He slowly departed from the pier and embarked on the cold spring water of the Moscow River. From time to time, he came across non-melted pieces of loose gray ice, which crumbled with a dull crack on the stern and sides. But the proud Ferdinand continued its trek along the promenade that was not crowded in mid-March, bypassing the golden domes of the Kremlin’s Cathedral Square, the “pill” of the Luzhniki Stadium and the majestic silhouette of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. We don’t dare to call this vessel “river tram”, however, our Ferdinand is one of five representatives of this modern family of comfortable yacht restaurants offering to combine a river walk with a good lunch or dinner and cruising along the main waterway of the Russian capital under the Radisson flag Royal Hotel ....
Hi Hi! Bye Bye…
Of course, a walk on the river was the final chord of my visit "to the capital of our country, the port of five seas, the hero city of Moscow." The main purpose of this trip was to visit the practically newborn Radisson Royal Moscow hotel, located in one of the famous Stalinist skyscrapers or, as they are called by the residents of the capital, the Moscow "Seven Sisters". It was with him that this whole story began.
The Radisson Royal Moscow Hotel was inaugurated on April 28, 2010, and this April will celebrate its first anniversary (or rather, by the time the issue is published, it will already celebrate it). Once in this building, one of seven that captured an entire era in its architecture, the Ukraine Hotel was opened on May 25, 1957. Then it was recognized as the largest hotel in Europe and offered its guests more than 1000 rooms, striking them with the magnificence of their interiors, scope and cordiality. Let me remind you that the list of the legendary "Seven Sisters", in addition to the Radisson Royal Moscow Hotel (formerly "Ukraine"), includes the main building of Moscow State University, the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the house on Kudrinskaya Square, the administrative and residential building near the Krasny metro station Gates ", the Hilton Leningradskaya Hotel and the house on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment. They largely determine the appearance of the capital, while emphasizing the picturesque urban landscape. But back to Ukraine.
At one time, a group of eminent architects headed by the president of the USSR Academy of Architecture A. G. Mordvinov and design engineer P. A. Krasilnikov worked on her appearance. The project was co-authored by V. G. Kalish and Dr. of Architecture V. K. Oltarzhevsky. They created a building with a total area of more than 88 thousand square meters and a height of 206 meters, including a 73-meter spire. At that time, people still did not know that after a little more than half a century, the world's highest Dubai hotel “sail” Burj Al Arab and the tallest skyscraper on the planet - Burj Khalifa will appear. But this is so, by the way ...
"Ukraine" is justly proud that world-famous stars stopped in its walls for more than half a century of history. The book of Honored Guests of Ukraine is autographed by Marcello Mastroiani, Robert de Niro, Marlene Dietrich, Mikhail Gorbachev, Michel Legrand, Patricia Kaas, Cesaria Evora and many other celebrities.
The new hotel, in order to become the current Radisson Royal Moscow, went through a large-scale reconstruction process that began in March 2007 and was designed not only to return the original appearance to its exterior, but also to modernize outdated engineering systems, include the latest technological achievements in the hotel’s equipment, and also restore and to replenish a unique collection of artifacts of the Soviet period - paintings, sculptures, small architectural forms. Today, Radisson Royal Moscow, like more than half a century ago, proudly rises in the bend of the Moscow River, at the confluence of Kutuzovsky Prospekt and Novy Arbat, near the historical center of the capital, looking at the Government House of the Russian Federation.
Blue Blood Radisson
If the word "luxury" is already sore to you and you are sure that you know what it is, I hasten to disappoint you. You don’t know and don’t know until you find yourself in the walls of the Radisson Royal Moscow hotel and feel for yourself what all the best in hospitality is all about.
What interests any traveler in the first place? How to get enough sleep and eat a little. This is if modest. Not for nothing that the first hotels were called inns, where travelers were changed horses, they were given lodging for the night and simple but satisfying food. In Europe, these small, family-run Bed and Breakfasts or Bed and Breakfasts are very popular today. Because "modesty beautifies" ... And many support this statement. But in the Moscow “royal” Radisson, both of these concepts were elevated to cult.
