Plenty of Money About

---

Geo: 55.7724, 37.5965

There seem to be more Range Rovers in Moscow than in the UK and quite a number of Bentleys. A bit of a change from 20 years ago when I was offered a job here. The company said I could have a top of the range BMW or a Lada with a full time chauffeur, they recommended the second option as the BMW would be scratched or worse and you needed a minder. As it happens I didn't take the job, perhaps if I had I would now speak Russian and understand the Coptic script which had us scratching our heads when trying to find the right metro station.
We have managed to fathom out how to use the metro which is the best way to get around the city. The travel agent arranged for us to be picked up by car from the station, it then took over an hour to get to our hotel. We returned into the city on the metro, 15 minutes max. You also get to see the grand stations which are works of art.

We did the trendy thing and had a snack in a coffee shop in the GUM shopping centre, it cost £30 for a soup, a hot chocolate and two beef rolls but in fairness to the cafe the hot chocolate was the best Gill thinks she has ever had and everything else was very good so no complaints.
It is a huge market, built 120 years ago as the main market in Moscow. In the communist era it was a state shop which only foreigners and party high ups could go to, now it is a shrine to capitalism and, as the picture shows, brides go there on their wedding day to pay homage (three wedding parties passing through in the hour we were in there). Lenin must be turning in his grave.

I have loaded a couple of pictures of the sites, St Basil's Cathedral and Ivan the Terrible's clock tower in the Kremlin. Whilst we were in the Kremlin we popped in to see Putin but apparently he was little busy with some sort of skirmish in Ukraine. We also saw a young woman being arrested in Red Square but my camera was in my pocket and with thick gloves on I did not get it out in time to record the event however there were a couple of TV crews filming it so it won't go unreported. Perhaps she will be on the same train as us tomorrow when we leave for Siberia!
So for the next three and a half days we will be on the trans-Siberian railway and therefore, we presume, out of WiFi range so the next blog update will be from the shores of Lake Baykal where I will be able to bore you with all sorts of facts and figures about the largest freshwater lake in the world.

---

Photos

St Basil's
St Basil's Red Square

A Bride in GUM
A Bride in GUM

Ivan's Clock Tower
Ivan's Clock Tower

Metro Station
Metro Station

Comments

[Jill]

?1.50 for meatballs and hot chocolate for 2 in a workers caf? 30 years ago. Happy birthday when you are next in wifi contact