Welcome to Moscow!

September 7th 2017

It's Moscow Time! 

We arrived into Moscow Kazanskaya railway station at 9.30am; our driver was waiting at the end of the platform to take us to our hotel which was around 20 minutes away. No cracked windscreen this time, Moscow definitely has a different feel to it.

Our hotel is the Maxima Panorama hotel; it is a 3 star hotel which is right beside a metro station - this is the fastest way to get around the city. We were able to check-in straight away and it only took 15 minutes; apparently this process normally takes much longer so we were lucky! On check-out from our hotel in Yekaterinburg, we received a stamped document which we then had to give to this hotel; we will then get another when we check out here - basically, they are keeping tabs on us while we are in Russia!

We had an hour or so to unpack before a local guide took us on a walking tour around the highlights of the city; this included using the metro so as to avoid the traffic jams and get used to using it. Our guide was called Elena; she was an older woman who was very well dressed and had bright green eye make up! She seemed a bit scary at first, but as I have found with most Russians, after a little time in there company, you are almost best friends or family by the time you part!

She gave us a map of the metro and took us to our local station, Avtozavodskaya. She showed us which ticket to buy and preceded to explain why their metro is better than the London Underground! After a few trips, I have to admit, she is right! As we got to the bottom of the escalator, she pointed to a memorial, it is a sobering reminder that Moscow has also seen terrorist attacks in the last few years.

Our first stop was Mayakovskaya; we walked past Pushkin square, Chekhov Square and about 9 theatres on the way to the main tourist attraction, Red Square. The city is very beautiful; there are so many ornate buildings everywhere you look. Tourist tip number one, red in Russian means "beautiful", so "Red Square" has nothing to do with communist red etc... it really is just a description, who knew! As we crossed towards Red Square, we noticed people playing football and lots of other events; turns out there is going to be a huge celebration at the weekend called MOCKBA 870; it is a celebration of Moscow as it was founded 870 years ago. 

We are just in time to see the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier; this happens every hour, rain or shine, 365 days a year. The inscription on the tomb reads "Your name is unknown, your deeds immortal" and the ceremony is carried out by the presidential guards; it is really interesting to watch.

As we enter Red Square, there is a huge stand obscuring St Basils Cathedral; this is also for the 870 year celebrations so we go into the GUM shopping mall first. It is pretty cool inside and we try the famous ice cream; it apparently reminds Russians of Soviet times. There is also a fountain full of watermelons; I have no idea why but they slice them up and sell them too.....




After our ice-cream, we go to the second floor which gives us a fantastic view of Lenins mausoleum. We take a picture then head out into the square again. Our guide tells us a bit about St Basils; apparently Ivan the Terrible (the proper translation is Formidable and not Terrible) blinded the architects of St Basils as he did not want them to build anything so magnificent again; this is complete rubbish but a good story nonetheless! We only found out it was false after googling it!




We continued on with the walking tour, all the way around the outside of the Kremlin; its actually pretty huge so we were knackered! Our guide then took us on the metro to Arbat Street. This is a pedestrian street and is Moscows version of Covent Garden. This is where we left our guide and went straight to the pub. We only planned on having one beer in Eric the Reds pub but it started pouring rain so we decided to stay and have food too! I had Wienerschnitzel which was delicious. 

After our early dinner, we walked down the rest of Arbat Street and then got the metro back to Red Square. We were both absolutely shattered having walked for over 4 hours so we decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel.

We would return again tomorrow.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anniversary Holiday

Image
Every year, around December 8th, I look to see what we can do or where we can go to celebrate "surviving" another year of marriage.   Over the last few years, we've been back to our wedding venue for an overnight stay, had an all-inclusive holiday in Ras al Khaimah in the UAE, visited New Orleans and had a Michelin tasting menu at The Kitchin in Leith. This year, we decided to stick with Europe and head to Riga, the capital of Latvia. Back in April 2020, we were supposed to visit Riga, but the trip was cancelled due to Covid. I'm not sure why its taken us so long for us to rebook, but the prospect of a traditional Christmas market and some Glühwein convinced us. We flew Ryanair from Edinburgh to Riga on Sunday 3rd December; the flight was 2 hours late, but thankfully we had paid for a lounge so we weren't too bothered. I had pre-booked a taxi on arrival and was delighted given the delay; the journey was only 15 minutes, but it was midnight and -10 when we arrived ...
Read more

Bucharest & Dracula

Image
This is another one of these holidays that we had booked in 2020, for my birthday to be precise. It's only now, April 2024, that we managed to rebook and make our way to the Capital, Bucharest and the mountains and countryside of Transylvania. It was the usual deal, British Airways via London using a companion voucher and Avios to upgrade to business class; I'm pretty sure the flights cost us £2. The flight to London was early, and it was absolutely beautiful coming into London; we had fabulous views of the city.  We arrived in Romania late afternoon, and had a taxi waiting to take us to the hotel. I had booked The Mansion Boutique Hotel, a 4 star hotel in the centre of the pedestrian district; we had to be let off by the side of the cobbled streets but thankfully it was only a 2 minute walk. Check-in was great, we got a glass of fizz each and taken to our room which was called "Zen". We actually didn't have too long, so unpacked quickly and made our way out of th...
Read more

366 Steps with a Hangover!

Image
Surprisingly, we weren’t feeling quite so fresh this morning. We decided to delay breakfast and go straight to the Belfry of Bruges, a medieval bell tower. There are 366 steps which lead you to the top of the 83 metre high building. Normally, this would be fine but with the cold and a hangover, I was not feeling the best. The spiral staircase is very steep at the top so they only allow 50 people up at a time; we had to wait at the bottom for a few minutes which was a bit of an inconvenience, but now I understand why they have these restrictions. We made it to the top and only had a 10 minute wait until 11am which would signal a lot of bells chiming. I’m sure you can imagine how my head was feeling at the end of it! After descending the tower, we headed to the Church of our Lady Bruges as there is a Michelangelo sculpture located there. Unfortunately, you had to buy a museum ticket in order to see it so we decided it wasn’t worth it. Instead, we went for lunch at a very quaint tea room....
Read more