We began a tour of Moscow immediately from the airport.
The first stopoff was the Red Square. Seeing St. Basil's Cathedral up close is just incredible. You start pinching yourself and ask "am I really here?".
Every building surrounding the Red Square is just brilliant and even the photos don't do justice. Most of the Moscow buildings wouldn't be out of place in Paris.
From the Red Square we drove pass the Kremlin (did the Kremlin tour today) and saw the Christ The Saviour Cathedral. We spent another couple of hours visiting different sites south of the Moscow River and near the University you could overlook all of Moscow, even the 1980 Olympic stadium. We got to the hotel about 8:30 pm and went for a short stroll nearby for a snack and drink.
Tuesday morning. Our guide took us for a walk to a nearby (Russian Orthodox ) church. Inside the churches are highly decorated with frescos of biblical scenes or of saints or wealthy patrons. Very impressive.
Then we went to the local Metro station (Polyanka for those who know Moscow - Grey line). This was very helpful later in the afternoon.
We visited a non-reconstructed church and a very spectacular one before going to the Kremlin.
The Kremlin is a 28 hectare site basically in a triangular shape. We visited the old palaces, churches and monuments. All very spectacular! Here are guide left us and we were left to do our own thing.
We grabbed a bite to eat at an Italian cafe and then headed back to the Red Square. Can't get enough of it.
From the Red Square we walked to Arbat street, a large pedestrian mall of a couple kilometers, where bought some "touristy" things.
From here we decided to catch the Metro (6 million Muscovites a day can't be wrong!) back to our hotel. This involved catching two different lines. Much to Kristin's amazement, Andy managed to read the Russian signs and the metro map with aplomb and we were back to our hotel very quickly.
We are currently back at the hotel resting up before going out for dinner.
Cheers,
A & K.
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