On Top of the World:
The 2008 North Pole And Solar Eclipse Voyage
on the Nuclear Icebreaker I/B “Yamal”
The 2008 North Pole And Solar Eclipse Voyage
on the Nuclear Icebreaker I/B “Yamal”
Moscow
Phil and I flew into Moscow where we were scheduled to stay at the 5* hotel Baltschug Kempinski for one night before leaving for Murmansk the next day. This gave us the opportunity to explore Red Square as we were very close, indeed I’ve seen several TV news reports given from what I suspect must be the same hotel! That afternoon we had time to wander around the city centre exploring so we saw Red Square itself (it’s not red!), St Basil's Cathedral, the Kremlin and much more so the slide show on this page shows a selection of the places we photographed.
The Intercession Cathedral, St Basil’s is one of the most ornate buildings I have ever seen and certainly an eye catcher! The outside is stunning with it’s ‘onion’ like towers and bright colours. Phil and I managed to go in on our return after the voyage but I personally felt the outside architecture was the most appealing. Red Square is huge whilst the red walls shown on the images mark the outer boundary of the Kremlin with their impressive towers and acts like the outer walls of a fortified city - which of course protects the actual Kremlin buildings inside. On our long walk (Phil must have been a Drill Sgt in a former life as he can walk miles!) we also saw the other side which shows the genuine Kremlin buildings inside the main boundary walls. Some of the towers had gold stars on them which were lit up at night. There are many statues and it struck me that the centre of Moscow is certainly one of the most ornate and beautiful of the few cities I have visited so far in my limited travels. Later that evening Phil and I took a similar stroll to see the night lights and the vista was even more stunning - despite the tremendous amount of light used which as an astronomer was somewhat appalling! Despite the light I surprised Phil by managing to spot Jupiter low down lying between St Basils and the Kremlin walls so I managed to do some astronomy! After what was an amazing first day and night we finally got back to the hotel so that we could get our rest ready for the next day’s travelling up to Murmansk.