Moscow (04-06.08.2013)

DSCN8624 cpy I flew from Barnaul to Moscow where I was met by Yuri Badenkov DSCN8598 We stayed in his house in a village outside of Moscow. DSCN8599 He lives in a modest house jammed with books, art and mementos from a lifetime of exploration DSCN8600 His neighbors, which include Putin et al., are more into ostentation
DSCN8601 It is not a village now but a collection of gated estates DSCN8602 often quite nice ones DSCN8603 with very tall walls (does this guy drive a fire truck?) DSCN8604 sometime rather startling architecture
DSCN8609 even bizarre! DSCN8605 He is not that pleased with what has happened to his town DSCN8606 the Soviet icon DSCN8607 the Moscow River
DSCN8608 He remembers these places as they were in the late 40s and early 50s DSCN8610 now a river bank forest DSCN8611 in both directions DSCN8612 still some nature
DSCN8613 but occasionally incursions, illegal according to Yuri, by the moneyed class DSCN8614 Have I seen this somewhere else? DSCN8615 A two lane road runs through the village and it is often clogged with cars DSCN8617 indeed!
DSCN8618 complete the word! DSCN8619 Along the road into Moscow are continuous billboards DSCN8621 and then you reach the Ring Road DSCN8624 more traffic
DSCN8625 the new and the old DSCN8629 Approaching a main intersection, DSCN8628 an Arc de Triomphe celebrating Napolean's defeat! DSCN8630 Moscow City, like la Défense
DSCN8631 a famous hotel DSCN8634 and Hollywood cultural dominance DSCN8635 The Institute of Geography is in a charming but old building downtown DSCN8636 It has a old library and an old librarian (Yuri at left, librarian at right)
DSCN8637 an old style card catelog DSCN8638 and an old style reading room DSCN8641 It has displays of old colleagues long departed DSCN8642 but not forgotten
DSCN8639 The Atlas of Russia DSCN8640 the population density map (the Altai is just north of the legend showing what the colors mean) DSCN8643 Arkady Tishkov (Dep. Dir. ) Raisa Gracheva, and Yuri (exuberant one) DSCN8644 a more standard group photo
DSCN8646 We visit a park of disgraced leaders: Uncle Joe suffered a broken nose in 1989 DSCN8650 Lenin is well presented DSCN8651 I think that Brezhnev and maybe Marx himself DSCN8648 Outside is another garden of modern sculpture
DSCN8649 sculpture DSCN8652 sculpture DSCN8653 and an outrageous statue of Peter the Great refused by St-Petersburg DSCN8654 Swords into plowshares
DSCN8655 Swords into plowshares DSCN8656 Yuri was very creative at parking DSCN8657 He ran to get flowers while I took a quick tour of a monastery DSCN8658 gilt
DSCN8659 domes DSCN8660 more gilt DSCN8661 more domes DSCN8662 sculpture
DSCN8663 and domes DSCN8665 WE went up a hill like St. Germain en Laye which gave us a view startingly like that of Paris: Moscos City the analog to la Défense DSCN8666 Moscow 2 DSCN8667 Moscow 3
DSCN8668 Moscow 4 DSCN8669 Moscow 5 DSCN8670 Moscow 6 DSCN8671 Moscow State University
DSCN8673 the grandiose entrance to said University DSCN8675 but right across the street is an old Orthodox church DSCN8676 still quite popular DSCN8674 you gotta love a city with a ski jump in the city limits
2013-08-06 09.25.46 my last view of Russia . "hot dog", french or german style