Moscow-Part 2
Victory day in Russia celebrates the end of World War II and is probably best described as a combination of our Memorial Day and 4th of July. There are parades in all of the major Russian cities, but in Moscow it is mainly an event for VIPs in Red Square and for television. The only thing you can see on the streets is the military equipment.
Unfortunately there was not much for a tourist to do on Victory day since a lot of the city was shutdown. I was hoping to do a lot of sightseeing & get some nice night photos around Red Square on my last two days, but the weather was bad those evenings with steady rain & mid 30s temperatures. I did get a few shots before the rain starting coming down on the first night.
I did find a cool park with some displaced statues from the communist days that is right near the Moscow River. There were at least 7 Lenin statues there and one of Stalin with his nose broken off. There is a huge statue of Peter the Great right along the river.
Stalin statue with nose broken off.
Various Lenin statues.
I also went to a flea market and I picked a few Putin magnets. A nice older guy insisted that try on a Russian fur hat with the ear flaps. They also had quite a few of the Trump wooden nesting dolls too.
Putin is a 5'7" balding guy in his mid 60s, but somehow has been transformed into a superhero.
The flea market was likely an amusement park at one time.
I went back to Red Square to take a few photos & saw that it was close to the time for the changing of the guard near the unknown soldier monument. I thought I was in a good spot to get some photos & then heard a voice from a soldier while I was taking photos & then felt him shove me out of his way.
I am glad that I had seen most of the major tourist sites on my previous visit since the crummy weather put a damper on getting out & doing a lot of the long walks & photography that I like to do in big city like Moscow. Overall my visit to Moscow was a little disappointing, but I have been so lucky with great weather on my previous two European trips that I was probably due to hit some bad weather eventually. I am going to do a third post on Moscow that will be just photos.
Unfortunately there was not much for a tourist to do on Victory day since a lot of the city was shutdown. I was hoping to do a lot of sightseeing & get some nice night photos around Red Square on my last two days, but the weather was bad those evenings with steady rain & mid 30s temperatures. I did get a few shots before the rain starting coming down on the first night.
I did find a cool park with some displaced statues from the communist days that is right near the Moscow River. There were at least 7 Lenin statues there and one of Stalin with his nose broken off. There is a huge statue of Peter the Great right along the river.
I also went to a flea market and I picked a few Putin magnets. A nice older guy insisted that try on a Russian fur hat with the ear flaps. They also had quite a few of the Trump wooden nesting dolls too.
I went back to Red Square to take a few photos & saw that it was close to the time for the changing of the guard near the unknown soldier monument. I thought I was in a good spot to get some photos & then heard a voice from a soldier while I was taking photos & then felt him shove me out of his way.
I am glad that I had seen most of the major tourist sites on my previous visit since the crummy weather put a damper on getting out & doing a lot of the long walks & photography that I like to do in big city like Moscow. Overall my visit to Moscow was a little disappointing, but I have been so lucky with great weather on my previous two European trips that I was probably due to hit some bad weather eventually. I am going to do a third post on Moscow that will be just photos.
My next stop is for 11 days in Budapest which should have some much warmer weather compared to Russia.
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