Floating on the Moskva
Look at the
800-year-old Moscow city from the deck of a boat on a deliciously slow cruise
A riddle, wrapped in a mystery,
inside an enigma.” Winston Churchill’s famous quip about Russia could well
define its capital Moscow, a byzantine, mystifying, yet exhilarating place.
As I scurry from one iconic
landmark to another, boarding a metro, catching a tram and clocking kilometres
on foot, the megalopolis’ size boggles my mind. Everything in Moscow, a city of
12 million people, is on an uber-scale. The houses are sprawling, parks are
gargantuan, urban vistas stretch for miles and metro stations mimic
subterranean mazes.
The scale is fitting, one reckons,
for the capital of a nation that is the world’s largest at 17 million square
kilometres, about twice the size of the United States, with less than half the
American population, and spanning nine time zones.
After a giddy cultural trail, a
cruise on the 100-km-long Moskva River is exceptional for the inactivity it
induces. Cruise liners, called river trams, offer deliciously slow voyages.
“Moscow grew during the 12th century along the river’s winding banks, so a
cruise is the most scenic way to soak in its sites while avoiding the city’s
rush and traffic snarls,”
guide Lyudmila explains as we
amble towards Pushkinkaya Embankment that meanders along the atmospheric
Olivkovy beach, Zeleny Theatre and the city’s most popular famous stretch of
greens — Gorky Park. We are to board our two-hour cruise from the pier. While
we are at the ticket window, the boat’s horn blares, signalling departure.
Flustered, we grab our tickets and make a mad dash for it just as the wooden
planks are being folded up. The two-tier, retrostyle boat is comfortable, with
open as well as covered seating areas upstairs, and indoor seating and a modest
cafe downstairs. We settle for alfresco corner seats that offer unobstructed
views of the 800-year-old city. Most passengers cluster on decks, poised with
cameras and smartphones to take photos.
The cruise fosters a kind of
cultural detente among passengers. There’s an aura of collective wonderment as
we together explore the beauty and dichotomy of a city that’s both modern and
medieval, quaint and cosmopolitan, bleak and colourful, austere and ornate,
juxtaposing 15th century tsarist monuments with vertiginous skyscrapers.
My gaze moves from the teal waters
of the river to the shore. Buildings ornamented with fine facades glide past –
a 16-storey-high monument to Peter the Great, the colossal, goldendomed Church
of Christ the Saviour (demolished under Stalin, then rebuilt after the fall of
communism) built in the late Muscovite Baroque style.
The ship crosses the beautiful
Novodevichy Convent, the “wedding cake” Stalinist skyscraper of Moscow State
University and the newly revamped Gorky Park. Riverside Towers — a cluster of
hotels, civic buildings and apartment complexes built in neo-Gothic style
—veers into view next. The whirr of cameras becomes distinctly louder as we
approach The Kremlin, the beating heart of Moscow. The massive complex holds in
its bowels four magnificent palaces and four cathedrals. “The Kremlin Armoury
Museum,” Lyudmila explains, “is the oldest museum in Moscow and home to 10
beautiful Faberge eggs in addition to Russian imperial regalia and glittering
treasures of gold and silver.” Behind the fortress lies the manicured
Alexander’s Garden, populated by sauntering locals and ice cream-licking
tourists.
A frisson of excitement runs
through the crowd at the sight of Saint Basil’s Cathedral, the most recognised
icon of Russia. Stirring and spectacular, the shrine is shaped like the flame
of a bonfire leaping into the sky. Its splendid colours, fascinating shapes and
patterns appear every bit as glorious as they do in photos.
Dmitry Shvidkovsky, in his
book Russian Architecture and the West, says the cathedral “is like
no other Russian building. Nothing similar can be found in the entire
millennium of Byzantine tradition from the fifth to the fifteenth century... a
strangeness that astonishes by its unexpectedness, complexity and dazzling
interleaving of the manifold details of its design.”
After I disembark, the ship
becomes a distant blur as Moscow’s noise and madness take over. But my mind
still brims over with kaleidoscopic images of a truly great city. And a river
cruise that had buffed its edges into sea glass.
Neeta Lal
The writer is
a Delhi-based journalist. Follow her on Twitter: @neeta_com
ETM7OCT18
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