Day Nine - Jun 4, 2013
Moscow, Russia to Trans-Mongolian Train
Daily Didactic
Our day started with a reluctance to leave our luxurious accommodations. We're going to go out on a limb and say the nicest room we've ever had. It should be, it was a far cry from free. Eventually, a little after 10:00, we descended in the gold plated elevator and checked out, leaving our backpacks to meet up with later. We took the metro red line to Okhotny Ryad station and climbed out at the entrance of Red Square. The square is pretty much what you'd imagine, extraordinarily large, with gorgeous buildings on all sides. The wall of the Kremlin (which turns out to be a walled complex of of buildings) borders one side, the GUM department store opposite, with St. Basil's Cathedral (you've seen the picture a hundred times, with all the onion domes) at one end, and the enormous red State History Museum on the entrance end. Really it makes a very, very long rectangle. Mixed in are Lenin's Tomb, Spasskaya Clock Tower, and the quaintly named "Place of Executions". We took a tour of the St. Basil "Museum" which, in contrast to the other "museums" we've visited recently, turns out to be a labyrinth of small chapels within the large onion dome topped building. We walked the square and had a quick bite to eat in the cavernous GUM "department store" (really three large open arcades with glass ceilings). It was time to go back to Real Russia and pick up our Trans-Siberian tickets. We deftly navigated the red line to the orange line (only once having to go back a stop) with our excellent Cyrillic recognition. The tickets were there, passport numbers correct, and we were out in a few minutes. We made a stab at returning to visit the Kremlin, but between a quick downpour and trouble finding the entrance it got too late and we decided the better of it. We caught the red line back to the hotel, enjoyed our last internet for a week in the lobby and then headed for our 9:35 train. On the way we hit the Billa grocery for as many provisions as we could carry and the 37 Ruble Store (yep, right around a dollar) for silverware and cups. Our train showed up at 9:15 or so, we boarded without issue, and we were off.
Today's Photos
