{"id":19,"date":"2008-07-30T20:13:52","date_gmt":"2008-07-31T00:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grimmfamilytales.com\/?p=19"},"modified":"2008-07-30T21:27:39","modified_gmt":"2008-07-31T01:27:39","slug":"a-little-bit-russia-here-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grimmfamilytales.com\/index.php\/a-little-bit-russia-here-at-home\/","title":{"rendered":"A little bit of Russia here at home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Tuesday after work we took a boat ride down the Moscow River. I saw a lot of the same landmarks and buildings I’d seen before, just from the other side. There were a few new things too though.<\/p>\n

This boat is similar to the one I was on, but different, because I’m not on it.<\/p>\n

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This is me on my boat. I wanted a nice picture of me with the flag blowing behind me, but the wind would not cooperate. Thankfully a nice Russian lady helped me out.<\/p>\n

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We passed by Gorky Park and then Gorky Park’s Amusement Park.<\/p>\n

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This is one of the USSR\u2019s last spacecraft (a copy of the US Space Shuttle) built just before the collapse of communism. It is now used as a ride in the theme park.<\/p>\n

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Next we went by a 317 foot tall statue of St. Peter the Great. It’s one of the largest statues in the world.<\/p>\n

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And here’s a close up of great big Peter the Great. I really need to get better at editing my photos so the color of the sky stays the same. I mean look at these next four, all taken within a half hour of each other.<\/p>\n

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And here’s some familiar sights – The Kremlin and St. Basil’s.<\/p>\n

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This building (the Hotel Ukraina) is one of Stalin’s “Seven Sisters”. The Seven Sisters were built during Stalin’s last years (1947-1953) <\/sup>and are a combination of Russian Baroque and Gothic styles with the technology of American skscrapers.<\/p>\n

The Hotel Ukraina is the second tallest of the “sisters” (650 feet), and is still Europe’s tallest hotel.<\/p>\n

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Another of the sisters is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was right outside my hotel (across the street from my grocery store). It is 563 feet tall and was supposed to be a lot shorter. It was supposed to have a blunt rectangular top, but when it was finished Stalin changed his mind. They were just about out of money though and so a metal spire was dyed to match the building’s exterior and was hastily added to tower’s roof. This helped make it look more like the other sisters, however it’s not exactly a perfect match.<\/p>\n

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I’m not sure if I saw all 7 of the girls. I know there were a few more I saw that I didn’t take pictures of – you get the idea though.<\/p>\n

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Last Tuesday after work we took a boat ride down the Moscow River. I saw a lot of the same landmarks and buildings I’d seen before, just from the other side. There were a few new things too though. This … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grimmfamilytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grimmfamilytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grimmfamilytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grimmfamilytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grimmfamilytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/grimmfamilytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grimmfamilytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grimmfamilytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grimmfamilytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}