August 5 -- Metro Tour, the Tretyakov Gallery, and Arbat Street

On Sunday, in spite of the threat of thunderstorms throughout the day, we took off in the morning with Tatiana for a tour of the Metro system.  The system is massive with 186 stations and about 12 separate lines that run throughout the city of 12 million people.  More than 7 million people are transported on the system each day!



Each station seemed to be decorated even more lavishly than the last.  We probably stopped and toured about 10 of the stations.  We saw statues, bronzes, mosaics, paintings, chandeliers, and more.  Since most were built in the Soviet era, they almost all celebrated the worker and a production society.  We were told that Stalin had to be the first to visit the projects to be certain that the 'appropriate message' was being conveyed in each station.

From there, we went to the Tretyakov Gallery, a large gallery of Russian art, started as a private collection and now open to the public.  This was another place where Alan had to pay in order to take pictures, and he became the designated photographer for the group.




Each of us probably had a different piece that was our favorite.  Alan probably most appreciated a painting by Ivanov called "The Appearance of Christ to the People" a full-wall depiction of Jesus coming to John the Baptist painted in the mid-1800's.  A close second was a haunting painting of Jesus praying in the wilderness.

Paul was very interested in a painting of Vereshchagin called "Apotheosis of War" and an almost tone-on-tone painting of a night-time river scene under a full moon.

After the tour, we took an hour break for lunch and went to My My, a cafeteria with some interesting Russian dishes, but no English menu.  In spite of a little tension while trying to order, we had a very nice lunch. We stopped at a few vendors booths and met Tatiana once again near an interesting fountain that represented three types of paintings: landscape, portrait, and still life.

We walked to another Metro station and took it to the far end of old Arbat Street (Ultisa Arbat), by the Foreign Ministry building and near the home of  Alexander Pushkin.  We took a fairly leisurely walk down the now pedestrianized street, stopping at souvenir stores, watching street performers, and letting Tatiana point out other historical sites along the way.

After dinner, Alan, Joyce, Jon, and Paul walked back to Arbat Street to rid ourselves of remaining rubles.  We found that we were pretty good bargainers, getting a few items, like a Father Snow painted figure and a white fur hat, for amounts well below the asking prices.