That is, if you spend the night there, only on the best beds with the most prestigious bedding in the world from the German company Muhldorfer - pillows and blankets stuffed with 100% goose down. If you take a bath or shower with the effect of "tropical rain" (by the way, all the plumbing is here from Valleroy & Boch), then without fail with a perfume collection of bath products from London's Penhaligon's - the supplier of the English royal court. And after the procedures, wrap yourself in super-soft bathrobes and towels from the Italian brand Frette, famous for its quality since 1860 and supplying textile to the Ritz hotels in Paris, Savoy in London, the Grand Hotel in Rome, as well as the famous Orient Express and the most rich houses of Europe. All this, standing on a warm floor with underfloor heating and admiring its reflection in the mirror, which is also heated from the back side to avoid fogging. And if you add that the dressing table near the bathroom mirror is decorated with soap dishes, napkin holders, boxes and other accessories from the Italian company ETRO, and there is a living orchid in a vase on the shelf, then it becomes clear that if you don’t leave the bathroom at once, even larger than a bedroom, you will want to stay in it for a long time, feeling with all fibers your belonging to the world aristocracy, that is, those in whose veins "blue" blood flows. And then there will be absolutely no time left to get acquainted with all the other delights of Radisson. And believe me, there are many of them.
The second “part of the Marlesonian ballet,” as previously announced, is “Breakfast,” or, more simply, the food, which Radisson Royal Moscow pays no less attention to than the highest comfort of rooms decorated and furnished with European and European furniture. American companies Baker, Provasi, Florence Art, Citterio, Etro, have won worldwide fame. Sorry, distracted again.
But, let's agree, I will definitely come back to the numbers and their design more than once. Here I will only make a reservation that after a major overhaul, the hotel offers its guests 505 rooms and suites of 9 different categories (recall that in Ukraine there were more than 1000) and 38 apartments of the apart-hotel, designed for a long stay and equipped with modern kitchen equipment . Like 50 years ago, the interiors of all rooms are decorated with authentic canvases of Russian painters of the Soviet period from the hotel’s collection. And now, from spiritual food, to earthly food.
From the veranda - under the roof
How nice to start the day with a cup of fresh aromatic coffee! Especially when the window is gray, damp and sweeping, it is incomprehensible either rain, or already snow. At Radisson Royal Moscow, coffee will be gladly served at any cafe, bar or restaurant. If you want to admire the historical diorama of Moscow, covering an area of more than 40 square meters and giving an idea of what the Russian capital looked like in 1977, then visit the Diorama Bar. It is located just above it, and while your order is being delivered to you, you can usefully spend time listening to the audio story about the diorama "Moscow is the capital of the USSR" created by a group of masters led by Yefim Deshalyt commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the National Exhibition in America. The diorama reliably imitates the change of time of day, and you can watch the dawn, city life during the day and evening views of the historical center of Moscow - from Sofiyskaya to Luzhnetskaya embankments.
Do not want excursions in the morning? Then welcome to the lobby bar or better to the library, where you can not only check e-mail, since each table is equipped with a PC with Internet access, but also read in silence a magazine or an interesting book from the hotel collection.
If silence also disgusts you, then you need to go to the Veranda restaurant on the ground floor, where breakfast is served daily for 300 people. The breakfast buffet assortment contains over 170 items of Mediterranean and Russian cuisine. It is simply impossible to go past the “Russian corner” - here are pancakes, and pancakes, and sour cream, and red caviar, and all kinds of pies with different fillings, and traditional pickles, and even honey in honeycombs. True oatmeal on water gives you real pleasure (we are for a healthy lifestyle, right?), Because you can supplement it with fresh forest and garden berries: raspberries, strawberries, cherries, blackberries and red currants. By the way, here in the morning champagne is served for those who wish.
Guests staying on the Club Floor do not have to have breakfast with the rest. They have their own restaurant, serving gourmet snacks all day, as well as hot and cold drinks. However, the most interesting awaits the hotel guests on the upper floors of the hotel.
Fans of oriental cuisine will be met by the refined Iranian restaurant Farsi, where even the most sophisticated gourmets will find something to surprise. Since the Radisson Royal Moscow hotel is the quintessence of true luxury, why not the most prestigious and fashionable establishments here? That is why the excellent “Tatler Club” with a view of the Moscow River and the summer terrace of the famous restaurateur Arkady Novikov attracts an elite metropolitan audience every evening.
