Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
WHERE TO DINE
Vladimir
Restaurant options are expanding more quickly than hotels, though they remain limited.
The best restaurants are along Bolshaya Moskovskaya Street. Most bars (several of them
quite seedy) are on Bolshaya Sadovaya Street.
Stary Gorod,
opposite the Cathedral of
Dmitry, is a pleasant restaurant with European-influenced Russian cuisine at reasonable
prices, and unusually competent service for a provincial town. Main courses run around
400 to 600 rubles.
Sobornaya Ploshchad,
the restaurant next door, is almost as good
and costs a bit less, with main courses about 250 rubles.
199
Suzdal
Though its name means “monastic dining hall,” the
Trapeznaya
in the Kremlin is one
of the most cheery, colorful restaurants in Suzdal. It's housed inside the fortress, up a set
of steep stone stairs. Try their
zhulien,
wild mushrooms baked in sour cream and cheese;
or the juicy meats cooked in clay ovens. Main courses run 250 to 500 rubles. (Kremlin;
&
492/312-1639
).
A dining hall at
Pokrovsky Convent,
also called
Trapeznaya
(Ulitsa Pokrovskaya;
&
492/312-0889
), serves hearty food in a more austere setting, with hard wooden
benches and narrow windows in the stone walls. Try the fresh cranberry juice or home-
brewed mead. Local residents prefer the raucous atmosphere of the
Kharchevnya
(73
Ulitsa Lenina;
&
492/312-0722
) restaurant and bar. The pancakes with honey and
cream are divine and the rich soups nourishing. They serve very reasonably priced, main
courses from about 150 rubles.
3
ARKHANGELSKOYE
20km (12 miles) W of Moscow
This accessible estate offers an excellent opportunity to appreciate aristocratic architec-
ture and breathe pine-scented air at the same time, without traveling too far from your
hotel. Owned by a series of wealthy princes from the 17th to the 20th centuries, the
estate once housed one of Russia's richest private art collections. Its design still bears
testimony to the whims of its owners, with its frivolous pavilions, a Grecian-style mau-
soleum, and a Gothic bridge. Plenty of Russians come here just to wander the grounds,
hide amid the tunnels of rose-covered trellises, look over granite balconies at children
frolicking in the Moscow River on a summer day, or picnic on a bench in the oak groves.
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ESSENTIALS
Surprisingly few organized tour groups visit here, preferring to take visitors to the more
famous towns along the Garden Ring. That's part of Arkhangelskoye's appeal, making it
feel more like a discovery. Most Moscow tour guides and many Moscow hotels can
arrange an individual trip, with or without an English-speaking guide. You should be able
to negotiate such a tour for around 2,000 rubles per car for the day, plus the cost of the
guide (1,300 rubles). In the calmer days of July and August, the ride from central Mos-
cow shouldn't take more than 40 minutes one-way, meaning you can make the whole trip
in an afternoon. The rest of the year, Moscow traffic can make the one-way trip take an
hour or even two.
