A Sunny Summer Day Stroll Through the Tverskoy District in Moscow Russia

It was a beautiful sunny June day in 2010 when Lindsay and I arrived back in Moscow (we had been there a few days earlier) after taking a night train from St Petersburg. We had an entire day to spend in the city before catching a late afternoon flight to Beijing China. The first thing we did was take the metro to the Belorussky Train Station (one of many in Moscow) to drop off our luggage. We would be catching a train later that afternoon from this train station to Sheremetyevo Airport and wanted to leave our luggage there. We eventually found a dark small room in the basement of the station which was the official “luggage hold room.” The attendant was an extremely nice Russian man but with the language barrier we were not able to tell how much it was or how long it would stay open. For about 30 minutes we tried all sorts of signing and pointing but were never quite able to figure it out. Luckily a couple of young Russians came along and were able to help us translate. After dropping off the bags we took the metro again to the Tverskoy District of the city, known for its beautiful architecture and rich history, which we were anxious to explore. As we started to walk through its streets we stumbled upon Vysokopetrovsky Monastery with its beautiful collection of old/small churches and courtyards. We simply strolled around the gardens and courtyards and eventually found a little bench where we spent the next 45 minutes admiring a beautiful little (it was tiny) red brick church called St Peters Cathedral which stood right in front of us. There were numerous art students around painting and it really was a beautiful scene. From there we worked our way down Tverskaya Street which is one of the main streets of Moscow and full of beautiful old buildings (many have been made into hotels) all with incredible architecture. This street contains many of the high end hotels of Moscow and Lindsay and I always love to stop by their lobby’s to use their plush bathrooms and relax in their air conditioning for a bit. :) As we continued to explore the Tverskoy District we eventually stumbled upon the most posh shopping district we have ever seen. It was the absolute “Beverly Hills equivalent” of Moscow and was absolutely stunning. There were cobblestone streets that winded through beautiful old buildings full of top notch shopping. Lindsay and I were in our typical “backpackers threads” and stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the Moscow elite who where decked out to the hill. We paused and took a few pictures and admired this beautiful little district. Eventually we made our way to a park were we decided to relax for an hour or so before heading back to the railway station to catch our train. However, before we made it to the park we passed a few old Soviet Era government buildings that were very cool and extremely intimidating. This particular day was sunny and beautiful and the local Muscovites were out enjoying the weather. When we settled on a nice shady piece of grass in the park to spend the remainder of our afternoon we were surrounded by thousands of other locals doing the exact same thing. We sat there for at least an hour or so just taking in the scene around us and soaking up the beautiful weather. Moscow is truly one of the most gorgeous cities on earth and on that sunny summer day in 2009 Lindsay and I explored one of her most beautiful districts...Tverskoy.