Trip Summary - favorite sights

The original intention of this blog is to update it DAILY during my trip. Obviously that did not happen...
What I will do is compile a list of my "Favourites".

FAVOURITE SIGHTS
It is so hard to make a decision (except for No 1...That one was no fight!).
ALL the sights I visited are special to me.
After much dilemma, I finally managed to list down my top 5 fav:

1. RED SQUARE - Moscow, Russia
THE place I have dreamt about visiting for years. THIS was what I went to Russia for.
And I was not disappointed: The Red Square lived up to all the hype.

Main sights that surround the Red Square are :
a) St Basil Cathedral
b) GUM
c) State History Museum
d) Lenin's Tomb


The Red Square at Night. I stayed at the area from 4pm all the way till 9pm just to see it at night!!!


a) The St Basil's Cathedral
Commanding the red square from the southern end: This is Russia's most famous symbol - If you watch any CNN's "live from Moscow" reports, this is the backdrop.


The St Basils at night



b) GUM - Gosudarstvenny University Magazin aka State Department Store. Built in the 19th century. Has the most amazing collection of branded goods. There are mink BOUTIQUES in there.


GUM at night



c) State History Museum.
At the Northern end of the square, facing the St Basil's Cathedral. Looks quite "Disney" to me :)



d) Lenin's Tomb. (Took this photo from the entrance of GUM).

Ok the tomb is supposed to be opened to the public daily from 10am to 1pm... Lets just say that it was NEVER opened to visitors during my visit.

The wall behind the tomb is part of the wall surrounding the Kremlin. I have no idea what the yellow building is.. But its also part of the Kremlin.
(PS: Kremlin is the Russian equivalent of the White House)



2. HOUSE OF SOVIETS - St Petersburg, Russia

This building sums up "STALINIST".

It was intended to be the administrative centre of Leningrad (old name of St Petersburg) & was build with Stalin's neoclassical taste in mind, complete with all the bas-reliefs & columns.
This is the Soviet side of Russia I have been looking for.

That's a statue of Lenin by the way.


Close up of the bas-relief.
Doesn't it scream SOVIET??!!!




3. MEMORIAL TO THE MURDERED JEWS OF EUROPE - Berlin, Germany
The memorial brought me to tears. I was crying non-stop when viewing the exhibition rooms. Sibei malu

The Field of Stelae
The field is made up of 2,711 concrete stelae.


Visitors can actually enter the field from all sides & walk between the stelae.
The infomation center & the exhibitions rooms are actually underground, below the Field of Stelae.

In one of the rooms, names & short biographies of murdered Jews are read out. At the same time, year of birth & death will be flashed on all 4 walls of the room. To read out all the name & biographies in record will take 6 Years, 7 mths & 27 days.

4. THE HERMITAGE - St Petersburg, Russia
I admit, I am not "museum person". I can only take so much ART... I mean, there are people I know that can spend DAYS visiting the same museum... not me.

But the Hermitage is truly an amazing museum. I was awed not only by its treasures, but also by all the stunning rooms that held the treasures. Hmm... think I will do a section separately on the Hermitage later. Hope you like GOLD :)

See post on the Hermitage

5. ALONG THE GRIBOEDOVA CANEL - St Petersburg, Russia
This canal is situated in the Historic Heart of St Petersburg. Alongside the canal are rows & rows of magnificent buildings.


It reminded me a grander version of Venice.

Church on Spilled Blood
Partly modelled after the St Basils in Moscow. This is The main sight along the Griboedova Canal.

Built between 1883 & 1907 on the spot where Alexander II was blown up by terrorists. (Church on Spilled Blood get it??) This beauty took 24 years to build & 27 more years to restore..... Imagine that...it BETTER be beautiful

Ok that sums up this episode of The adventures of Fatcat... to be continued!