Okay - I am trying to remember what we did and saw in Moscow...
Our driver picked us up form the train station and managed to keep a straight face when he saw all our luggage. We arrived at the hotel no problem - except that our train got in at 5 in the morning and they would only let us check in at noon. We organised to meet our city tour guide at 10am - which left us only 4 hours to kill (it being 6am when we arrived at the hotel)...
Sue and Anthony immediately headed for the couches in the hotel bar, to catch up on their snoozing, and Kala and I stayed up reading Russian magazines and watching Russian TV - more entertaining than you would have thought.
Our guide arrived promptly at 10am - and lead us through a tour of the Moscow underground - which may sound odd - but firstly it was raining and secondly they have a magnificent metro - all the stations we saw either had mosaics, chandeliers or statues - really a lot more WOW factor than the London underground! Interesting factoid - it carries 9 million people a day, more that the London and NY underground combined (or so our guide told us). We then headed above ground to see the Russian version of Harrods and catch our first glimpse of Red Square.
At that stage we had had enough of being tourists and headed back to the hotel to check in and more importantly - shower!!
Sue, Anthony and Kala - then headed back out to have dinner at My-My (pronounced Moo Moo) - whilst I opted for an early night.
Next day we had an early start and headed for the Armoury at the Kremlin. There was another exciting lost in translation moment when we were buying the tickets and we all landed up with audio guides - which no-one wanted and that we landed up paying a fortune for...sigh...
The Armoury was lots of diamonds, gold, carriages, clothes, Faberge eggs and a sword or two - all very shiny and impressive.
Then it was off to the Kremlin (and another audio guide) - which seems to be a bunch of churches - at this point though I should probably mention that it was -5 degrees outside so the churches were welcome heating spots (especially for Kala - who did not have gloves or a hat- and Sue - who lost her gloves and hat earlier that morning). Maybe there is more to the Kremlin than what we saw - but it seemed to be mostly a collection of churches...
We had a late lunch at the GUM department store which is right on red square and is very lovely inside. Then it was off to St. Basil's - which is the oddest church I have been to in a while - they still seem to be restoring the place and it is like a maze inside.
Anthony and Sue (although Sue will deny she had anything to do with this ) took us on another walking tour of old Moscow - where we got to see the old KGB headquarters (much more pink looking than one would imagine) and possibly the shortest poshiest shopping street in the world.
After a bit of hat shopping and a welcome cheesecake break - we headed back to red square for some night photo's ( thanks Rose - good plan). Red Square is really lovely at night - hopefully we will get some photo's loaded so you can see!
At this stage we decided it was time for some Vodka - we hunted high and low for a place recommended by the lonely planet but we only ended up going around in a circle and coming back to one of restaurants that started off at. I think the restaurant was Japanese fashion - luckily that did not deter them from selling vodka! I do remember that at one stage we ordered fries and landed up with a big bowl of crisps instead - luckily we had the vodka to pull us through those trying times...
Our last day in Moscow - it rained but was at least warmer. We headed off for Novidechy Convent and Cemetery via one of the fancy Metro stations we hadn't seen yet. I don't have much to say about the Convent - I am not sure why everyone recommends it...
We then headed back into town for Gorky park, statue park and a walk back to the Kremlin. We stopped for a late lunch down Arabat street (Moscow version of a really big and open Covent Garden) - for all of those in the know - Sue had a hamburger and I have the pictures to prove it!!
After some last minute souvenir shopping we headed for the supermarket for all our train food - many, many 2 minute noodles were acquired - once we were sure we had enough to feed an army we headed back to the hotel for our 10pm transfer to the train station for the start of our 3 day train journey to Siberia.
Same driver - this time his eyes bulged and he had a little chuckle when he saw all our bags and grocery shopping - at least he didn't arrive in a smart car...
