Kolomenskoye is a royal village that the city grew around, and it still feels like a village, with apple orchards and open meadows on a high bank above the Moskva River. The Grand Princes of Moscow kept a country estate here from the fourteenth century, and Ivan the Terrible was born here in 1530. The star of the place is the Church of the Ascension, completed in 1532, a tall, white, tent-roofed church that rises from its base like a rocket, with no interior pillars and a design that has no earlier parallel in Russian stone architecture. It is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and it is one of the most distinctive buildings in Moscow, partly because it feels so different from the onion domes of the Kremlin.
The surrounding park is large and green, with ancient oaks, rolling slopes, and the old wooden gates and towers moved here from other parts of the country. Peter the Great's small log cabin, brought from Arkhangelsk, stands on the grounds, and so does a reconstruction of a wooden palace of Tsar Alexei, a sprawling fantasy of carved gables that was destroyed in the eighteenth century. In autumn, the apple trees are loaded with fruit, and the smell is wonderful. Locals come here to walk, picnic and watch the river, and the views across the water toward the city are fine.
For a rider, Kolomenskoye is a destination within the city, not a place for a leisurely approach. Moscow's traffic is dense, and the main roads are wide, fast and crowded, with strict lane discipline and many cameras. The weekday rush hours are brutal, and weekends are better, especially mornings. Parking near the park can be tight, so plan ahead, and the side streets have some cobbles and tram tracks. Rain makes the road markings slick, and in winter, the city is under snow and salt.
Fuel is easy, since Moscow has stations everywhere, along with cafés, restaurants and hotels at every price. Within the park, there are small cafés and a market selling honey, and the gates close in the evening, so check the opening hours before you set out.
Walk up to the church, and look at it from the river side. The proportions make it seem to float.