Moscow Metro

We woke to find the birches all had lovely fresh leaves whereas everything we’d seen before was nowhere nearly ready to come out. It is cloudy and wet. As we progress towards Moscow the houses are better maintained, there are tar roads with more traffic. Everybody is sad to say goodbye to the train but also we are ready to get off. The last 26 hours were unpleasant with the heat.

After checking in at hotel Vega, part of a complex built for the 1980 olympics, we had 45 mins to get a quick shower then we were off on the metro. Alex explained how it worked - much easier than Tokyo! - and we headed for red square. It was the rehearsal for the victory in Europe parade on 9 May, so we hoped to see some of it. However the police had barriers up all round it and we weren’t allowed anywhere near. Major se unity is in force everywhere.

So we had a wander near the Bolshoi, and the Marx statue, had a snack in an underground mall, then headed off on our own to see Gorky Park and a church which was only built in 2003, supposedly a replica of the one they pulled down by Stalin. We saw the weird statue of Peter the Great on his ship as we walked along the river.

After 4 hours of walking we were tired so thought it would be a good idea to get back on the metro, but just get off at random stations in the hope of seeing some pretty ones. They were all different, and amazing.

We decided not to go out to eat, as we were quite tired, so we bought a snack and had an early night.