Day 2 - We spent an interesting day with our tour buddy, visiting the lesser known sights of the city (since we would do this on our own the next day). She pointed out the Houses on the Embankment where Stalin's government servants lived - it's all self contained with shops, bank and clinics situtated on the same row of Soviet block apartments, and where entire families were taken away in the middle of the night by the KGB. We also visited the 2 sisters buildings which had the uncanny resemblance to the Empire State Building (they basically copied it... twice). Other bits of interesting trivia included the Church of Christ the Saviour which used to be a public swimming pool. The architecture in Moscow (apart from the onion domes) look very italian. There is a distinct absence of graffiti and the place is full of police - grey uniformed officials (these are allowed to check your passports), blue uniformed traffic police and green guards.
Houses by the Embankment
GUM (State dept store)Our guide takes us to the food court. We buy her lunch. The Tepemok pancake (i.e. 'blin' as in 'blini') is delicious. I have one with chicken and gherkins..yummm. Russian beer is very rough and not recommended (the locals all drink Carlsberg).
Blin (pancake) stand
We make our way back to our hotel ourselves via the Metro (signs are not obvious and where visible are in Cyrillic which is a little challenging. We count the number of stops in order to get back to ours, exit the station, walk through the market and across a railway line (it's not barricaded - everyone listens out for trains before they cross). We retire early. JD is watching the russian equivalent of QVC and seems very interested in the AB KING. Everything is in Cyrillic alphabet. Our neighbours are at it again.
Crossing towards hotel
Day 3 - We have lunch at the food court again (as it is cheap). I ordered pancake, remembered the word for chicken (kuritsa) but forgot what gherkins were called. Gave up after 3 minutes of trying to describe a gherkin by way of charades. Lunch: 99 rubles; JD's lunch: 700 rubles.
After lunch, we walk about the Kremlin, trek to the Red October Chocolate factory, visited Peter the Great's statue (his head is actually on the body of Columbus), and finally visit the Armory. There is soooooo much gold, diamonds, emeralds, rubies and precious metals, the odd Faberge egg pales in comparison. No cameras or mobile cameras allowed.
Changing of guard at the Eternal Flame
Outside the Red October chocolate factory with no chocolate in sight
Church of St Christ the Saviour
St Basil's Cathedral
Inside St Basil's cathedral
That night, our driver picked us up form the hotel and accompanied us to the train station to catch the Trans Siberian.
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