Log in
Join travelers community
Your Profile
Logout
Russia in 1994
Russia (Moscow)
Bec2004-09-20 17:56:44
Displayed times (last time: )
Moscow
Backpacking in Russia was still expensive in 1994 as Intourist had not yet relaxed its monopoly on the tourist business. To get a visa in Montreal, I had to book, and prepay, a week in an Intourist hotel the cheapest of which was the 8000 bed Izmailovo, built for the 1980 Olympics in an eastern suburb, for 43 dollars US a night.
It was nice to see my friend Sasha again after 23 years. She guided me through a grand Moscow tour which I enjoyed thoroughly even though I had been here twice before.
Here of course is the Kremlin as seen across the Moskva river. On the left of the "Secrets Tower" is the 700 room Great Kremlin Palace built in 1848 to be the Tsar's residence and the spires of the Annunciation Cathedral. On the right of the Kremlin wall tower can be seen part of the Archangel Cathedral where many Tsars are buried and the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, both built around 1508.
Below on the left is the beautiful 1489 Annunciation Cathedral that served as the royal family's private chapel and on the right, the big 1479 Assumption Cathedral where many Patriarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church are buried.
No photo album of Moscow can be complete without St Basil's Cathedral built by Ivan the Terrible to celebrate his taking Kazan from the Tatars in 1552. This unusual view shows the backside of the Cathedral and Spasskaya Gate (Saviour Gate), that gives access to the Kremlin from Red Square.
On the other side of Red Square is the big 19th century State Department Store GUM that houses about 1000 independent shops.
This fountain in the center of GUM's several inner malls is an excellent meeting place in the center of Moscow. Today's GUM was completely different from what I had seen 23 years previously when there were long queues waiting to get into drab shops that had little to sell.
Now it was a showplace of opulence where all the world-famous name-brands
...
See photographs from:
Russia Gallery
