Big Time (so much larger than life)

Man, after the first half of my blog about Moscow, I need a snack. How about some McD's? This is the inside of probably the biggest McDonald's I've ever been in. There were like 20 cash registers.



Okay, now that I'm high on salt and fat, where were we? Ah yes, we'd just left the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

As you already read, the Cathedral unfortunately isn't particularly old. Even if it hadn't been demolished and then re-built, it wouldn't compare in age to St. Basil's, or to this, part of the Novodevichy Convent, which was founded in 1524. This is the Cathedral of Our Lady of Smolensk and the nearby octaonal belltower.



Inside the cathedral...



Very pretty, not to mention a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Cathedral of Christ the Savior can't claim that.

Back in Soviet times, in addition to trying to outbuild our skyscrapers, Russia was also trying to kick our butts in the space race. Yes, yes, we did the whole moon thing, but let's not forget they put the first man in space. In honor of the first cosmonaut, they built this incredible tower and statue of Yuri Gagarin. It's made from titanium, and is 141 feet tall. Notice the billboard and street lamps in the photo- think of the average height of those, and then note how much taller the tower is. The statue itself is 43 feet tall- so, about 7 times taller than Gagarin himself.



The statue is sort of in the outskirts of the city. From there we took the metro back into town. St. Petersburg's metro does have the claim of being the deepest subway system in the world- it had to get under the gooey marshland in order to be stable. But, Moscow's metro is just cooler to look at. Here's a typical metro station exterior...



and interior.



It totally looks like a museum inside. And you gotta love the soviet artwork- this is one of many ceiling murals in another station.



When we got out of the metro, we went to the Pushkin art museum. Not that Pushkin was an artist; who knows why they named the place after him. But, it's a fabulous collection. Again, another instance where St. Petersburg wins for once- the Hermitage is muuuuuch bigger- but Moscow does have a copy of David. A huge sculpture. Appropriate for the city, don't you think? I'm in the picture for scale.



Alright, I think that's a solid tour of the glories of Moscow. I don't get what everyone's beef is. Must be jealousy. If nothing else, jealousy over the fact that when winter arrives in Moscow, it actually stays properly cold the whole time.

Back into the slush for me...