Susan's Shanghai Blog - Week 48

The Borodinsky Bridge was quite close to my apartment, going across the Moscow river from the Arbat to the Kievskaya train/metro station. It is decorated with a Roman portico and Imperial coat of arms. On the eastern side is an obelisk with names of war heroes.

The last weekend there, I decided to take a river cruise on the Moscow River, and settled on the River Palace cruise. The dining room downstairs was quite nice. I wanted to spend most of my time up-top looking at the sights, so I grabbed a quick salad and then headed upstairs. The boat was well-equiped, including nice wicker chairs including fleece blankets (since it gets a bit chilly on the river).

Near the start, which was in front of the Kievskaya train station. As we go through, I won't comment on all of the pictures, some are of buildings that have nice architectural detail, Soviet-era decorations, and the such.

Gorky Park was opened in 1928 on the edge of the Moscow River. One of the things you can see from the river is one of the mock-ups (test units) from the Buran space shuttle program.

The Peter the Great Statue sits right in the middle of the river and was designed by the Georgian designer Zurab Tsereteli to commemorate 300 years of the Russian Navy, which was started by Peter I of Russia. It is the eighth tallest statue in the world at 98 meters tall. Mind you, the ironic part of this is that Peter the Great actually hated Moscow and moved the capital to St Petersburg.

This is the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, sitting on the northern bank of the Moscow River and a few blocks away from the Kremlin. With an overall height of 344 ft, it is the tallest Orthodox Christian church in the world. The original church was demolished and this is the rebuilt cathedral, completed in 2000.

The start of the Kremlin, again, sitting right on the banks of the river. You can see the corner tower and the well-known red brick walls, then the Grand Kremlin Palace (yellow building) and the golden domes of the cathedrals within the Kremlin.

Here is an interesting picture that attempts to capture the different cathedrals:

At the end of the Kremlin walls, you could see St. Basils cathedral. The building is shaped as a flame of a bonfire rising into the sky, a design that has no analogues in Russian architecture. The floor plan has eight side churches around the core.

The "Seven Sisters" is the English name given to a group of Moscow skyscrapers designed in the Stalinist style, sometimes called "Stalin's high-rises". They were built from 1947 to 1953 in an elaborate combination of Russian Baroque and Gothic styles. There were 2 others that were planned but never built. This is called the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment building, completed in 1940. It was intended as an elite housing building but soon after construction, units were converted to multi-family communal apartments.

No idea what this is ... but it is kinda cool looking.

I saw multiple of these along the river and they all looked very similar. I don't think they are Embassy's (based on looking at the maps) but I was never able to figure out what they were. But nice looking buildings, whatever they are.

The Grand Sports Arena of the Luzhniki Olympic Complex is the biggest sports stadium in Russia and is part of the Luzhniki Olympic Complex. Its total seating capacity is 89,318 seats, all covered. The name Luzhniki derives from the flood meadows in the bend of Moskva River where the stadium was built, translating roughly as "The Meadows". It was the chief venue for the 1980 Summer Olympics, the spectator capacity being 103,000 at that time. The events hosted in this stadium were the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, Athletics, Football finals, and the Individual Jumping Grand Prix.

From the river, you can see the skyscrapers of Moscow International Business Center, also known as Moscow-City. It a commercial district which reminds me of the Pudong area of Shanghai and La Defense in Paris. It is a concentrated area of modern and interesting-designed skyscrapers.

Along the river there are multiple park areas, similar to this massive green space.