Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
7
is hidden on one of the city's hippest
streets. Aromatic borscht is served here
24 hours.
Prisoner of the Caucasus
(Moscow; Kavkazkaya Plennitsa; 36
Prospekt Mira;
&
495/280-5111
)
offers grilled lamb and garlicky egg-
plant. Waiters are decked out as moun-
tain warriors.
White Sun of the Desert
(Moscow; Beloye Solntse Pustyni;
29/14 Neglinnaya St.;
&
495/209-
7525
) offers central Asian cuisine like
lamb pilaf and spicy dumplings. See
p. 132, 132, and 127, respectively.
•
Best Quickie Meal: Yolki-Palki
is a
Russian chain with basic sit-down ser-
vice in a country kitchen setting. It's
also kid-friendly, a rarity on Russia's
otherwise up-to-date dining scene. See
p. 124.
5
BEST VIEWS
•
Lookout Point at Sparrow Hills
(Mos-
cow): With the Stalin Gothic skyscraper
of Moscow State University at your
back, the capital spreads out beneath
you in its enormity. Watch newlyweds
pose and embrace at the lookout, leav-
ing empty champagne bottles on the
ledge.
•
Resurrection Gate Entrance to Red
Square
(Moscow): Get ready to gasp
when the beveled onion domes of St.
Basil's Cathedral greet you at this cob-
blestone hilltop square. Resurrection
Gate, itself resurrected in the 1990s,
forms a perfect frame.
•
Strelka
(St. Petersburg): If you stand on
this spit of land on Vasilevsky Island,
you'll get a panorama of nearly every
major landmark and monument in St.
Petersburg, while the Neva River laps at
your feet. It's also a window onto the
classical conformity of the city's archi-
tecture.
•
The Sail Up to the Petrodvorets Pal-
ace
(Peterhof ): The dense forests along
the Baltic shore suddenly part and the
gilded palace emerges, atop cascading
fountains and sculpted gardens. Any
boat from St. Petersburg to the imperial
summer residence offers this vista.
Hydrofoils leave from the Winter Pal-
ace/Hermitage in the warmer months.
1
6
BEST ARCHITECTURE
•
The Kremlin
(Moscow): This red-brick
fortress encloses a complex of 15th-
century cathedrals that serve as Russia's
best-preserved window into that era,
with their gold domes and pointed
arches. Surrounding them are palaces
where Russia's presidents and their
Soviet and czarist predecessors have
reigned, from the flowered columns of
the Grand Kremlin Palace to the classi-
cal triangular Senate Building. See
p. 135.
•
Palace Square
(St. Petersburg): The
Russian baroque Winter Palace looks
across this square—the stage for the
Russian Revolution—toward the Alex-
ander Column (celebrating the victory
over Napoleon) and the curved facade
of the General Staff building. Though
its parts were erected at different times,
Palace Square demonstrates the ensem-
ble architecture that gives this planned
city its consistency. See p. 251.
•
Stalin Gothic Skyscrapers
(Moscow):
These seven towers raised in the 1940s
and 1950s soar above the capital, look-
ing grandiose from afar and eerie up
close. Two of the towers house private
apartments, two house government
