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Exploring Rusland
This spring I went with my Dutch friend Irene to Russia. Russia had
always intrigued me since my husband’s grandparents had lived in
St Petersburg before they fled to Leiden because of the Bolshevik Revolution.
In Moscow we visited the Kremlin Assumption Cathedral with its many hanging candelabras and wall of paintings of saints. We walked along the Red Square and
were impressed by the distinctive colorful onion domes of St Basil’s Cathedral.
Beside the Church of the Twelve Apostles we were in awe of the enormous
Emperor Cannon weighing 40 tons. The cannon was never fired because the
iron cannon balls weighing one ton each were too heavy to load. Children
had climbed on top of the cannon posing for their parents to take
their pictures. We rode the underground trains and saw in the stations
works of art with elaborate mosaics depicting Russian heroes among them.
Along the Golden Triangle we saw the old town of Zvenigorod situated
atop a hill overlooking the Moscow River. From a distance we could see
the golden domes of the white Cathedral of the Nativity built ca 1405.
The afternoon sun created a reddish light glowing through its oblong
windows. The Monastery of Savva-Storozhevsky is a treasure which includes
the 15th century Cathedral of the Nativity decorated with stone carvings.
St Petersburg is called the Venice of the North with the Neva River and
its islands, canals and bridges. The light painted the front façade of the
Pavlosk Palace with a fairy like color illuminating its white Doric columns
and circular green dome supported by another multitude of columns. In
Pavlovski Park we walked past ponds, spouting fountains and along Twelve
Paths adorned with its twelve statues representing mythological figures.