Cindy left for her last day at work at 7:15. The water man came and picked up the empty bottles of water at 7:55. At 8:30 they started to jackhammer outside my window and now they have heavy machines chewing up the parking area. The place is filled with trucks, equipment, people, and more noise than you can imagine. It reminded me, in not a pleasant fashion, of those summers I spent working heavy/highway laying asphalt in hot humid weather. What a lovely way to send us off!
Yesterday we ‘discovered’ a marvelous little museum right near our house. In fact, Cindy has run by it almost every day since we arrived but we never knew what it was. Since it was raining we decided to stay close to home so we went over to investigate it. It is stunning! Here is a note that Cindy wrote to the folks who live here: For those you still here and/ or returning in August, you might like to know about a fabulous museum right in the neighborhood. It's now part of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (5 locations including this one) - and it's on the road to the zoo alongside that cute little park on the right hand side of the street. You've no doubt seen the clowns and other marvelous sculptures outside the building.
http://www.tsereteli.ru/eng/mmzts.php
The above is the best website I found but parts of it are under construction; I think the museum was a studio and is only recently open as a museum. In any case, it's the work of Zurab Tsereteli, a prolific sculptor originally from Georgia (did you know that Gruzinski means Georgia - or maybe Georgian?). He has done many famous sculptures around Moscow including the Georgian monument just up the street, the holocaust memorial sculpture in Victory Park, the Peter the Great that's supposedly Christopher Columbus, many many St. George the Dragon Slayer, etc.
The building has 4 floors of art, some sculptures, and some oils and ceramics - all cool. Then the docents allow you to go outside and there is a jaw-dropping array of HUGE sculptures, bas-reliefs, mosaics, and other impressive art. It costs 150 Rubles for foreigners (maybe a kartochka will get you in for less).
Have fun - it's well worth it –
http://www.tsereteli.ru/eng/mmzts.php
The above is the best website I found but parts of it are under construction; I think the museum was a studio and is only recently open as a museum. In any case, it's the work of Zurab Tsereteli, a prolific sculptor originally from Georgia (did you know that Gruzinski means Georgia - or maybe Georgian?). He has done many famous sculptures around Moscow including the Georgian monument just up the street, the holocaust memorial sculpture in Victory Park, the Peter the Great that's supposedly Christopher Columbus, many many St. George the Dragon Slayer, etc.
The building has 4 floors of art, some sculptures, and some oils and ceramics - all cool. Then the docents allow you to go outside and there is a jaw-dropping array of HUGE sculptures, bas-reliefs, mosaics, and other impressive art. It costs 150 Rubles for foreigners (maybe a kartochka will get you in for less).
Have fun - it's well worth it –
I had a lot of errands to do today in preparation for getting out of here. I had to go to the embassy and return our cable box and connections and then had to check out of the Embassy Association, which handles the commissary and other nice things. It is a membership organization and by checking out I made sure we would get our deposit of 300 dollars returned within the next month or so. These were easy things to do, but rather time consuming.
I took the long way home so that I could walk again along the banks of the Moscow River. All the wildflowers are in full bloom and the banks are a profusion of color. There were lots of ducks with their ducklings paddling among the water lilies, which are just starting to flower. Even the fish were jumping and I almost had to bust out in song.
I cooked my last meal in Moscow. It was a pasta dish with pan-seared scallops, garlic, bacon, chives, hot chili flakes, pepper, basil and a bit of salt. It was a very nice way to cap eleven months of meals in Moscow. The kitchen is now officially closed, except for coffee and tea. We have to clean the fridge tomorrow and then we’ll just eat out for our remaining week or so, most of which will be in Tallinn and Riga. That is, assuming we get to go to these places. Right now we still don’t have our passports and if we don’t get them by tomorrow, we may be plumb out of luck.
Keep your fingers crossed, Cindy and Wm.
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