Copenhagen and on to Moscow

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Copenhagen

After breakfast we walked about 3km to the Anglican Church of St Albans to attend the morning service. The Church is very close to the Citadel which was bombarded by the English in 1807 and now in the same area the English have established their Church. We were informed by members of the congregation that when the Church was dedicated many of the Royal Families of Europe attended, including the Czar.

We then walked to the King’s Gardens which had a lovely display of spring bulbs though many are still to flower and many of the trees still don’t have any leaves, due to the cold Spring.

The grounds are part of Rosenborg Palace which was built by Christian IV in 1606 as a country summerhouse, a small two storied house with a tower but in 1624 it was enlarged to a multi storied building with several towers.

Today the palace isn’t used as a home for the Royal family and houses a collection of personal belonging of members of the Royal Family over the past 400 years. The highlight of the collection is in a basement vault where the Danish Crown Jewels are displayed. The earliest crown dating from the 1600s was magnificent, weighing 2 ½ kg. of gold with over 1000 diamonds, the open worked metal contains 100s of tiny enamelled figures as well as other decorations and unlike the later crown the inside is similarly decorated.

From the palace we walked to the Botanic Gardens and in spite of the cold weather many people were enjoying the spring display, although it is probably several weeks away from its peak.

On the way back to our hotel we visited the Round Tower, this was completed in 1642 and is 35 m. high, this building was used as the Danish Observatory from 1650 to 1861 and also housed the university library until it out grew the rooms. The highlight of the tower is the spiral ramp which is 200 m. long and spirals around the core 7 ½ times to the top. Many people have ridden horses or driven carriages to the top and in the early 1900s a tourist drove his car up the ramp. The outside platform provides an excellent view over the city but as it was raining again this view was restricted.

In the evening we went to the Tivoli Gardens which has been the favourite recreation park for Danes

for over 100 years, though now the early idea of gardens and amusements has become much commercialised. During our walk through the gardens Ann made a new friend, Rasmus Klump.

On our last visit 24 years ago there were many more gardens and only a few restaurants and small pubs, now there are dozens and an amusement park with about double the rides of Luna Park, many that we don’t have in Australia. Rides prices range between $5 and $15 and when the $20 entrance fee is added it can be an expensive day out. There is also a “sideshow alley” with various activities to win prizes, though winners are few and far between. Meals are also expensive, we had dinner at a carvery, the equivalent of two roast dinners and half a bottle of wine cost $100.

The gardens at this time of year had large displays of spring bulbs, some of the tulips and daffodils were so large the appeared to be on steroids. The lake at the Tivoli is still the centre point of the gardens, with many restaurants around the edge and on a rock in the lake is a copy of the Little Mermaid statue; this copy of the original is owned by the family of the sculptor and has been loaned by them while the original is in Shanghai.

Scattered through the gardens are several sound shells where various concerts are held during the day, we sat and listened to a performance of a stringed orchestra, very pleasant though a little chilly with the temperature around 8C.

A highlight of the night was the parade of the Tivoli’s Boys Guard, over 50 boys dressed in Scarlet Uniforms and Busbies, which included a brass band, a gold coach drawn by to white ponies and a boy on a white horse. At the rear of the parade a group of boys dressed in naval uniforms, all the guard were carrying small rifles and the officers drawn swords, a very impressive display.

Back to the hotel to try to squeeze everything back into our cases.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Off to Moscow

Up early and after a quick breakfast we walked to the station to catch the train to the airport, the line runs to Malmo and stops at a station beneath the airport, a quick 12 minute journey. Quick check in and we declined the offer to transfer to Aeroflot Airline, I think they were over booked. We waited for our flight in the SAS lounge and were able to connect by Skype to have a quick chat with our family at home.

The flight to Moscow took two hours and on arrival we had to move our watches forward by another two hours so it appeared that the flight took four hours.

There was a long delay to pass through immigration and in spite of the delay we still had to wait another half hour before our luggage appeared on the carousel but we went straight through customs. Outside we were met with a representative from the cruise company and also sunshine, the first we had seen since leaving home. The trip to the boat took about half an hour and there were about 15 cruise boats moored along the river at the edge of a large wooded park. The park and port were built by Stalin in the 1930s.

Before dinner those on board had a welcome talk by the cruise director, many passenger were still to arrive as several flights have been delayed by the volcanic ash, hopefully they will arrive before we depart on Thursday for St Petersburg.

Our first meal was nice buffet dinner, where we were looked after by a very friendly staff, many of them from the Philippines.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Moscow - Kremlin & Red Square

The morning was spent with safety lecture and familiarising ourselves with the boat and after lunch we left on our first tour.

The drive into Moscow centre was extremely slow as the traffic moved even slower than Beijing. During Soviet times there were only 10,000 vehicles in Moscow, by the turn of the Century 100,000 and now 4 million, with an additional 3 million commuting into Moscow each day so at times it took ten minutes to cover 100 metres.

