Some sights of Russia

 

Russia is the largest country in the world by area, and there are so many attractions in it that even Russians themselves do not realize about most of them. But the main thing is all the more clearly visible: in the far West there are sandy beaches of the Baltic, in the Far East there are volcanoes and geysers of Kamchatka. The North is the Arctic, for the desperate. The South has long been the favorite resorts of the Black Sea, and in the heart of the country there are two capitals and two rings of the most charming provincial cities, Golden and Silver.

In Moscow

Moscow begins with Red Square and the Kremlin. You can stay here for a long time: see the cathedrals, visit the Armory and the Diamond Fund, visit Lenin's Mausoleum, and shop in GUM. Within walking distance are the Bolshoi Theatre, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the recently renovated Gorky Park, the Tretyakov Gallery with masterpieces of Russian painting. You can also walk to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts on Prechistenka Street. But you will need to go to the popular Darwin Museum, and preferably by metro: this is an independent attraction in Moscow. Tourists like to photograph mosaics, murals and sculptures of central stations.

You can take a break from the hustle and bustle of the city in the capital's parks. In the former royal residences, Kolomenskoye and Tsaritsyn, it is good to walk in nature and admire palaces and temples. Vorobyovy Gory offers a magnificent panorama of Moscow. The walls and towers of the Novodevichy Monastery with night lighting are especially beautiful. Stalin's skyscrapers, the VDNKh Park with the Druzhba Narodov fountain, the Space Conquerors stele with the Cosmonautics Museum and the monument to the Worker and the Collective Farmer, in the pedestal of which the exhibition center is open today, remind of the Soviet era in Moscow.

A separate world is the Moscow region. It is famous for noble estates, health resorts and a scattering of small towns, many of which deserve a separate trip.

In St. Petersburg

"Whatever a house is, it's a monument" — that's how they usually say about St. Petersburg. Its main attractions include the State Hermitage Museum, the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Admiralty, St. Isaac's Cathedral, and the architectural masterpieces of Nevsky Prospekt. It is not only a museum city, it is also a city of museums: Russian, Naval, Artillery, Zoological. A city of bridges, especially drawbridges. Unusual monuments — Chizhik-Pyzhik, Mumu, Major Kovalev's nose from Gogol's story.

St. Petersburg is surrounded by a ring of world-famous suburbs: Peterhof with fountains, Pushkin with the Amber Room in the Catherine Palace, Lomonosov with the Oranienbaum Palace and Park ensemble. Fans of military history will discover fortresses and forts: Koporye, Shlisselburg, Vyborg Castle, Kronstadt. From St. Petersburg, you can go on a cruise to the wooden churches in Kizhi or to the historical monastery of Valaam Island.

In Sochi and Krasnaya Polyana

Sochi is called the summer capital of Russia. It became a resort back in 1909, with the opening of the sanatorium complex "Caucasian Riviera", the most comfortable in tsarist Russia. Today, the beaches of the Sochi region stretch for 114 km and attract vacationers with the warm sea, fresh mountain air and entertainment for every taste. After the 2014 Winter Games, a huge Olympic Park and a new resort area "Imereti" were added to them, which arose on the site of the former Olympic Village. Previously, Sochi and its suburbs were mostly visited in the summer, but the Olympics made it an all-season destination.

Krasnaya Polyana village is located just 39 km from the city. A variety of trails, modern ski lifts and a well-developed infrastructure, fully modernized for the Olympics, have brought the resort to a new level. Now it can also be called the winter resort capital of Russia.

What to see in Crimea

The peninsula is usually divided into three shores: Western, Southern and Southeastern. The first and last are more interesting for beach holidays, and the main attractions and the most famous resort towns are located in the Southern Coast. It is worth seeing at least the Livadia Palace, the summer residence of the Russian emperors near Yalta, and Vorontsov Park in Alupka. If the tour takes you to the Massandra winery, founded at the end of the 19th century by the Golitsyn princes, then you can look into the Massandra Palace, which looks like a French castle. Another castle-palace, the famous "Swallow's Nest" on top of a 40-meter cliff, is called the hallmark of Crimea. It is also located in the vicinity of Yalta.

