Moscow

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To our amazement , the 36h train pulled in at Moscow exactly on time (puts GNER to shame!). Met by a man hired by Sundowners (who booked parts of our trip for us) who took us through the mad mad central Moscow rush hour traffic to our hotel. Moscow is full of 8 lane superroads with cars weaving in and out of lanes and no sign of anyone following traffic rules so we were biting our nails! Arrived safely though at our enormous Soviet era hotel complex - 4 hotels (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta) built for the Moscow Olympics in 1980. The hotel didn’t look like it had been changed since 1980 - very decrepid and falling apart but clean enough. We were on the 16th floor so had an incredible view of Moscow - it is so green - absolutely miles of parkland and forest all over. Had our first shower in a few days and headed out to explore. Lovely sunny day. Took the metro which was very fast and a little scary but the stations were really stunning - marble all over, statues, paintings, gold....we couldn’t figure out the station names or the map as everything was in Cyrillic so had to do a lot of asking but 6 stations later we got out at Red Square. This is so impressive - St Basils Cathedral is truely beautiful. The Kremlin was enormous but we didn’t go inside - saving that for the way back. Had lunch in a cafe in the lovely GUM department store (Gosudars-tvenny Universalny Magazin - not genitourinary medicine!) which housed some rather expensive shops - Louis Vuitton, Gucci and some more familiar high street names (Monsoon, Oasis!).

Ate some fabulous ice cream and relaxed in the Alexandrovsky Park then watched the changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier - it’s amazing how they can fling their legs almost above their waist with every step and look so relaxed - it looks so uncomfortable! We were both knackered by then so headed back and off to bed - 1st leg of the Transsiberian coming up tomorrow...

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Photos

Making a wish
People stood in this gold square and threw coins over their head, which were then picked up by a group of old ladies - we think they were making wishes!