew spoke extremely basic english, which was barely enough to keep the several Chinese tourists in first class happy. Unfortunately, the tourists spoke even less English so it was a bit of a struggle for them the whole trip.



Overall, the trip was super comfortable and I would definitely book the SAPSAN again versus flying between the cities. Internet access the entire time, power outlets, a ton of space, and maybe (at most) an hour longer once you take into account the need to arrive to the airport early for security, etc. Definitely a very positive experience!

Upon leaving the station I decided to see if my good luck with Uber would continue, and yup, absolutely no problems whatsoever. Soon, I was checking into my hotel - the W St. Petersburg. Not too much to say about the hotel. The staff all spoke excellent English and were warm and friendly, although the hotel was not able to offer any room upgrade at all despite status. When I arrived my room was initially a bit warm, but it cooled down pretty quickly after the sun set.

Quick shower, and out to enjoy the last 90 minutes or so of daylight. Statue of Peter the Great along the Neva River:



St. Isaac's Cathedral, as seen through Alexandrovsky Park:



The Hermitage Museum and the Alexander Column...looks a little different than when I saw it in 1988 in the dead of winter during the Soviet days. The first time I left North America really was in 1988, and after a few days in London it was straight on to Leningrad. I guess my love for traveling to out of the way/unusual (at the time) places was born way back then. Returning felt like coming full circle a bit.



The Arkha Glavnova Gate:



Panoramic of the square, with the Winter Palace on the left:



The Winter Palace was gorgeous in its shades of blueish green and gold. I'll have to see if I can find my old hard copy photos to compare it to - I can't imagine it was always this majestic.



By this point, the sun was setting, so I headed to the W's rooftop bar to watch the sunset...and freeze. It was only 8 degrees at this point (yes, in August)_ but the view was worth it:



St. Isaac's Cathedral again. Did I mention the W is in an absolutely fantastic location?



After the sunset, I googled some ideas for dinner, and ended up finding a great brewpub just down the street. The Craft Brew Cafe was certainly nothing fancy, but it had a great selection of local craft beers on tap, and actually made a reasonably good burger for dinner as well.

Short walk back, something about the streetlights in Russia feels distinct to me....so a selfie was warranted.



Early to bed, because I had planned a very, very long day of walking for the next day!

ironmanjt

Another great night of sleep, and despite being go go go on this vacation, one thing I was managing to do pretty well was catch up on sleep. Now, that might be due to the tremendous amount of walking I was doing in general, but either way, it was actually feeling like a vacation!

My rate at the W included breakfast, so made a point to partake in that before heading out. I would rate it pretty middle of the road as far as hotel breakfast go, but there were plenty of choices including eggs and porridge cooked to order, so it was more than enough to get a start on the day.

After fueling up, it was time for a walk! I had highlighted some of the sights I wanted to try and see, so the plan was to head out and see how much I could do before I got absolutely exhausted from walking. First stop near the hotel was the Fountain of the Admiralty:



Plan was to head over to Nevsky Prospekt and head east-southeast before heading back north and eventually crossing the Neva River. First major site was the Stroganov Palace, and yes, that's the family that beef stroganoff was named for. Since I only had one full day I opted to walk around and see as many sites as I could from the outside, without spending the time in line for tickets and exploring the inside. Stroganov Palace:



a little further down Nevsky Prospekt was the Kazan Cathedral:



Statue of Field Marshall Prince Kutuzov of Smolensk:



At this point, the grey weather and walking was catching up with me, so I stopped at Starbucks for a large iced coffee and a sandwich. After resting up a bit, I continued the walk. Crossed Nevsky Prospekt, and passed the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood:



Very impressive up close, and swarming with tourists:



Best part about tourists? All sorts of souvenir stands. I was pretty disappointed they only had this shirt left in a small size, because I totally wanted to buy it:



I did, however, managed to find a whole bunch of awesome magnets:



From this point, back to Nevsky Prospekt to catch the metro up to Finlandsky Station and continue my walk on the north side of the Neva River.



Finlandsky Vokzal, you can see how dark and heavy the clouds got, but it never did rain.



Two reasons for coming to Finlandsky Vokzal. First was to see where it was so I knew where to go for my train the next day, and second reason was the giant statue of Lenin. Looks especially ominous against the clouds:



The fountains in front of the train station made a nice contrast. I love this shot with the bright reddish-orange brick, the dark greyish-blue sky, and the contrast of the bright coats the pedestrians are wearing.



Finally figured out where/how to cross the tributary of the river, and a great view of the Nakhimov Naval Academy with the cruiser Aurora docked in front:



Another shot downriver with the Aurora:



The Aurora was closed to tours today, but that didn't stop the large groups of Asian tourists from milling about and taking pictures:



Close-up of the Aurora:



Bit more of a walk, and the Peter and Paul Fortress:



Kept walking...and walking...and eventually passed the Yubilyeni Sports Palace. Wait, is that an ad for a pre-season hockey game...tonight? Even better, a bit of googling, and it appeared absolutely free. Registeted on the website, and very quickly my free tickets were e-mailed to me! Score. I had planned on a relaxing evening after over 10 miles of walking during the day, but how could I pass that up!



Given the game was less than two hours away, I cut my walk a little short and took the metro back to the hotel to change clothes and rest up a little bit. Only had about 30 minutes to rest before I had to catch the metro right back to the arena for the game. It was open seating, and appeared 25% full at most:



Let's get a little closer to the ice...now these are great seats!



Cheerleaders and dragon mascots:



Old Soviet National team memorabilia on display:





It was nearly 9pm at this point, so I opted to skip the third period and head out to get some food and drink before it got too late. On a recommendation from a friend, I headed to Craft Pub to have a bite. Keeping in the theme of the day, a delicious beef stroganoff and a few great beers to wash it down:



Unusual decor in the restaurant...what would the Singapore First Class lounge think of this?!



One final local imperial stout to close out the evening:



With that, more than 10 miles walked and a hockey game, I think I made a pretty amazing dent in seeing St. Petersburg given the extremely limited time I had there. Now, it was time to get to bed so I could enjoy my train ride the next day...and my final stop: Helsinki.

Vaterland

Sir, your beautiful photos of Petersburg have stirred some wonderful memories! I would love traveling to Petersburg during the harshness of winter. That's when it is truly glittering and vibrant. I would love throwing back a few shots of vodka at the glorious Astoria bar, getting all bundled up and plunging myself into the icy night air for a good, long wander. Just magical! There is no city better suited for long winter walks.

rosensfole

Absolutely loving this report, not least because of your walks. So much more to see when walking around which is how I prefer to see a city much to the chagrin of my partner - "look, there's a taxi/station/bus!", whereas I'm happy to do a 20km hike in a day.

Calchas

I'm enjoying this ^