July 7, 2019

It is hard to believe that today is already our third day in Moscow.

Today after breakfast at our hotel, we headed to the Museum of Cosmonautics.  This is a wonderful museum to celebrate the human conquest of other planets.  This Museum sits at the foot of the Monument to the Conquerors of Space to commemorate nation’s achievements in space exploration.

This museum gives a retrospect on how Soviet space science evolved starting from first man-made satellites subsequently followed by the first manned space flight, first space walks, Moon exploration programs, Solar system exploration programs and international space research programs.  We enjoyed visiting this museum very much.  Before leave Pam and I went on a space simulator, which was really great and a bit of fun and a really good way to end the visit to this museum.

Afterwards we went to visit the “Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy.  The entrance to this massive exhibition center is framed by awesome gates — similar in size to the Brandenburg Gate —  we were greeted with wide avenues, manicured lawns, and flower beds with decorative patterns.

As we walked further into the park, we saw a very large statue of Lenin which is located in front of the main pavilion, where the Corinthian columns come together with the Red Army star and the crests of the 15 Soviet Socialist Republics to celebrate socialism, national glory, and scientific progress — three achievements as intricately intertwined in the resulting panorama as they were in the Soviet imagination.This is a massive park with many pavilions, which show the products and culture of the different regions of the old USSR.  Some were also built to display the achievements of the USSR in health, science, education, etc.

As this place is massive, we felt that we walk a marathon today.  Neverless a lot to see and explore in this exhibition.  

Before dinner at a local trendy restaurant – close to our hotel – we went to explore the botanical gardens that sit behind our hotel.  This botanical gardens belong to the Moscow University and is also used to host musical festival.  It has an area for children to explore the different textures we can find in nature – from rock to sand.  A very pleasant area to explore on a summer’s evening.

After dinner we returned to our hotel to see the highlights of the first stage of the Tour De France. We also wrote the blog.

See some more photos from today’s journey here: https://adobe.ly/32bZkwF

Another  great day in Russia.