Moscow, Russia: The End of Days

On our last day in Moscow, the first thing we saw was the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.  One of the most unique things about this church were the excellently sculpted bronze reliefs on the outside (above the doors in the picture above) depicting detailed scenes from the Bible.  Interesting tidbit: Stalin demolished this church to build the Palace of the Soviets, but that was never started, so the site was turned into the world's largest swimming pool, and then the church was eventually rebuilt.

Across the Moscow river we headed to the New Tretyakov, the state gallery of modern Russian art.  The museum was in an absolutely hideous building, and no pictures were allowed inside, hence the picture of the river instead.  The museum itself wasn't remarkable, with the exception of a multimedia display of what the museum termed as 'art of the Soviet myth'--fascinating.

After our last set of Moscow adventures, we hopped on the very old and very long night train to Kiev, Ukraine.  Our two compartment-mates were a nice young Russian couple on holiday, and it was a rather uneventful journey, aside from the two lengthiest passport checks and luggage searches that I have ever undergone (one for Russia and one for Ukraine).  All's well that ends well!