North by north west
Leaving Moscow wasn’t easy. Partly because of the snowfall. And partly because photographer Ashley and videographer Mrityunjay just wouldn’t stop shooting! Moscow has that effect. Eventually when we did hit the highway, speeds increased but so did the snowfall. Not a biggie though. The Ceat snow tyres were doing their job really well, and call it acclimatisation, but the cold wasn’t pinching us as much anymore. Seriously, -2deg feels like a summer’s day if you’ve been through -23!
The highway we were on connects Moscow and St Petersburg and hence sees a lot of foreign tourist traffic. As foreigners ourselves, we were glad to see the welcome return of road signs in English. Our destination for the day was Veliky Novgorod. While the regular highway would have taken us there, we went for the quicker option of the new expressway. The speed limit was up to 110kph (from 90kph) and despite the snow, it was easy to keep the pace. Toll cost was the equivalent of Rs 220, but notably it was the first toll we had paid since we left China a few thousand kilometres ago! I hope India’s powers that be are reading this. With nothing but snow and ice on either side of the expressway’s guardrails, the Russian countryside looked like a giant skating rink. So much so that at one point, it was only our GPS that told us the mass of white alongside the road was the famous Volga river! We made good time on the 400km-plus journey but it was already dark by the time we reached our destination. When you are travelling northwards in the winters, you are always racing against the clock to catch daylight.
The next day started with a tour of Veliky Novgorod. It’s a town of historical significance as it is said the Russian state originated here in AD 862. The town’s Kremlin is also one of the oldest in Russia, having been originally built in the 9th century. Inside the Kremlin stands the golden-domed Cathedral of St Sophia. Built in AD 1050, it is the oldest church in Russia. Quite a place.
We punctuated the day’s short drive to St Petersburg with a halt at a Renault dealership where the staff took keen interest in the Kwid. Cars with less than 70hp get certain tax concessions in Russia and learning how well the Kwid had managed in Russia’s cold seemed to give the showroom executive ideas. Renault, if the Kwid becomes a hit in Russia, you know whom to thank.
The grandeur of St Petersburg
If Moscow is Russia’s political capital, St Petersburg is its cultural capital. It’s a city that’s seen the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. While no more than a swampy marsh on the coast of the Baltic Sea for much of its existence, the area that is modern St Petersburg was coveted right from the 13th century on, because whoever controlled the region, controlled the trade routes. It was Peter the Great who finally ousted the Swedes from the region in the early 1700s and founded St Petersburg, eventually making it the capital of his empire. Successive rulers alternated between St Petersburg and Moscow as their capitals, though the vulnerability of the former to a German attack prompted the Soviets who took over in 1917 to move the capital back to Moscow. The city saw its darkest days during World War II when the Nazi forces surrounded it for over 900 days, cutting all supplies. Over a million people are said to have died during that period. In the post-war era, the city became home to artists and liberal thinkers and even today it’s got a very different vibe to the rest of Russia.
In fact, it not only feels like a European city but it looks like one too. Peter the Great wanted his capital to look as European as possible and had European architects design the city. Seeing the sights through the windscreen of the Kwid, we realised the scale of the grandiose of St Petersburg’s main area. Literally every building looks like a work of art. To my eyes, some buildings stood out more than the others, one of them being the Church of the Saviour on Blood – a structure reminiscent of Moscow’s St Basil’s Cathedral. St Petersburg is also home to one of the great museums of the world – the Hermitage. As luck would have it, we were in town on the one day of the week it is closed.
Interestingly, St Petersburg is also called the Venice of the North thanks to the umpteen canals that cut through the city. But at this time of the year, boating isn’t possible. Note to self: visit St Petersburg in the summers, and during the period of White Nights when the sun doesn’t descend enough for it to get dark. For a city that offers so much to do, you do need all the time in the world.
The next day, we were to bid adieu to Russia and cross into the European Union through Estonia where we’d also be joined by Doug Revolta from Autocar UK. He’d spent a fair bit of time with the Kwid in India but never thought he’d reunite with one in his own backyard.