A cable car has been laid from the ancient Mishor to the top of Ai-Petri Mountain, unique in that it has only 2 poles for 2,980 m of its length. This is a world record. Literature lovers will find Chekhov, Voloshin, and Green museum houses on the Southern Shore. Connoisseurs of painting will discover the country's largest collection of paintings by Aivazovsky, a native of Feodosia. And fans of military history will not pass by the panorama "Defense of Sevastopol" and the underground Museum of the Cold War in Balaklava, on the former submarine base. In a fit of nostalgia, you can even go to the Artek children's camp, where all Soviet schoolchildren dreamed of going.

In Kaliningrad and the region

If St. Petersburg is considered a window to Europe, then the Kaliningrad region historically and geographically is Europe. The German spirit is still felt in Kaliningrad with its cathedral, Kant's grave, ancient city gates and bastions, one of which houses Russia's only amber museum. The beach suburbs are also cozy in German, especially in Svetlogorsk: a hydrotherapy tower with a sundial, toy houses with tiled roofs scattered among pine trees, a long promenade along the sea.

An even more relaxing beach holiday can be found on the Curonian Spit. This is a national park in the north in the Kaliningrad region. The sandy strip, 400 m to 4 km wide, stretches for 98 km, from Zelenogradsk in Russia to Klaipeda in Lithuania. In the photos of the sights from this part of the country, the "Dancing Forest" takes pride of place — the bizarrely curved pines there seem to have frozen in a complex acrobatic dance.

The Gold and Silver Ring of Russia

In addition to Moscow and St. Petersburg, there are cities in Russia that claim to be the "third capital". This title is usually given to Yekaterinburg, the capital of the Urals, which is famous for the huge Temple on Blood, built on the site of the execution of Emperor Nicholas II and his family.

In recent years, Yekaterinburg has gained a rival — Kazan, the heart of the Republic of Tatarstan. People come here to see the Kazan Kremlin, where ancient Orthodox cathedrals peacefully coexist with the newly built Kul Sharif Mosque. One of the symbols of the Kremlin is the leaning tower of Syuyumbike: it is 2 meters higher than the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

The charm of deep, provincial Russia is revealed in excursions around the Golden Ring, which includes Vladimir and Kostroma, Suzdal and Pereslavl-Zalessky, Sergiev Posad and Yaroslavl, Rostov Veliky and Ivanovo. There is also a Silver Ring — fortress cities located within the borders of the ancient Novgorod land, headed by Veliky Novgorod itself.

Lake Baikal

"A man must build a house, plant a tree, raise a child." In Russia, some add another item to this list: go to Lake Baikal. It is the deepest lake on the planet and the largest natural reservoir of fresh water: almost 20% of the world's total reserves. But it's not the numbers that attract people here, but the lake itself, its mystical power and beauty. No wonder the main symbol of Lake Baikal is the Shaman, a rock with two peaks on the Olkhon Peninsula.

The main Buddhist temple of Siberia is located not far from the lake shores.: this is the Ivolginsky datsan with the incorruptible body of a lama. And the 90 km long Circum—Baikal Railway is the absolute champion of Russia in terms of the number of bridges, viaducts, galleries and tunnels.

Valley of geysers in Kamchatka

It is the only geyser field in Eurasia and one of the five largest geothermal areas on the planet. It is difficult to get here, tourists can get to the Valley of Geysers only as part of a tour or in consultation with the administration of the reserve. The valley is an 8 km long gorge. The Geysernaya River flows along its bottom, and geysers stretch along its bed. The most important of them, the Giant, erupts every 5-7 hours, spewing jets of boiling water to the height of a nine—story building.