Our cruise reviews - A ship review of the Oosterdam

Cruise reviews of our vacation on the Oosterdam - Moscow Russia

Oosterdam Cruise - Day 8 - Moscow Russia

The trip to Moscow is one we've been looking forward to for the entire cruise. Imagine growing up during the cold war, never imagining you would ever be allowed to or even want to visit the Kremlin, Red Square, or Moscow!

Our adventure starts early in the morning as we depart on tour busses for an airport where we will take a one hour flight to Moscow.

Flying on the Russian airliner was an experience in itself. Imagine taking off and landing while people are waiting in line for the restroom! It didn't seem to mater who was doing what for landings and take offs. Once the plane touched down, people immediately got up and started getting their bags and moving toward the exits while the plane taxied to the terminal. Very odd.

Following our interesting flight from St. Petersburg, we boarded busses for our day long bus tour. Russia is celebrating the 300th anniversary of the reign of Peter the Great and they have spent millions cleaning up both Moscow and St. Petersburg. The tour guide told us that the city has never looked better .. at least in her lifetime.

Our first stop was the New Maiden or Novodevichy convent where rich and powerful Russian men (including Peter the Great) would have their wives committed for life so they could marry new ones. The architecture was stunning with gold domes and ornate bell towers.

The graveyard that is part of the grounds was really interesting. All of the headstones were statues or busts of the occupant of the grave. We saw Khrushchev's grave, the designer of the airliner that we flew in earlier that day and an especially lovely tribute to Mrs. Gorbachav.

From the convent we drove to Sparrow Hill at the University of Moscow for a panoramic view of Moscow. It was really an incredible sight.

We had lunch at the Pushkin Cafe and it was quite elegant and very tasty. Then if was off for a boat tour of the city. A canal completely circles the old city and it was fantastic to view the Kremlin, St. Basil's, Gorky Park and the Cathedral of the Christ Savior from the waterways.

We capped the tour off with a visit to Red Square... which was closed !!! The next day President Putin was to speak there for the Day of the City festival and they were putting up the grandstands. But we did have some time to wander around and we saw the changing of the guard at the memorial to the fallen soldier commemorating victory over the Nazis as well as a McDonalds at the Kremlin .. things have really changed in the last few years!!!

Due to the large number of photos, I've put more pictures on the next page.

St. Petersburg's airport.
Inside the airport.
A VERY long people mover. This is about halfway, this picture is looking forward, and the next picture is looking back.

Really quite impressive how long this was.
Our airplane. Note no jet ways.
That's us .. group 9 !!

Interior of airplane.
Our buses .. we had police escorts from the airports to help with the traffic problems.
Off we all go.

Countryside on the way to the city.
Bill is obsessed with anything electrical in nature.
Apartments were everywhere.

A monument to the second world war. One of the places where the German army was stopped.
More apartments.
Look at the traffic in the background.

Decoration for the Day of the City festival.
City street.
Novodevichy Convent.

Novodevichy Convent - the cathedral.
Inside the Cathedral at Novodevichy - 16th century murals.

More of the Cathedral.
A ballerina's grave.
Khrushchev's grave. The artist who created this monument had been sent to a mental hospital by Kruschev...

More graves.
A Clown's grave.
A ski jump from the last Olympics held there.

Indoor soccer field - huge and the view from Sparrow Hill.
A bride was having pictures taken at sparrow hill.
Here comes the bride !!

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