Our first stop was at the Kremlin which is the old walled city of Moscow which was built in the late 1400s replacing the old wooden wall and buildings. Grand Prince Ivan III organised the reconstruction of the Kremlin, invited a number of skilled architects from Renaissance Italy, who designed the new Kremlin wall and its towers, and the new palace for the prince. It was during his reign that three extant cathedrals of the Kremlin, the Deposition Church, and the Palace of Facets were constructed. The highest building of the city and Muscovite Russia was the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, built in 1505–08 and augmented to its present height in 1600. The Kremlin walls as they now appear were built between 1485 and 1495. Spasskie gates of the wall still bear a dedication in Latin praising Petrus Antonius Solarius for the design. Kremlin Gate & aerial view

After construction of the new kremlin walls and churches was complete, the monarch decreed that no structures should be built in the immediate vicinity of the citadel. The Kremlin was separated from the walled merchant town by a 30-metre-wide moat, over which the Intercession Cathedral on the Moat was constructed during the reign of Ivan the Terrible . The same tsar also renovated some of his grandfather's palaces, added a new palace and cathedral for his sons, and endowed the Trinity metochion inside the Kremlin. The metochion was administrated by the Trinity Monastery and boasted the graceful tower church of St Sergius, which was described by foreigners as one of the finest in the country.

The new Kremlin still contains several cathedrals, churches and palaces, many of the old palace buildings are now used as offices including the one used by the President and apart from the Presidential Guard nobody lives in the Kremlin, people come in each day to work. I wonder what the old Soviet workers thought about being surrounded by so many beautiful religious buildings.

We left the Kremlin through the same gate as we entered and drove half way around the walls to arrive at Red Square which has a history going back to the 15^th Century when it was known as Market Place. Workman were busy repairing the damage to the cobble stone caused by the parade celebrating the 60^th anniversary of the ending of WW2 and after seeing on TV, all the parades through Red Square, we were surprised how small it is. Flanking Red Square at one end is the magnificent St Basil’s Cathedral commissioned by Ivan the Terrible, beside the wall of the Kremlin is the tomb of Lenin and against the wall are the graves and memorials of many Soviet “Heroes” including Stalin and Yuri Gargarin. On the other side of Red Square is the GUM department store, the home of modern day capitalism and decadence, Stalin must be spinning in his grave.

The Moscow of today is similar to what we are used to in the West, the displays, goods and advertising posters are the same, except they are in Russian, styles department Storeand fashions and the brands are the same as found in our stores. GUM Department Store

From Red Square we drove, again very slowly to one of Catherine the Great’s palaces, where we were treated to a wonderful concert of classical, modern and traditional music performed on the traditional Russian folk instruments, including balalaikas, bayans, domras and guslies as well as other wind and percussion instruments. The musicians were students and graduates from university music school and the group was conducted by their Professor.

After the concert we returned to the boat for a late, 9:30, dinner.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Moscow – Seigiev Posad

The Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius is the most important Russiam monastery and the spiritual centre of theRussian Orthodox Church The monastery is situated in the town of Sergiev Posad, about 70 km to the north-east from Moscow by the road leading to Yaroslavl, and currently is home to over 300 monks. This town is the home of Troitse-Sergieva monastery which is considered to be the spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church, it was once the home of the Patriarch but he now has his palace in Moscow. The walled area contains the monastery, the home of the monks, a seminary and education establishment, and several Cathedrals, one of which contains the remains of the founder St. Sergius.

The monastery was founded in 1345 by one of the most venerated Russian saints, Sergius of Radonesh, who built a wooden church in honour of the Holy Trinity on Makovets Hill. Early development of the monastic community is well documented in contemporary lives of Sergius and his disciples.

In 1355, Sergius introduced a charter which required the construction of auxiliary buildings, such as refrectory, kitchen, and bakery. This charter was a model for Sergius' numerous followers who founded more than 400 cloisters all over Russia, including the celebrated Solovetsky, Kirilov and Simonov monasteries.

St. Sergius supported Dimitri Donski in his struggle against the Tartars and sent two of his monks, Perresvet and Oslyabya, to participate in the Battle of Kulikovo (1380). At the outbreak of the battle Peresvet died in a single combat against a Tatar bogatyr. The monastery was devastated by fire, when a Tatar unit raided the area in 1408. St. Sergius was declared patron saint of the Russian state in 1422.

This monastery is venerated by Russians and is a place of Pilgrimage, it is estimated that in modern Russia, 50% of the population have a religious belief and the visitors today covered a full range of ages from the very young to the very old.

After lunch it took two hours to travel the 70 km to return to the boat, a similar time to the morning’s trip. The wonders of modern transport.