Moscow and Sergiev Posad

On the third of a five day visit to Moscow we went on an excursion to Sergiev Posad, a wonderful city in the Golden Ring. We spent the evening back in Moscow.

This article is no. 3/11 in a series from a journey in 2011 on the Trans-Siberian Railway through Russia, Mongolia and China. The text is a transcript of my diary at the time.

Introduction

We arrived in Moscow on a Friday afternoon and had tickets on the Trans-Siberian from Wednesday the following week. This meant that I and my four friends had 5 x 24 hrs to spend in Moscow. The last day would be together with a guide and a larger group. This group would be on the train together with us. 

I will tell my story from Moscow in three articles, in a chronological sequence. It is after all based on a diary. This article is the second from Moscow and covers Sunday. We spent most of the day on a excursion to the city of Sergiev Posad, one of several historical cities on the Golden Ring around Moscow.

Sunday 22.5, Moscow and Sergiev Posad

Another nice breakfast before the guide Nina picked us up with her driver. We call him Leonid this time too, although strictly speaking, he is another.

Changing times in Mother Russia

Nina was a whirlwind of a woman in her best late forties or fifties. Grown up in socialist times and very proud of it and her Russian heritage. She speaks broken English after all those years as Intourist guide, but clearly better than Maria we had day one.

Nina recalled with nostalgia the good times, especially in the seventies when everyone had jobs, apartment, schooling and a pension to live with. Moreover, the Soviet Union was a superpower, even in outer space where they had advanced plans and almost were ready to implement space missions all the way to Mars and of course even further to Venus.

Then came the deluge. It was named Gorbachev. The happy family in the USSR was dissolved and Russians vehemently discriminated against in particular in the Baltic States and in Georgia. Fortunately, they had sensible friends left in some republics such as Kazakhstan. But otherwise the social glue within Russia unravelled.

All that and more, Nina told us in the mini bus on the way out to the town which is the second most important in Russian Orthodox Christianity. She is not one-sided in her social and historical narrative. Nina says that people were working, but that production was not something they cared about, or questioning.

Two hours with guide Nina’s reflections passed quickly as we roared ahead northwards on the motorway.

The short history of Sergiev Posad

A walk in Sergiev Posad

We walked from building to building accompanied by Nina and a priest, a student, and had a wonderful experience in equally wonderful sunshine.

Nina was very much on us to buy souvenirs from the many merchants outside the walls, but we are not of the kind. Our photographs are our memories. I guess Nina’s social disposition made her more intense than usual, putting up such a pushing effort.

The lunch restaurant was a place out of the ordinary world. A lovely old large building painted brightly red, was apparently used by pilgrims. But Nina had been there before and knew how to press the right buttons.

We were served authentic Russian multi-course lunch with authentic Russian food. A small, fresh salad and bread started the meal. Appetizers were followed by a soup, which for the others in my company was a beetroot (Borscht) soup while I chose a beef and vegetable soup. The main course was a big meatball and pan fried potatoes with nothing else. Period. The drink was red juice, which most resembled sauce.

Everything seemed genuine, sturdy and tasty Russian. Modest main course without garnish turns out to be the rule here, we will learn later in the trip. But the experience was as great as it was cheap: 140 roubles or 11 USD kroner for four dishes.

Pictures and a video

A visit to the centre of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Back in Moscow: Space Museum and Arbat

On the trip back all but one fell asleep, and this gave us time to swing by the Space Museum. The monument outside is a magnificent sight in itself. It is a rocket that flies in the steep curve up in the air with a tail of smoke behind it. High and sky busting.

The museum was very good and Nina was intensely proud. So strange that nothing is signposted in English even though this is something of the most outstanding the Russians have got to show the outside world!

Fully satisfied with the day, we returned to the hotel and discussed after a good shower if we should find a dinner place near the hotel, or go to the city. My suggestion was Arbat and my friends accepted. New and Old Arbat are the city’s most famous streets. We took the metro to the Old and walked the pedestrian street to the end. As anticipated, the street was crowded with people musing at musicians and portrait artists, as in other big cities, but it was not easy to find a restaurant. We ended up at a Turkish. Tasty.

At the end of the Arbat is a huge building with many pinnacles. The building houses the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is one of the “seven sisters” Comrade Stalin built around the city around 1950. (This picture is from another of the sisters.)

All chapters in this series

1. The introduction
2. Some very interesting and pleasant days in Moscow. That city has certainly more to offer than we imagined.
3. An excursion to a wonderful city in the Golden Ring and an evening in Moscow.
4. NEXT: A cruise on the Moskva River, the Gorky Park, the Kremlin and the departure for Siberia.
5. The days on the train, four and a half days continuously on the move
6. Mongolia: Well! Not bad to come to this country, some of the remotest imaginable of all inland countries. We first went into a national park.
7. A day in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia
8. The train journey continues from Ulaanbaatar to China
9. The train into Beijing from the border to Mongolia
10. First day in Beijing and a visit to the Great Wall
11. The last days in Beijing and the return journey