This is the Moscow River, adjacent to Gorky Park. One of the amusements in the area where the leaning blue columns are is one of the USSR's equivalent of the US space shuttle - the designs are very similar. The boat is one that regularly takes passengers up and down the Moscow River. One could use it as a taxi, but given the winding river and the speed of the boat, most persons take it just to enjoy the ride. The boats do not run during the winter - only partly because the river is often clogged with ice.

The large building in the background with the gold domes is the reconstruction of one of the largest Russia Orthodox cathedrals in the country. It is a reconstruction because Stalin had the original torn down and replaced with a large swimming pool. A few hundred yards beyond the cathedral is the Kremlin.