Details
Description:
The Berlitz Moscow and St Petersburg Pocket Guide covers all the main sights, area by area, in an easily navigable format. Tourist attractions described include Moscow's Kremlin, Red Square and Bolshoi Theatre and St Petersburg's Hermitage, Nevskij Prospekt and Peter and Paul Fortress. A guide is given to excursions outside both cities, including Sergiyev Posad and Peterhof. The book also contains background historical information, advice on shopping and entertainment and the low-down on eating out. There is an A-Z of practical information, listings of recommended hotels and restaurants and useful expressions in Russian. You can read special features on topics ranging from Russian composers and writers to Moscow's fabulous Metro stations. Maps show Moscow, the Kremlin, St Petersburg and both cities' Metro systems, and there are dozens of colour photographs throughout.
Contents:
Maps: Moscow; The Kremlin; St Petersburg; Moscow's Metro System; St Petersburg's Metro System.
A Brief History.
Moscow -Where to Go: The Kremlin; Red Square; Theatre Square; Around the Garden Ring; Outlying Attractions; Day Trips from Moscow.
St Petersburg - Where to Go: Admiralty Side; Nevskij Prospekt; Vasilyevskiy Island; Petrograd Side; Day Trips from St Petersburg.
What to Do: Shopping; Entertainment; Sports.
Eating Out; Handy Travel Tips; Hotels and Restaurants; Index.
Extract:
The city of Moscow lies deep in the heart of the Russian plains, in the wide, shallow valley of the Moskva River. A map of the city records its growth in a series of concentric circles, like the rings of a tree, centred on the ancient fortress of the Kremlin. The innermost ring, the 15th-century Kremlin wall, remains impressively intact, while the Boulevard Ring, a wooded avenue, curves around the line of the 16th-century city walls.
About 3km (2 miles) out from the Kremlin, the Garden Ring is a busy, multi-lane traffic artery, which follows the circular line of a 14 1/2-km (9-mile) earthwork defence built at the end of the 16th century. The name itself dates from the 19th century, during which the rampart was replaced by a tree-lined boulevard, which is itself now sadly superseded by the present traffic-clogged motorway. The outermost ring is the Moscow Ring Road, a 108-km (68-mile) motorway which marks the present-day city limits.
