Taking a walk along the Moskva River: a pedestrian in Moscow.

Moscow is not a pedestrian friendly city. Cars parked on pavements, scarcely located underground walkways, too many people who normally rush around.

Well, I know I can't help grudging about the city. Here I would offer a route from the Novospassky Monastery along the Moskva River to the Red Square and further on to Tverskaya street, a pompous reminder of Stalin's Empire style.

The detailed map is here. 

You may start at Proletarskaya underground station then take your time relaxing in the garden of the Novospassky Monastery where you should also have a meal. Beware:  a walk along the river will take 2-3 hours and there are not so many crossings or underground pedestrian walkways. As far as I remember there were 2 or 3 of them.

Once you start your trip along the embankment, you won't get much chance to cross the road which is all along the embankment and is a very busy one. Strange but true: there aren't benches or any facilities for taking a break on the embankment.

However, the views unfolding will reward you for some inconvenience. 

Novospassky Monastery

I've already written about the Monastery.

Here is yesterday's account of my visit to the Monastery. It's the time of roses blossoming.

Doing Moscow: going to the Kremlin. Yes? No!

One out of five Muscovites dreams about leaving Moscow for the countryside according to a survey. Believe me, that is for a reason. I started dreaming about leaving it the first year I came here.

A most splendid metropolis with traffic jams taking hours of its residents' lives, muddy streets, unskilled cheap laborers employed all over the city in order to make whirlwind money. All these make Moscow unattractive for life. Yet, hoards of people all over the world come here to land unbeatably lucrative jobs.

We've discussed the sightes of Moscow with my husband who was born here. Our mutual belief is that Moscow can't be attractive altogether, all of it, in general.  There is a number of spots with rich history, and, despite becoming sore from looking at ugly brand-new buildings, your eyes will eventually find its sight to rest on it.