Travel Notes

Changing the Guards

A ceremonial changing of the Kremlin guards on Saturdays – a new tourist magnet in Moscow – has revived traditions dating back to Peter the Great. When the 15-minute-long ceremony was reinstated last year in the Kremlin’s Cathedral Square, some compared it to the changing of the guard at London’s Buckingham Palace.

With guards dressed in uniforms styled after tsarist livery from 1913, and military choreography accompanied by the flutes and drums of the Presidential Orchestra, which has played in the Kremlin since 1938, the ceremony contrasts favorably with the somber, Soviet-era changing of the guard at Lenin’s Tomb. A more remote prototype was the changing of the guard at Peterhof Palace, near St. Petersburg, during tsarist times. 

The ceremony takes place on Saturdays at noon, May through October. Visitors can catch it for free in Red Square once a month.  At other times, it is held inside the Kremlin walls, with an admission fee of 960 rubles ($35) for foreigners or 300 rubles ($11) for Russians.

Tickets are available at the Kremlin ticket booths in Alexander Gardens one hour prior to the ceremony. For details, call +7(495) 202-2808.

Reforms on Rails

Russian Railways, the state owned monopoly that controls both cargo and passenger rail traffic, is hoping to get some $3 billion from an IPO of its cargo subsidiary, yet to be established, according to Russian daily Vedomosti. 

Under current reforms, by the end of 2006, Russian Railways will set up a new subsidiary that is expected to inherit most of Russian Railways’ cargo stock. Additional subsidiaries will be established for container, refrigerated, oil, timber and automobile transport by rail. 

Nonetheless, Russian Railways will still control the country’s railroad infrastructure, and will remain the largest rail market entity. 

Airport Hotels

Major Russian airports are seeking to improve their largely inadequate infrastructure by opening up new hotels and renovating existing ones.

Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport will get its third hotel in 2007. Construction of a 10-story, $50 million facility in front of the Vnukovo-1 terminal will start in August. The developer, International Airport Vnukovo, hopes that the hotel will rank between three and four stars. It will have over 400 rooms, two restaurants, a gym and spa.

Two other Vnukovo hotels will see improvements as part of the hotel’s ongoing reconstruction, which began in 2004. Hotel Equipage – for aircrews – has already been renovated, and now the previously modest Hotel Vnukovo will get a makeover, increasing its capacity threefold by 2007.

Meanwhile, the capital’s Sheremetyevo Airport will add a new hotel in September. The three-star Best Western will open near the Special Economic Zone, Sherryzone.

In St. Petersburg, the only airport hotel, Pulkovskaya, is switching owners and names. Recently acquired by Norway’s Wenaas, the four-star, 840-room hotel will be operated by Rezidor SAS and use the Park Inn brand. Russia has one other Park Inn hotel, in Yekaterinburg. In 2003, Rezidor SAS said it would open 50 Park Inns in Russia. 

Itinerant Mariinsky

The historic Mariinsky Theater building in St. Petersburg is closing for capital reconstruction this year. The renovation will take at least three years, Vedomosti reported, during which the Mariinsky will rent stage space and time from other theaters and spend more time on tour. 

The government of St. Petersburg has designated the newly-renovated Musical Comedy Theater building as the Mariinsky’s temporary stage. The second temporary home will be the huge stage of the constructivist DK Lensoveta on Petrogradskaya.

As a goodbye before the closing, Mariinsky will host its annual festival “Stars of the White Nights,” which runs through July 19. Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater is also currently closed for renovation, which is expected to drag on through 2007.

Vodka Museum Moves

While many institutions and businesses may be moving from the capital to St. Petersburg, President Putin’s hometown, the Museum of Russian Vodka went against the tide. The five-year-old exhibition relocated from St. Petersburg to Moscow this April.

The museum is housed in a whitetowered building at Izmailovo and hosts a collection on the history of vodka since the 15th century, when it was distilled in monasteries. Vodka tastings are held in a special room that is styled after a 19th century traktir, or inn.