April 28, 2013

Today I was more adventurous with breakfast and tried the pickled herring that sort of looked like a purple piece of cake, the marinated salmon, broiled tomatoes with cheese, and had granola with kefir. Coffee today was brewed, not out of the Nescafe machine that was out yesterday and much appreciated.

Into the piece at 9:15 AM and off to the Tretyakov Gallery, a very large museum filled with art from Russian artists only. Tatiana presented an excellent tour, discussing many pictures along the way. I am not sure I had ever heard of any of the artists, but I took lots of pictures. Before coming on the trip I had managed to read a historical fiction novel published last year, "The Winter Palace" by Eva Stolchniak which is about Catherine the Great from the time she was brought to Russia by the Empress Elizabeth until the time she became empress. It rounded out the experience to see paintings of both Catherine and Elizabeth made during their lifetimes.

We ended with Russian icon art (an icon being any picture with a saint or holy person in it.) I found the archangel Michael in a few so took photos of those to show my son his "namesake." We spent about three hours there and then regrouped at the bus which was parked on the island in Moscow bordered by the river on one side and a canal on the other. The bridge to the mainland was decorated with "evergreen" trees made out of metal, so as not to die. Along the sidewalk next to where the buses parked, was an interesting row of trees, all made out of metal locks. I had a few minutes before we boarded and walked in the park on the island and found a wonderful sculpture valuing children and showing so many ways that children are victimized. Near where the buses park, there is a large sculpture of Alexander Pushkin, very much revered in Russia.

Plans for the afternoon kept fluctuating with the final plan being to go to Old Arbat Street for lunch. I was unhappy about this because this was not on the tour itinerary and I had spent a lot of time getting there on my free day in Moscow. Had I known the time would have been better spent elsewhere. (It is the Moscow pedestrian street with all those American places like McDonald's etc. ) However, making the best of it, I decided to try a blini (sort of like a Russian crepe) for lunch. There was this Russian blini restaurant which I think is to Russian blinis what McDonalds is to American hamburgers, but I didn't quite realize this until afterwards. I tried looking at the picture of the food and trying to either sound out or look up the words in my phrase book to select a dish. I finally settled on Blini Italiano, figuring I couldn't go wrong with that. It was filled with some ham, tomato, cheese and tomato sauce that tasted like it came straight out of a ketchup bottle. (and then a touch of grease on the outside). Another couple from the tour was also there so we ate together and I shared my blini. I had not really spoken with these folks from West Virginia. He is a retired MD/Ph.D., cardiologist, who was a research faculty member at the Univ. of West Virginia studying hypertension. He has been retired for 20 years, does nothing with medicine, likes to travel and build model airplanes. What a life! They had stopped at the Hard Rock Café to buy a T shirt for their son who collects them from around the world and has about 20 that they have gotten for him.

Out next plan was to take the drive to the university with a good view of Moscow from atop a hill, but we didn't have enough time. The view probably wouldn't have been so good as it was overcast and raining lightly. So back to the hotel around 3:30. I walked about to the Museum of Contemporary Russian History about 5-10 minutes away and spent an hour there. It was quite interesting dealing with the rise of Communism in the USSR and through WWII. Each room had an information sheet in English, but otherwise everything was in Russian. Lots of pictures, political posters, pieces of correspondence, etc. I just finished the museum and ran out of time and never got to the gift store which is supposed to have a very large supply of political posters for sale. Reportedly this museum has the most political posters of any in the world. The museum is housed in a building formerly known as The English Club.

I walked back to the hotel paying more attention to the nice upscale stores along the way. Across the street is the Marriott Grand and the Intercontinental Hotel. Some of the stores I passed were a bakery, Paul's, with a beautiful display of breads in the window, the Siberian perfume company that makes herbal and natural perfumes, and Timberland Shoes.

Dinner departure time was at 5:00. This restaurant was another specializing in tour group food. We started with a green salad with some raw vegetables. In the middle of the table were two bottles, one clearly was oil and the other was brownish, so we all thought vinegar. (wrong) - so oil and soy sauce on a salad makes it interesting. After everyone in the group had finished the salad, they brought what appeared to be "Russian" dressing to each table, just a little late. Main course - chicken Kiev and rice, dessert was vanilla ice cream

From there we went to a wonderful concert by an a cappella group. Half the songs were Russian religious songs and half were folk songs. The concert was in the private gallery of the contemporary Russian artist Ilya Glazunov so an added plus was seeing so many of his paintings. What an eclectic collection!

Back to hotel, quick check of the e-mail and then a one hour phone call with Visa and the bank in response to an e-mail request to call - Long story very short. The ATM card is not being sent to Russia. Won't belabor my response and frustration. Good news - have had three sets of pictures sent so far to let me know Sophie and Emma are doing well.