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www.mnweekly.ru/travel Information about Moscow
DISTRIBUTED WITH THE DAILY TELEGRAPH TUESDAY_DECEMBER 22_2009 tourist hotspots
ruses” (people who like swim- of Moscow’s trams. Besides the
Holiday Russia’s capital makes an unforgettable winter destination
ming in holes in the ice) plunge famously ornate underground
into the winter ponds, especial- Metro system, the city has a large
A very merry Moscow
ly around the Orthodox feast of network of trams and trolley-
Epiphany on January 19. At the buses. The number 39 runs right
western end of the island, an across town, with views along
outdoor waterside skating rink, the river to the Kremlin, passing
ice slides and a fancy log cabin the ancient Danilov and Don-
café face the clifftop village of skoy Monasteries.
Troitse-Lykovo, with its baroque Moscow is world famous for its
church, across the river. The vil- cultural and artistic traditions.
lage was home to the reclusive There are more than 150 muse-
writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn ums, many of them commemo-
before his death in 2008. rating famous writers and art-
When the temperatures are cold ists who have lived in the city.
Pushkin, Tolstoy, Chekhov and
Dostoevsky all have “house-mu-
‘Kuskovo is one of seums” in Moscow.
Moscow’s hidden
The artist Viktor Vasnetsov, who
gems: a sphinx-
designed the façade of the
guarded, silk-wallpa-
Tretyakov Gallery, also built
himself a picturesque cottage in
pered palace’ 1894 on what was then the out-
skirts of town. You can visit the
house, not far from the old Mos-
enough, you can walk across the cow Circus on Tsvetnoi Boule-
frozen Moskva to explore the vard, and see huge canvasses of
wooden cottages. The woods monsters, warriors and prin-
here are a paradise for cross- cesses in the wooden attic-stu-
country skiers, and the lake at dio.
nearby Strogino is a favourite of There’s plenty of modern art in
snowkiters and ice fishermen. Moscow, too. Factories, bus sta-
Closer to the centre, the ski lift at tions and warehouses have been
Sparrow Hills, with its famous converted into museums. Win-
view over the city, takes you to zavod has 30 different shops and
PHOTOXPRESS the top of a 90-metre slope, pop- galleries in the red brick build-
ular with snowboarders. ings of an old wine factory, and
the café serves a great business
Go to Moscow in winter and There is a new ice rink this win- Winter wonderlands maiden, as well as a theatre, ice Warm welcomes lunch on weekdays for 220 rou-
ride through forests on a horse- ter, and plenty of weird and If all the fairground attractions, rink and post office. If all this sounds too chilly, there bles (£4.50).
drawn sleigh or sail down the wonderful museums, shops and neon lights and piped Muzak get Not far away is one of Moscow’s is always the indoor option. Their current offerings include
Moskva River on an ice- rides hidden in the huge two- too much for you, you can always hidden gems: the sphinx-guard- From the cosy bar of a boat, you an exhibition by Japanese pho-
breaking boat; check out new kilometre complex: an Ice Age escape into the muffled acres of ed, silk-wallpapered palace at can sail past Sparrow Hills, tographer Masao Yamamoto,
artists in a converted wine Museum in Pavilion 71, where snow in the nearby Botanical Kuskovo. A beautiful collection Gorky Park and many other fa- which runs until the end of Jan-
factory or 19th-century you can have your photo taken Gardens.Y ou don’t always real- of buildings stands beside a lake, mous Moscow landmarks. The uary, and they frequently host
paintings in a fairy-tale studio. with a woolly mammoth; an ise it when you are in the centre where the aristocratic Sherem- Radisson Hotel’s new ice-break- markets of funky de-
aquarium with sharks in Pavil- of town, but Moscow actually etev family used to stage mock ing yachts will be cruising all signer crafts.
-
PHOEBE TAPLIN
ion 11; and a Soviet-era IMAX has nearly 100 parks and gar- sea battles. The the way to the beautiful Nov-
RUSSIA NOW in a round concrete building dens with three times as much orangeries ospassky Monastery, with a
near the south exit. green space per head as Lon- house the meal included in the £20-30
Ice age to space age Two major attractions in the don. State Mu- ticket prices.
The old Soviet exhibition area are back this year: the ulti- “White space” might be a more seum of Much cheaper
grounds, to the north of the city mate socialist realist sculpture, accurate description at this time Ceramics, is a 50p DIY
centre, are an intriguing desti- Vera Mukhina’s 1937 Worker of year. You can snowball round ranging sightseeing
nation for visitors. Founded as and Farm Girl, which was un- Catherine the Great’s palaces at from ancient tour on one
an agricultural expo in the Thir- veiled again after lengthy reno- Tsarytsino, sledge through the Greek vases
ties, the VVTs (All-Russian Ex- vation this month; and the Space ancient orchards at Kolomen- through Alexan-
hibition Centre) celebrated its Exploration Museum, under- skoe or take a troika (horse der I’s Egyptian
seventieth birthday this year. neath the soaring titanium Mon- drawn sleigh) through the 18th- dinner service to
People often call it VDNKh (the ument to the Conquerors of century landscaped park at Soviet-era plates,
Exhibition of Economic Space. The museum’s collections Kuzminki. The park is also the complete with slo-
Achievements), which was its include the stuffed bodies of official home of Ded Moroz gans.
title in the Fifties – and is still the Belka and Strelka, the two dogs (“Grandfather Frost”), the Rus- For pure winter fun,
name of the nearest Metro. who survived their trip into sian Father Christmas. At one you might want to
The ornate pavilions and foun- space in August 1960. The space end of a chain of frozen orna- head to the island of
tains represent a colourful vari- theme is enhanced by the “Av e - mental lakes is a collection of Serebryany Bor (“Sil-
ety of styles, from the graceful nue of Cosmonauts” leading up wooden cottages and carved an- ver Pine Forest”), in a
golden fi gures of the “Friendship to the museum and the Moscow imals. These include dachas for bend of the Moskva
ARKADY KOLYBALOV_RG
of Nations” to the huge dome of monorail, which stops near the Ded Moroz and his granddaugh- River on the other
the former Cosmos Pavilion. main gate. ter, Snegurochka, the snow side of the city.“W al-
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