Monday

Anna met me at the Marriott about 8:00a and we set off on a journey to Kolomenskoe, a beautiful park located about 10 kilometers southeast of Moscow on the Moscow River.  The history of the park dates back to the 13^th century and, over time, became a royal summer retreat for Ivan the Terrible and his first wife, Anastasia.  It was very peaceful at the park and there were only a few folks to be seen.  Anna knew a lot about the park and told me that some of the buildings (like the one above) had actually been originally built in the far north of the country and were later relocated to Kolomenskoe.

The metro is Moscow is amazing – it transports 9.5 million people per day and trains leave the station every sixty seconds during peak travel periods.  I tried to be sensitive to taking photos of people in the metro, but was able to snap a few interesting shots.  One thing that I found really interesting was that some of the metro stations were really deep – as in a few hundred feet below the city streets.  My guides told me this was because the metro stations were all planned as bomb shelters in case of atomic attack during the cold war.  A few of the stations had huge blast doors that would pivot shut in case of war – they looked just like the doors you’d see at the entrance to Norad.  Pretty impressive – also impressive that we made it through the cold war without killing each other, huh? Another interesting tidbit was that the escalators were all at least twice as fast as escalators in America – I suppose in the name of efficiency and having to move all those people around on a daily basis. 

Dinner on Monday night was at an old American favorite – TGIF Fridays.  I wasn’t sure what to expect after my “American Bar & Grill” experience, but this place was just like the one down the street from my place in Chicago.  There weren’t a ton of Russians in the place – go figure – they were probably all at the Russian places! Without getting into a big song and dance I had a few beers and a hamburger – the burger was great.  Ivan and I ended up at Fridays later in the week and he ended up with a bbq burger and came away impressed.

Tuesday

Tuesday was a great day – I visited the Russian Air Force museum at Monino.  Monino is about 40 miles outside of Moscow, but due to our method of actually getting there, Ivan and I probably traveled about 80 miles each way to visit this city.  20-years ago Monino was a top-secret Air Force base and it would have been unheard of an American to traipse around taking pictures.  A bunch of information can be found on the web regarding this museum, most notably the http://www.moninoaviation.com/ site.  Since the museum is on the site of an active Air Force base (and the home of the Russian Air Force Academy), prior permission to visit is required for all foreigners.  Our day began when I met Ivan at the hotel at 9:00a and we jumped on the metro for a ride through six or seven stations and a few different lines.  We then ended up taking a van ride (part of the public transportation network) from the metro station to the front of the air force base – the ride in the van was about an hour.  Ivan and I essentially walked in the front gate of the air force base and wandered around for a while until we found the museum – so much for foreigners having to pre-register! As a former American soldier it was somewhat surreal walking around a Russian Air Force base! We wandered around the base housing area for a while and Ivan explained that this was where the Russian officers lived with their families.  The housing varied between nice and somewhat scary – I suppose the new guys received the older housing while the generals received the nicer housing – just like everywhere. 

It was kind of interesting to see the rank insignia on the Army and Air Force guys – I tried to remember it from my military days and found that I got most of them right.  We finally found the museum and started a tour with a guy in his eighties, Vasiliy,  (left) who was a fighter pilot during the Great Patriotic War (World War II).  The museum consists of one large building with a lot of displays focusing on Soviet aviation achievements – including details on the first non-stop flight from Moscow to New York, one hanger with some of the more fragile aircraft, and a ton of aircraft parked outside.  Sadly enough there isn’t enough hanger space for most of the aircraft on display and they are exposed to the elements throughout the year.  The museum is soliciting funds for building additional hangers, however I can’t imagine how much would be required to house all of the aircraft on display.  With one or two exceptions, all of the aircraft on display were actually flown into the Air Force base and then parked where they now lie.

The museum alone was worth the trip – almost every Soviet aircraft, from World War II onward was on display at Monino.  Ivan (right, my guide, and the president of the “Welcome to Moscow” project) eagerly participated in the trip to Monino and, truth be told, we are both aviation buffs.  It turns out that his grandfather was involved in Soviet aviation and our guide, Vasiliy, knew his grandfather way back in the day.  Wow – that’s cool.  I could talk for hours about our trip to Monino.

Ivan and I motored our way back to Moscow after a few hours at the museum and found ourselves back in the Moscow metro area around 5:00p.  Of course we ended up at Fridays and had a few beers and such.  While I saw a lot of cool things in Moscow, Monino was the highlight of my trip.