Gastronomic discoveries await visitors to the Italian restaurant "Bono", from whose windows the best panoramic views of the city from a bird's flight open. The cozy atmosphere of a real Italian trattoria, the variety of fresh flowers on the floor and window sills, exquisite cuisine and drinks "in tone", attracts romantics and lovers to Bono. Even higher - the restaurant of Japanese cuisine "Takasa" with 60 seats was practically sheltered in the building’s steeple, and those who suddenly want to sing should take a look at the "Troubadour" karaoke bar.
Well, for the most desperate romantics, right under the spire of the building there is an amazing hall for an offer of marriage, which can only accommodate a couple of lovers.
Royal beauty and health
Love, so queen! Ah, how important this slogan of real machos is for every girl. What tricks only beauties do not go to look at 100%. After all, you never know, because of what turn the very prince "on a white horse" will appear. To maintain the desired shape and preserve beauty, the hotel operates the Royal Wellness Club. Here, in the "royal" beauty salon and spa, guests will be offered unique face and body care programs, the services of cosmetologists and stylists, and they will have a massage or hardware cosmetology session. Muscles can be toned in the gym equipped with Technogym smart machines. At the fitness bar, enjoy a glass of freshly squeezed juice or a cup of herbal tea. But the biggest pride of the center is the 50-meter Olympic pool with 6 lanes. You can relax your body and soul, in the curtain, in a real Russian bath, or a Turkish hammam, or, finally, in a Finnish sauna.
Socialist realism in every line
Everything at the Radisson Royal Moscow hotel impresses with its scale, grotesque, and power. A unique collection of works of fine art, numbering over one thousand two hundred original paintings, turns it into an art gallery as well. Here are the canvases of famous and recognizable authors, classics of the era of socialist realism - Alexander Daineki, Alexander Lentulov, Dmitry Nalbandyan, Nikolai Romadin, Mikhail Suzdaltsev, Kukryniksy and many others. The pearl of the collection is the work of Vasily Polenov: sketches created by the artist during his stay in Crimea, date back to 1910-1012 and have museum value.
During the restoration of the hotel from March 2007 to April 2010, the collection of cultural artifacts was not only carefully restored, but also replenished with new acquisitions - a diorama in Moscow and 57 sculptures of Soviet times. And, of course, it is necessary to mention the main decoration of the lobby - a colorful ceiling painting depicting the happy life of Soviet people. All these images of the era of socialist realism - emphasized ideological and folk, allegorical and portrait, expressed in marble, bronze, plaster or porcelain - fill the hotel spaces with life and an unusual mood. For some, even nostalgia ...
The best city on earth
Say what you like, but Moscow is an amazing city. There is no other such thing in the world. Noisy, vain, never sleeping, but such a capital of its own .... Just look at it from the windows of your room (by the way, I had the Ambassador Suite - a two-room suite with amazing decoration in blue and gold colors), or walk along the nearby streets leading to the Kremlin and Red Square, the streets of the ideal center or the main business districts and modern sights, such as the complex "Moscow City" and the Central Exhibition Complex "Expocenter".
However, it is known that “the king is played by the retinue”, and Radisson Royal Moscow with all its amenities, comfort, luxury and the ability to hold banquets, conferences, negotiations and other celebrations (after all, it is positioned as a business hotel), galleries of expensive boutiques if it weren’t for his team, led by general manager Wolfgang Nitske, who once opened the world-famous “sail” hotel Burj Al Arab in Dubai.
Somehow strange everything is connected in this life. And now we are talking with Wolfgang about Dubai, being in the very center of Russia, and when he arrives in the Emirates on vacation or on business, we will definitely meet again to devote a couple of hours over a cup of coffee to talking about the distant and beloved Moscow. In the meantime, I gratefully accept as a gift a book called “Collection”, which contains reproductions of all artwork from the Radisson Royal Moscow collection. This is a real relic, as the book is published in a limited edition. There will be something to read upon returning to Dubai.
In the meantime, there is still little time to stroll along Kutuzovsky Prospekt, drop into Red Square and visit the Kremlin churches, visit the Armory and the GUM, buy in memory the real Semenov matryoshka and Tula gingerbread. And wait for the next meetings with this best city on Earth and the most luxurious hotel located in its historical center ...
The author thanks Radisson Hotel Group for organizing the trip.
