Moscow, a Room with a View

Here I am again in the great Russian metropolis... Moscow!!! Once again I'm not here as a tourist so the time available to me is really limited... The memory of its historic wonders remains vivid, I was here exactly a year ago as my previous travel story describes.

The view that the room of this hotel, the Crowne Plaza, located in the area of the Expo Center, offers me is truly extraordinary... the evocative scene that opens before my eyes is dominated by a wide waterway, the Moskva River, on whose bank stands the Hotel Ukraina, a historic hotel, opened in 1957 as one of the seven sisters, the seven famous Soviet-Stalinist skyscrapers. Completely renovated in 2002, it has 860 rooms spread over 34 floors! The original furnishings have been preserved and inside it holds works of contemporary art. It is currently closed for works.

My gaze cannot help but be drawn to a curious boat, colourful and rather massive... a cargo ship moored at the pier perhaps? Or a tourist motor ship? I can't guess, I ask the Russians... it's the Alexander Blok Hotel Casino Nightclub! Moscow, certainly one of the few cities to have a hotel inside a casino floating on the Moskva, curiosity satisfied, but who would ever have thought it?