Looking for Roses in the Botanical Gardens

We thought this tree was a great place for a photo.
(Sam, Narene, Linda, Chris, & Greg)

Saturday, August 23, was a perfect day for walking through the Botanical Gardens. We took sack lunches and met at Sokol at 9:00 a.m.

There are lots of trees and ponds.
(Greg, Chris, Linda, and Narene – Sam is taking the picture.)

Many paths were wide like this, but others were narrow paths
through the trees. Most paths are without signs, so it’s a guess
as to which path is the one you want to take.
(Narene, Chris, and Linda)

Another serene scene. We venture on and eventually find the
Japanese Garden, but the gate is locked.

We haven’t found the roses yet, but this is pretty scenery.
We finally see a sign in Russian
and we think we are on the right track.

After walking for miles in nature,
we were surprised to come upon this view.

Another view at the same spot as the photo above.

Somehow we missed the roses, but we still enjoyed
our walk through the Botanical Gardens.
We were there about 3 ½ hours.

Here is some information about the park from Wikipedia:

"Tsytsin Main Botanical Garden of Academy of Sciences, founded in 1945 is the largest in Europe. It covers territory of 3.61 square kilometers (1.39 sq mi) bordering the All-Russian Exhibition Centre and contains a live exhibition of more than 20 thousand different species of plants from different parts of the world as well as scientific research laboratory. It also contains a rosarium with 20 thousand rose bushes, a dendrarium, and an oak forest with average age of trees exceeding 100 years as well as a greenhouse on more than 5000 square meters."

Leaving the Botanical Gardens, we entered the
All-Russian Exhibition Center. This is the main entrance,
but we actually entered on the opposite end.

Except for Linda, we had been to the Exhibition Center before; but it is an interesting place. The flowers were especially pretty on this visit. It was first opened in 1939 intended as a showcase for Soviet accomplishments. The 71 pavilions originally built for individual Soviet republics or Soviet-era industries provide a look into the past as we walk by, but many have a variety of vendors selling their wares inside. Muscovites call this area by its Soviet acronym, VDNKh, which is the abbreviation of its former name.

We walked through the horticulture building as we left
the Botanical Gardens. Instead of plants and seeds,
this building used to be devoted to space exploration.

In May, the horticulture building was full of plants of all kinds for sale; but this day there was only a portion of the building filled with plants. It appeared the remainder of the building was being remodeled.

This is a mock-up of the Vostok rocket
that took the first man, Yuri Gagarin, into space in 1961.

The floral displays are attractive.


If you click on this photo you can better see
the white baby buggy in the center of the display.


There is a ferris wheel in the background. There are two
small amusement parks on each side of the Exhibition Center.


The center attraction of the Exhibition Center
is this fountain with the golden statues of women
representing each of the 15 former Soviet republics.


A closer look at two of the fountain statues.
Unfortunately, the water was turned off.


A children's train with the fountain
and main entrance in the background.


This is the Central Pavilion,
but many are more elaborately decorated.


The name on this building translates to "Butcher Shop."


Another pavilion. I may add more in a future blog.

By the time we walked through the Botanical Gardens and the All-Russian Exhibition Center, we had walked a lot of miles and were ready to sit down and eat at McDonald's. I had my usual, a chicken sandwich and chocolate shake.