Out and About

British Business Club On the River

It was “jolly boating weather” when the British Business Club sailed “doon the watter” for its May evening this year. To the accompaniment of a band which played appropriately out-of-date music very well, and a wonderful assortment of food, both Indian and British, a large crowd admired the sights of the river between Krasnopresnaya and Vorobyovy Gory. To starboard we had the Moscow power station, and to port the Rossiya building site. Then, as the drink flowed, the scenery seemed to get greener and more beautiful. The park below MGU provided a fine foreground to the symbol of totalitarian architecture which towers majestically above it. This was where we turned and started on a reciprocal course, as one has to do on rivers. Poshest of all the buildings we saw – literally so, as it was Portside Out and Starboard Home – was the Novodevichy Monastery which did not so much tower majestically as protrude elegantly above the luscious spring greenery surrounding it. I think we tied up later and disembarked.