Day four and Moscow underground is a sight to be seen!

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So my birthday did not finish as expected, President Putin did not send a undercover agent to pick me up for a meal in the Kremlin - I am sure it was because a major event was happening and he just could not spare the time in his busy top secret world. Anyway we decided to go to Gorky Park which to be honest was a BIG mistake I really did not want a birthday meal of eating a pizza or burger in a take-away (yes you guessed it Mike forgot to book a restaurant). Anyway we decided that we would walk back to the district named as Red October - yes that's correct Red October and no Sean Connery was not there waiting to wine and dine me for my birthday either (things are going from bad to worse now!!). Anyway we found a nice bar that overlooked the river and had a bite to eat - not what I expected my birthday to end like, but hey ho beggars can't be choosers!

So today we have the day to ourselves to explore and thought under no circumstances can we come to Moscow and not go on the underground as it is supposed to have the most spectacular underground stations. Well I can honestly say you are not disappointed. We purchased a ticket costing 55 rubles (75 pence) and went to the top 10 underground stations. They are all spectacular in their own right and to be honest every city I have been to the mayor or whoever is in charge should visit Moscow underground stations and take a couple of learnings.

One; there are plenty of trains and extremely frequent you wait a couple of minutes at the most for the next train

Two; they are magnificently decorated and give an insight into the history - what a great opportunity for every city to do this

Three; they are so clean

Four; you feel really safe as you have to go through a body scanner and there are guards who if they decide will put your bag/rucksack into a scanner just like the airport. I know you are probably saying this cannot happen in London or any other city as the underground is so busy - well so is Moscow's underground during rush hour and if they can do it then why can everyone else not do it?

So after a while and seeing so many fabulous stations we decide to come up for air ( I wish I could include all the photos from the incredible stations we saw but sorry not enough space). Anyway back to my story it was good in someways as we had no idea where we were, but not good in other ways as the heavens decided to open and open they did, talk about stair rods. So the nearest place to get out of the rain was Starbucks - not really what you want to frequent when you are in a different country - the only good thing was the coffee is exactly the same wherever you are in the world and secondly I got onto wifi.

Once the rain stopped hammering down we ventured out and low and behold I could see St Basils Cathedral - so could navigate us back over the canal and the river to GUM which is the official state shopping mall. Yes remember the shopping mall I told you about previously which has all the designer shops in - well they have a few really lovely eating places so we found one which we went to yesterday - typical brits return to the place they enjoyed food before instead of trying somewhere new. Anyway the waiter recognised us - it must be my scintillating personality, ha ha - but he thought we came from Liverpool - honestly I did not try to steal any hub caps! We explained that we were from North of Manchester as it is no use explaining exactly where you live as everyone has heard of Manchester United so although most people have no idea in the UK where Manchester is they know of Manchester United. Anyway enough of my rambling he was a really interesting young man. He had studied film and also had been in the Army and had been in a military parade in Red Square as a drummer. He had been to Europe but did not get to the UK and is so annoyed he did not make it - but seems it is his ambition to get here.

Anyway we have decided to go back to the hotel to rest our weary feet now - you can tell we are getting on, ha ha. Not sure what we are going to do later on but I am sure it will be fitting of our last night in Moscow before we start our next adventure to St Petersburg.

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Photos

Kitai-Gorod Station
All along the walls were magnificent statues depicting different soldiers

Dorogomilovo Station
This fresco is at the end of the concourse for the platform